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Representatives of the Saviour, April 14
Maintain good conduct among the Gentiles, so that in case they speak
against you as wrongdoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify
God on the day of visitation.
1 Peter 2:12
, R.S.V.
God expects those who bear the name of Christ to represent Him....
They are to be a sanctified, purified, holy people, communicating light to
all with whom they come in contact....
The followers of Christ are to be separate from the world in princi-
ples and interests, but they are not to isolate themselves from the world.
The Saviour mingled constantly with men, not to encourage them in any-
thing that was not in accordance with God’s will, but to uplift and ennoble
them. “I sanctify myself,” He declared, “that they also might be sanctified.”
John 17:19
. So the Christian is to abide among men, that the savor of divine
love may be as salt to preserve the world from corruption....
The power of a higher, purer, nobler life is our great need. The world is
watching to see what fruit is borne by professed Christians.... Impressions
favorable or unfavorable to Bible religion are constantly being made on the
minds of all with whom we have to do.
And God and the angels are watching. God desires His people to show
by their lives the advantage of Christianity over worldliness, to show that
they are working on a high, holy plane. He longs to see them showing that
the truth they have received has made them children of the heavenly King.
He longs to make them channels through which He can pour His boundless
love and mercy.
Christ is waiting with longing desire for the manifestation of Himself in
His church. When the character of the Saviour shall be perfectly reproduced
in His people, then He will come to claim His own. It is the privilege of
every Christian, not only to look for, but to hasten, the coming of our Lord.
Were all who profess His name bearing fruit to His glory, how quickly the
whole world would be sown with the seed of the gospel! Quickly the last
great harvest would be ripened, and Christ would come.
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