Basic HTML Version
The Faith that Works, February 19
The end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto
prayer.
1 Peter 4:7
.
Do you believe that the end of all things is at hand, that the scenes of this
earth’s history are fast closing? If so, show your faith by your works. A man
will show all the faith he has. Some think they have a good degree of faith,
when if they have any, it is dead, for it is not sustained by works. “Faith, if
it hath not works, is dead, being alone.” Few have that genuine faith which
works by love and purifies the soul. But all who are accounted worthy of
everlasting life must obtain a moral fitness for the same. “Beloved, now are
we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we
know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him
as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even
as he is pure.” This is the work before you....
You must experience a death to self, and must live unto God. “If ye then
be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth
on the right hand of God.” Self is not to be consulted. Pride, self-love,
selfishness, avarice, covetousness, love of the world, hatred, suspicion,
jealousy, evil surmisings, must all be subdued and sacrificed forever. When
Christ shall appear, it will not be to correct these evils and then give a moral
fitness for His coming. This preparation must all be made before He comes.
It should be a subject of thought, of study, and earnest inquiry, What shall
we do to be saved? What shall be our conduct that we may show ourselves
approved of God?
When tempted to murmur, censure, and indulge in fretfulness, wounding
those around you, and in so doing wounding your own soul, oh! let the
deep, earnest, anxious inquiry come from your soul, Shall I stand without
fault before the throne of God? Only the faultless will be there. None will
be translated to heaven while their hearts are filled with the rubbish of earth.
Every defect in the moral character must first be remedied, every stain
removed by the cleansing blood of Christ, and all the unlovely, unlovable
traits of character overcome.
[59]
56