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Pure in Heart and Life, March 21
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Matthew 5:8
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Into the city of God there will enter nothing that defiles. All who are
to be dwellers there will here have become pure in heart. In one who is
learning of Jesus, there will be manifest a growing distaste for careless
manners, unseemly language, and coarse thought. When Christ abides in
the heart, there will be purity and refinement of thought and manner.
But the words of Jesus ... have a deeper meaning—not merely pure in
the sense in which the world understands purity, free from that which is
sensual, pure from lust, but true in the hidden purposes and motives of the
soul, free from pride and self-seeking, humble, unselfish, childlike.
Only like can appreciate like. Unless you accept in your own life the
principle of self-sacrificing love, which is the principle of His character,
you cannot know God....
When Christ shall come in His glory, the wicked cannot endure to
behold Him. The light of His presence, which is life to those who love Him,
is death to the ungodly.... When He shall appear, they will pray to be hidden
from the face of Him who died to redeem them.
But to hearts that have become purified through the indwelling of the
Holy Spirit, all is changed. These can know God. Moses was hid in the
cleft of the rock when the glory of the Lord was revealed to him; and it is
when we are hid in Christ that we behold the love of God....
By faith we behold Him here and now. In our daily experience we dis-
cern His goodness and compassion in the manifestation of His providence.
We recognize Him in the character of His Son.... The pure in heart see God
in a new and endearing relation, as their Redeemer; and while they discern
the purity and loveliness of His character, they long to reflect His image.
They see Him as a Father longing to embrace a repenting son, and their
hearts are filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory....
The pure in heart live as in the visible presence of God during the time
He apportions them in this world. And they will also see Him face to face
in the future, immortal state, as did Adam when he walked and talked with
God in Eden.
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