50
A New Life (Revival and Beyond)
Claims to Holiness
No one who claims holiness is really holy. Those who are regis-
tered as holy in the books of Heaven are not aware of the fact, and are
the last ones to boast of their own goodness. None of the prophets and
apostles ever professed holiness, not even Daniel, Paul, or John. The
righteous never make such a claim.
The more nearly they resemble Christ, the more they lament their
unlikeness to Him; for their consciences are sensitive, and they regard
sin more as God regards it. They have exalted views of God and of
the great plan of salvation; and their hearts, humbled under a sense
of their own unworthiness, are alive to the honor of being accounted
members of the royal family, sons and daughters of the King Eternal.
Those who love the law of God cannot harmonize in worship or in
spirit with the determined transgressors of that law, who are filled with
bitterness and malice when the plainly revealed truths of the Bible are
taught. We have a detector which discriminates between the true and
the false. “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according
to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” [
The Signs of the
Times, February 26, 1885
.]
Whose Voice Can I Trust?
We need to be anchored in Christ, rooted and grounded in the
faith. Satan works through agents. He selects those who have not been
drinking of the living waters, whose souls are athirst for something
new and strange, and who are ever ready to drink at any fountain that
may present itself. Voices will be heard, saying, “Lo, here is Christ,”
or “Lo, there” but we must believe them not. We have unmistakable
evidence of the voice of the True Shepherd, and He is calling upon us
[57]
to follow Him. He says, “I have kept My Father’s commandments.”
He leads His sheep in the path of humble obedience to the law of God,
but He never encourages them in the transgression of that law.
[58]
“The voice of a stranger” is the voice of one who neither respects
nor obeys God’s holy, just, and good law. Many make great pretensions
to holiness, and boast of the wonders they perform in healing the sick,
when they do not regard this great standard of righteousness. But
through whose power are these cures wrought? Are the eyes of either