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God Wants Us to Have the Best Manners, November 4
Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.
1
Corinthians 15:33
.
The religion of Christ never degrades the receiver, never makes him
coarse or rough or uncourteous
There is much to do in order to fit us for the courts of the Lord. The
roughness of spirit, the coarseness of speech, the cheapness of character,
must be put away, or we can never wear the garment woven in the heavenly
loom,—the righteousness of Christ....
Those who, under the education of Christ, make it possible to reach
the highest attainments will take every divine improvement with them to
the higher school. But those who are unwilling to have their characters
molded after the divine similitude make the angels sad; for by clinging to
their sinful habits and practices they spoil the design of God
Be polite to God and to one another. Remember that He wants you to
have the best of manners, that you may glorify Him before the world. He
desires you to live in unity with one another and to love one another. Re-
member that if you love one another here, you will live with the redeemed
through the ceaseless ages of eternity
Selfishness and pride hinder the pure love that unites us in spirit with
Jesus Christ. If this love is truly cultivated, finite will blend with finite,
and all will center in the Infinite. Humanity will unite with humanity, and
all will be bound up with the heart of Infinite love. Sanctified love for one
another is sacred. In this great work Christian love for one another,—far
higher, more constant, more courteous, more unselfish, than has been
seen,—preserves Christian tenderness, Christian benevolence, and polite-
ness, and enfolds the human brotherhood in the embrace of God, acknowl-
edging the dignity with which God has invested the rights of man. This
dignity Christians must ever cultivate for the honor and glory of God
As sons and daughters of God, we should have a conscious dignity of
character, in which pride and self-importance have no part.
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8
Letter 134, 1901
.
9
The Review and Herald, July 4, 1899
.
10
Manuscript 21, 1903
.
11
Letter 10, 1897
.
12
The Review and Herald, March 27, 1888
.
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