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Heart Holiness, May 17
“But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I
will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be
my people.”
Jeremiah 31:33
, R.S.V.
When the law of God is written in the heart it will be exhibited in a pure
and holy life. The commandments of God are no dead letter. They are spirit
and life, bringing the imaginations and even the thoughts into subjection to
the will of Christ. The heart in which they are written will be kept with all
diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. All who love Jesus and keep the
commandments will seek to avoid the very appearance of evil; not because
they are constrained thus to do, but because they are copying a pure model,
and feel averse to everything contrary to the law written in their hearts. They
will not feel self-sufficient, but their trust will be in God, who alone is able to
keep them from sin and impurity. The atmosphere surrounding them is pure;
they will not corrupt their own souls or the souls of others. It is their pleasure
to deal justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before God.
The danger that lies before those living in these last days, is the absence
of pure religion, the absence of heart holiness. The converting power of God
has not wrought in transforming their characters. They profess to believe
sacred truths as did the Jewish nation; but in their failing to practice the truth,
they are ignorant both of the Scriptures and the power of God. The power and
influence of God’s law are around about, but not within the soul, renewing it
in true holiness....
God designs that the teacher of the Bible should in his character and home
life be a specimen of the principles of the truth which he is teaching to his
fellow men.
What a man
is
, has a greater influence than what he
says
. The quiet,
consistent, godly life is a living epistle, known and read of all men. A man
may speak and write like an angel, but his practices may resemble a fallen
fiend.... True character is not something shaped from without, or put on, but
it is something radiating from within. If true goodness, purity, meekness,
lowliness, and equity are dwelling in the heart, that fact will be reflected in
the character; and such a character is full of power.—
The Review and Herald,
May 17, 1887
. (Italics supplied.)
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