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Our Guide into All Truth, September 5
And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter,
that he may abide with you for ever.
John 14:16
.
Christ declared that, after His ascension, He would send to His church, as
His crowning gift, the Comforter, who was to take His place. This Comforter
is the Holy Spirit—the soul of His life, the efficacy of His church, the light
and life of the world. With His Spirit, Christ sends a reconciling influence
and a power to take away sin.
God has instructed me to tell you and all His people to be very careful
not to resist the working of the Holy Spirit—the Comforter that Christ sends.
Fear to take the first presumptuous step in resistance. When Christ spoke to
the disciples of the Holy Spirit, He sought to uplift their thoughts and enlarge
their expectations to grasp the highest conception of excellence. Let us strive
to understand His words. Let us strive to appreciate the value of the wonderful
gift He has bestowed on us. Let us seek for the fullness of the Holy Spirit....
I see no other way for us than to heed the words of Christ, “If any man
will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow
me” (
Matthew 16:24
). These words we must obey if we gain eternal life.
The Majesty of heaven came to this world to teach us this lesson by a life of
constant self-denial. Shall we not heed His instruction?
In order to be saved, we must have a full and complete experience in the
things of God. The atonement for sin has been made by the gift of the Son of
the infinite God....
To bring the sinner to Christ is the work of the Comforter, the Holy
Spirit. The Saviour is the divine Example, the perfection of holiness, and
He fashions the soul anew. We are privileged to receive from Christ all the
excellence necessary for perfection of character. But in order for us to obtain
this excellence, we must show more self-denial, more self-sacrifice.
Christ has made every provision for us to be children of God. Oh, my
heart says, Praise His holy name that of His fullness we can receive grace
for grace. Let us strive, by receiving His word, to reach the high standard of
perfection. We are safe only when seeking the qualities that make us children
of God, possessors of sanctified excellence.—
Letter 155, September 5, 1902
,
to Judge and Mrs. Arthur, Adventist attorney at the Battle Creek Sanitarium.
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