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Keep on an Even Keel, September 11
For I have given you an example.
John 13:15
.
We are forming characters for heaven. No character can be complete
without trial and suffering. We must be tested, we must be tried. Christ bore
the test of character of our behalf that we might bear this test in our own
behalf through the divine strength He has brought to us. Christ is our example
in patience, in forbearance, in meekness and lowliness of mind. He was at
variance and at war with the whole ungodly world, yet He did not give way
to passion and violence manifested in words and actions, although receiving
shameful abuse in return for good works. He was afflicted, He was rejected
and despitefully treated, yet He retaliated not. He possessed self-control,
dignity, and majesty. He suffered with calmness and for abuse gave only
compassion, pity, and love....
Imitate your Redeemer in these things. Do not get excited when things
go wrong. Do not let self arise, and lose your self-control because you fancy
things are not as they should be. Because others are wrong is no excuse for
you to do wrong. Two wrongs will not make one right. You have victories to
gain in order to overcome as Christ overcame.
Christ never murmured, never uttered discontent, displeasure, or resent-
ment. He was never disheartened, discouraged, ruffled, or fretted. He was
patient, calm, and self-possessed under the most exciting and trying circum-
stances. All His works were performed with a quiet dignity and ease, whatever
commotion was around Him. Applause did not elate Him. He feared not the
threats of His enemies. He moved amid the world of excitement, of violence
and crime, as the sun moves above the clouds. Human passions and commo-
tions and trials were beneath Him. He sailed like the sun above them all. Yet
He was not indifferent to the woes of men. His heart was ever touched with
the sufferings and necessities of His brethren, as though He Himself was the
one afflicted. He had a calm inward joy, a peace which was serene. His will
was ever swallowed up in the will of His Father. Not My will but Thine be
done, was heard from His pale and quivering lips.—
Letter 51a, September
11, 1874
, to Edson and Emma White.
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