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Probation and Perfection, March 22
Do you give service? Give it as in the strength which God supplies. In
all things so act that the glory may be God’s through Jesus Christ; to
him belong glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.
1 Peter 4:11
,
N.E.B.
All the varied capabilities that men possess, soul, body, and spirit, are
given them of God to be so educated and trained that they may reach the
highest possible degree of excellence. The human agency must cooperate
with the divine purpose, and in so doing man is pronounced a laborer together
with God. Every faculty, every attribute with which God has endowed us is
to be used to His name’s glory. Man must cooperate with Christ to restore
the moral image of God in man, and it is in wearing the yoke of Christ, and
learning daily Christ’s meekness and lowliness, that Christ can use him to be
a blessing to his fellow men.
Taught first by Christ, and then guarding his own mind and soul, he shall
serve a holy purpose in lifting his own thought to that which is pure and
elevating, and through words and example awaken in the soul of his fellow
men devotion and gratitude to God. In thus doing he is a laborer together with
God. He is not to employ one entrusted gift to exalt self, to seek praise of men,
but to exalt God, to inspire minds—not to think of what glory he may bring
to himself, but how he can prove himself a blessing to his fellow men and
become the most successful agency to draw souls to contemplate heavenly
things. He must teach others in words and deeds to walk in Christ’s footsteps.
Then his own mind will become well-balanced, and his endowments will be
appreciated as the gift of God to be employed in God’s great plan to help in
every way possible. By harmonious action with God in His great plan, he
will fill his appointed place. He will bring himself back, through the grace
of God given him to the perfection of Christ’s character. Uplifted himself,
through the grace of God, he is prepared to uplift by his own transformation
of character his fellow men both by precept and example.
All the gifts of God are to be exercised to produce as well as to consume.
In no case can this work become a self-centered work, or exclusive of his
fellow workmen....
This probationary life is given to bring man back to this perfection which
is to be the character of all who shall be saved. The law of God is a reflection
of His character.—
Letter 46, March 22, 1900
, to David Steed, an Australian
believer.
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