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Separating From Sin, March 26
If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above,
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on
things above, not on things on the earth.
Colossians 3:1, 2
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The requirements of God are set plainly before us, and the question to
be settled is, Will we comply with them? Will we accept the conditions laid
down in His Word—separation from the world? This is not the work of a
moment or of a day. It is not accomplished by bowing at the family altar,
and offering up lip service, neither by public exhortation and prayer. It is a
lifelong work. Our consecration to God must be a living principle, interwoven
with the life, and leading to self-denial and self-sacrifice. It must underlie all
our thoughts and be the spring of every action. This will elevate us above the
world, and separate us from its polluting influence.
All our actions are affected by our religious experience, and if this experi-
ence is founded on God and we understand the mysteries of godliness, if we
are daily receiving of the power of the world to come, and hold communion
with God, and have the fellowship of the Spirit, if we are each day holding
with a firmer grasp the higher life, and drawing closer and still closer to the
bleeding side of the Redeemer, we shall have inwrought in us principles
that are holy and elevating. Then it will be as natural for us to seek purity
and holiness and separation from the world, as it is for the angels of glory
to execute the mission of love assigned them in saving mortals from the
corrupting influence of the world. Every one who enters the pearly gates of
the city of God will be a doer of the Word. He will be a partaker of the divine
nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. It is
our privilege to realize the fulness there is in Christ, and be blessed by the
provision made through Him. Ample provision has been made that we should
be raised from the lowlands of earth, and have our affections fastened upon
God and heavenly things.
Will this separation from the world in obedience to the divine command,
unfit us for doing the work the Lord has left us? Will it hinder us from doing
good to those around us? No; the firmer hold we have on heaven, the greater
will be our power of usefulness in the world.—
Manuscript 1, March 26, 1869
,
“Diligence in the Work of Preparation.”
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