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Selected Messages Book 1
be one, even as He and the Father are one. Peace, love, mercy, and
benevolence will be the abiding principles of the soul. The love of
Christ will be the theme of every tongue, and it will no more be said
by the True Witness, “I have somewhat against thee, because thou
hast left thy first love” (
Revelation 2:4
). The people of God will be
abiding in Christ, the love of Jesus will be revealed, and one Spirit
will animate all hearts, regenerating and renewing all in the image
of Christ, fashioning all hearts alike. As living branches of the True
Vine, all will be united to Christ, the living head. Christ will abide
in every heart, guiding, comforting, sanctifying, and presenting to
the world the unity of the followers of Jesus, thus bearing testimony
that the heavenly credentials are supplied to the remnant church. In
the oneness of Christ’s church it will be proved that God sent His
only-begotten Son into the world.
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When God’s people are one in the unity of the Spirit, all of Phar-
iseeism, all of self-righteousness, which was the sin of the Jewish
nation, will be expelled from all hearts. The mold of Christ will be
upon each individual member of His body, and His people will be new
bottles into which He can pour His new wine, and the new wine will
not break the bottles. God will make known the mystery which hath
been hidden for ages. He will make known what are the “riches of the
glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the
hope of glory” (
Colossians 1:27
) [
verses 28, 29
also quoted].
Jesus came to impart to the human soul the Holy Spirit, by which
the love of God is shed abroad in the heart; but it is impossible to
endow men with the Holy Spirit, who are set in their ideas, whose
doctrines are all stereotyped and unchangeable, who are walking after
the traditions and commandments of men, as were the Jews in the
time of Christ. They were very punctilious in the observances of the
church, very rigorous in following their forms, but they were destitute
of vitality and religious devotion. They were represented by Christ
as like the dry skins which were then used as bottles. The gospel of
Christ could not be placed in their hearts; for there was no room to
contain it. They could not be the new bottles into which He could
pour His new wine. Christ was obliged to seek elsewhere than among
the scribes and the Pharisees for bottles for His doctrine of truth and
life. He must find men who were willing to have regeneration of heart.
He came to give to men new hearts. He said, “A new heart also will