Chapter 117—The Christian’s Watchword
Dear Brother B,
I was shown that you move much from feeling instead of from firm
principle. You lack a deep and thorough experience in the things of
God. You need to be wholly converted to the truth. When a man’s
heart is fully converted, all that he possesses is consecrated to the Lord.
This consecration you have not yet experienced. You love the truth in
word, but do not manifest that love in your deeds and by your fruits.
Your acts, your deeds, are evidences of the sincerity of your love, or
of your indifference to God, His cause, and your fellow men.
How did Christ manifest His love for poor mortals? By the sac-
rifice of His own glory, His own riches, and even His most precious
life. Christ consented to a life of humiliation and great suffering. He
submitted to the cruel mockings of an infuriated, murderous multitude,
and to the most agonizing death upon the cross. Said Christ: “This
is My commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
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friends. Ye are My friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.” We
give evidence of being the friends of Christ when we manifest implicit
obedience to His will. It is no evidence to say, and do not; but in do-
ing, in obeying, is the evidence. Who are obeying the commandment
to love one another as Christ has loved them? Brother B, you must
have a firmer, deeper, and more unselfish love than you have ever yet
possessed, if you obey the commandment of Christ.
You lack benevolence. You labor to save yourself from care, trou-
ble, or expense for the cause of God. You have invested but little in the
cause. The enterprise which man values the most will be seen by his
investments. If he places a higher estimate upon eternal things than
upon temporal things, he will show this by his works; he will invest
the most, and venture the most, in that which he values the highest and
which in the end brings him the greatest profit.
Men who profess the truth will engage in worldly enterprises, and
invest much, and run great risks. If they lose nearly all they possess,
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