226
Mind, Character, and Personality Volume 2
and ennobled. He has not only promised to cleanse us from all unrigh-
teousness, but He has made an actual provision for the supply of grace
that will lift our thoughts toward Him and enable us to appreciate His
holiness. We may realize that we are Christ’s possession and that we
are to manifest His character to the world. Prepared by heavenly grace,
we become clothed with the righteousness of Christ, in the wedding
garment, and are fitted to sit down at the marriage supper. We become
one with Christ, partakers of the divine nature, purified, refined, el-
evated, and acknowledged to be the children of God—heirs of God
and joint heirs with Jesus Christ.—
The Youth’s Instructor, October 28,
1897
.
Keep Off Satan’s Enchanted Ground (counsel to a self-
centered family)—You should keep off from Satan’s enchanted
ground and not allow your minds to be swayed from allegiance to
God. Through Christ you may and should be happy and should ac-
quire habits of self-control. Even your thoughts must be brought into
subjection to the will of God and your feelings under the control of
reason and religion. Your imagination was not given you to be allowed
to run riot and have its own way without any effort at restraint or
discipline.
If the thoughts are wrong, the feelings will be wrong, and the
thoughts and feelings combined make up the moral character. When
you decide that as Christians you are not required to restrain your
[661]
thoughts and feelings, you are brought under the influence of evil
angels and invite their presence and their control. If you yield to your
impressions and allow your thoughts to run in a channel of suspicion,
doubt, and repining, you will be among the most unhappy of mor-
tals, and your lives will prove a failure.—
Testimonies for the Church
5:310
(1885).
Counsel to a Young Woman Regarding the Dangers of Castle-
building—You should control your thoughts. This will not be an
easy task; you cannot accomplish it without close and even severe
effort. Yet God requires this of you; it is a duty resting upon every
accountable being. You are responsible to God for your thoughts. If
you indulge in vain imaginations, permitting your mind to dwell upon
impure subjects, you are, in a degree, as guilty before God as if your
thoughts were carried into action. All that prevents the action is the
lack of opportunity.