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Selected Messages Book 2
attention from Him? Do they strengthen your connection with the
divine agencies, or turn your mind to the human in place of the divine?
Are you serving, honoring, and magnifying God, or are you dis-
honoring Him and sinning against Him? Are you gathering with Christ
or scattering abroad? All the thought and plan and earnest interest de-
voted to these organizations has been purchased by the precious blood
of Christ; but are you doing service for Him when uniting yourselves
with atheists and infidels, men who profane the name of God, tipplers,
drunkards, tobacco devotees?
While there may be in these societies much that appears to be good,
there is, mingled with this, very much that makes the good of no effect,
and renders these associations detrimental to the interests of the soul.
We have another life than that which is sustained by temporal food.
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“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God” (
Matthew 4:4
). “Except ye eat the flesh of
the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you” (
John
6:53
). Jesus said, “Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood,
hath eternal life” (
John 6:54
). Our bodies are built up from what we
eat and drink. And as in the natural, so in the spiritual economy; it is
that which our minds dwell upon which sustains the spiritual nature.
Our Saviour said, “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth
nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are
life” (
John 6:63
). Spiritual life must be sustained by communion with
Christ through His Word. The mind must dwell upon it, the heart must
be filled with it. The Word of God laid up in the heart and sacredly
cherished and obeyed, through the power of the grace of Christ can
make man right, and keep him right; but every human influence, every
earthly invention, is powerless to give strength and wisdom to man. It
cannot restrain passion, or correct deformity of character. Unless the
truth of God controls the heart, the conscience will be warped. But in
these worldly societies the mind is turned away from the Word of God.
Men are not led to make it the study and the guide of life.
Is God Honored?
I ask you who take pleasure in these associations, who love the
gathering for indulgence in wit and merriment and feasting, Do you
take Jesus with you? Are you seeking to save the souls of your com-