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Testimonies for the Church Volume 2
higher wages. This spirit has, to quite an extent, cursed the office,
and Heaven frowns upon it. Many have been too eager to grasp
means. All this is wrong. A worldly spirit has come in, and Christ
has been shut out. May God pity His people. And I hope you will
be converted.
You have possessed a spirit of levity, and have been vain and
trifling in your conversation. Oh, how seldom has Jesus been men-
tioned! His redeeming love has not called forth gratitude and praise,
and expressions calculated to magnify His name and His undying,
self-sacrificing love. What has been the theme for your conversation?
What thoughts have been dwelt upon with the greatest pleasure? In
truth it can be said that Jesus and His life of sacrifice, His exceeding
precious grace and the redemption He has so dearly earned for you,
are scarcely in all your thoughts; but trifling things occupy the mind.
To please yourselves, to accomplish objects in life which suit your
pleasure, this is the burden of the mind. I can but wish you had not
professed to be risen with Christ, for you have not complied with
the requirement. “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. For ye are
dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” Ask yourselves the
questions: Have I complied with the requirements here laid down
by the inspired apostle? Have I evidenced by my life, my death to
the world, that my life is hid with Christ in God? Am I submerged
in Christ? Do I draw sustenance and support from Him who has
promised to be to me a present help in every time of need? You have
a formal religion, but have not a special sense of your weakness,
your corruption, and your vileness by nature.
“A natural Christian!” This deceptive idea has served many as
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a garment of self-righteousness, and has led many to a supposed
hope in Christ, who had no experimental knowledge of Him, of His
experience, His trials, His life of self-denial and self-sacrifice. Their
righteousness which they count upon so much is only as filthy rags.
Says Christ, the beloved Teacher: “Whosoever will come after Me,
let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” Yes,
follow Him through evil as well as through good report. Follow Him
in befriending the most needy and friendless. Follow Him in being
forgetful of self, abundant in acts of self-denial and self-sacrifice to