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Christian Temperance
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at all, this work will all be accomplished before that time. When
the Lord comes, those who are holy will be holy still. Those who
have preserved their bodies and spirits in holiness, in sanctification
and honor, will then receive the finishing touch of immortality. But
those who are unjust, unsanctified, and filthy will remain so forever.
No work will then be done for them to remove their defects and give
them holy characters. The Refiner does not then sit to pursue His
refining process and remove their sins and their corruption. This is
all to be done in these hours of probation. It is
now
that this work is
to be accomplished for us.
We embrace the truth of God with our different faculties, and
as we come under the influence of that truth, it will accomplish the
work for us which is necessary to give us a moral fitness for the
kingdom of glory and for the society of the heavenly angels. We
are now in God’s workshop. Many of us are rough stones from the
quarry. But as we lay hold upon the truth of God, its influence affects
us. It elevates us and removes from us every imperfection and sin,
of what ever nature. Thus we are prepared to see the King in His
beauty and finally to unite with the pure and heavenly angels in the
kingdom of glory. It is here that this work is to be accomplished for
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us, here that our bodies and spirits are to be fitted for immortality.
We are in a world that is opposed to righteousness and purity
of character, and to a growth in grace. Wherever we look we see
corruption and defilement, deformity and sin. And what is the work
that we are to undertake here just previous to receiving immortality?
It is to preserve our bodies holy, our spirits pure, that we may stand
forth unstained amid the corruptions teeming around us in these last
days. And if this work is accomplished we need to engage in it at
once, heartily and understandingly. Selfishness should not come in
here to influence us. The Spirit of God should have perfect control
of us, influencing us in all our actions. If we have a right hold on
Heaven, a right hold of the power that is from above, we shall feel
the sanctifying influence of the Spirit of God upon our hearts.
When we have tried to present the health reform to our brethren
and sisters, and have spoken to them of the importance of eating and
drinking and doing all that they do to the glory of God, many by their
actions have said: “It is nobody’s business whether I eat this or that.
Whatever we do we are to bear the consequences ourselves.” Dear