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Investigative Judgment
207
bear their testimony to justify or condemn. They go before us to the
Judgment.
The use made of every talent will be scrutinized. Have we
improved the capital intrusted us of God? Will the Lord at his
coming receive his own with usury? No value is attached to the mere
profession of faith in Christ; nothing is counted as genuine but that
love which is shown by works.
As the features of the countenance are reproduced with mar-
velous exactness in the camera of the artist, so is the character
faithfully delineated in the books above. If Christians were as so-
licitous to stand faultless in the heavenly records as they are to be
represented without a blemish in the picture, how different would
their life-history appear.
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Could the vail which separates the visible from the invisible
world be swept back, and the children of men behold an angel
recording every word and deed to meet them again in the Judgment,
how many words that are daily uttered would remain unspoken;
how many deeds would remain undone. When all the details of life
appear in the books that never contain a false entry, many will find
too late that the record testifies against them. There their hidden
selfishness stands revealed. There is the record of unfulfilled duties
to their fellow-men, of forgetfulness of the Saviour’s claims. There
they will see how often were given to Satan the time, thought, and
strength that belonged to Christ. Sad is the record which angels
bear to Heaven. Intelligent beings, professed followers of Christ, are
absorbed in the acquirement of worldly possessions or the enjoyment
of earthly pleasures. Money, time, and strength are sacrificed for
display and self-indulgence; but few are the moments devoted to
prayer, to the searching of the Scriptures, to humiliation of soul and
confession of sin.
Satan invents unnumbered schemes to occupy our minds that
they may not dwell upon the very work with which we ought to be
best acquainted. The arch-deceiver hates the great truths that bring
to view an atoning sacrifice and an all-powerful Mediator. He knows
that with him everything now depends on his diverting minds from
Jesus and his truth.
Those who would share the benefits of the Saviour’s mediation
should permit nothing to interfere with their duty to perfect holiness