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Testimonies for the Church Volume 4
is willing to give to God. The disciples of Christ will heed the Master’s
instruction. He has bidden us love one an other even as He has loved
us. Religion is founded upon love to God, which also leads us to
love one another. It is full of gratitude, humility, long-suffering. It is
self-sacrificing, forbearing, merciful, and forgiving. It sanctifies the
whole life and extends its influence over others.
Those who love God cannot harbor hatred or envy. When the
heavenly principle of eternal love fills the heart, it will flow out to
others, not merely because favors are received of them, but because
love is the principle of action and modifies the character, governs
the impulses, controls the passions, subdues enmity, and elevates and
ennobles the affections. This love is not contracted so as merely to
include “me and mine,” but is as broad as the world and as high as
heaven, and is in harmony with that of the angel workers. This love
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cherished in the soul sweetens the entire life and sheds a refining
influence on all around. Possessing it, we cannot but be happy, let
fortune smile or frown. If we love God with all the heart, we must
love His children also. This love is the spirit of God. It is the heavenly
adorning that gives true nobility and dignity to the soul and assimilates
our lives to that of the Master. No matter how many good qualities we
may have, however honorable and refined we may consider ourselves,
if the soul is not baptized with the heavenly grace of love to God and
one another, we are deficient in true goodness and unfit for heaven,
where all is love and unity.
Some who have formerly loved God and lived in the daily en-
joyment of His favor are now in continual unrest. They wander in
darkness and despairing gloom because they are nourishing self. They
are seeking so hard to favor themselves that all other considerations
are swallowed up in this. God in His providence has willed that no
one can secure happiness by living for himself alone. The joy of our
Lord consisted in enduring toil and shame for others, that they might
be benefited thereby. We are capable of being happy in following His
example and living to bless our fellow men.
We are invited by our Lord to take His yoke and bear His burden.
In doing this we may be happy. In bearing our own self-imposed yoke
and carrying our own burdens, we find no rest; but in bearing the yoke
of Christ there is rest to the soul. Those who want some great work
to do for the Master can find it just where they are, in doing good and