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Testimonies for the Church Volume 4
mention that is made of divine goodness and the love of God shows
marked ingratitude and that Christ is not enshrined in the heart.
The offices will never prosper unless there are more disinterested,
unselfish workers, who are truly God-fearing men and women, self-
denying and conscientiously independent for God and the right. The
local editor of the Review and Herald will have occasion to speak
with earnestness and firmness. He should stand in defense of the right,
exerting all the influence his position grants him. Elder Waggoner has
been placed in an unenviable position, but he has not been left alone.
God has helped him, and under the circumstances he has done nobly.
The Lord has not released him from his position; he must still labor in
Oakland and San Francisco.
From those to whom God has entrusted much, He requires much,
while those who have but little are required to give accordingly; but
all may give themselves and in their actions show their fidelity to the
precious cause of Christ. Many can retrench their expenditures and
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thus increase their liberality for Christ. Self-denial for Christ’s sake is
the battle before us.
“The love of Christ,” said Paul, “constraineth us.” It was the ac-
tuating principle of his conduct; it was his motive power. If ever his
ardor in the path of duty for a moment flagged, one glance at the cross
and the amazing love of Christ revealed in His unparalleled sacrifice
was enough to cause him to gird up anew the loins of his mind and
press forward in the path of self-denial. In his labors for his brethren
he relied much upon the exhibition of infinite love in the wonderful
condescension of Christ, with all its subduing, constraining power.
How earnest, how touching his appeal: “Ye know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He
became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich.” You know the
height from which He stooped; you are acquainted with the depth of
humiliation to which He descended. His feet entered upon the path of
self-denial and self-sacrifice, and turned not aside until He had given
His life. There was no rest for Him between the throne in heaven and
the cross. His love for man led Him to welcome every indignity and
suffer every abuse. “For their sakes I sanctify Myself.” I appropriate
all My glory, all I am, to the work of man’s redemption. How very
little are men moved now to sanctify themselves to the work of God
that souls may be saved through them.