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Testimonies for the Church Volume 5
most secret thought is known to Him. The character, the motives, the
desires and purposes, are as clear as the light of the sun to the eye of
the Omnipotent. But few bear this in mind. The larger class by far do
not realize what a fearful account must be rendered at the bar of God
by all the transgressors of His law.
Can you who have professed to receive such great light be content
with a low level? Oh, how earnestly and constantly should we seek for
the divine presence and a realization of the solemn truths that the end
of all things is at hand and that the Judge of all the earth stands at the
door! How can you disregard His just and holy requirements? How
can you transgress in the very face of Jehovah? How can you cherish
unholy thoughts and base passions in full view of the pure angels and
of the Redeemer, who gave Himself for you that He might redeem you
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from all iniquity and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of
good works? As you contemplate the matter in the light which shines
from the cross of Christ, will not sin appear too mean, too perilous, to
be indulged when standing upon the very borders of the eternal world?
I speak to our people. If you draw close to Jesus and seek to adorn
your profession by a well-ordered life and godly conversation, your
feet will be kept from straying into forbidden paths. If you will only
watch, continually watch unto prayer, if you will do everything as if
you were in the immediate presence of God, you will be saved from
yielding to temptation, and may hope to be kept pure, spotless, and
undefiled till the last. If you hold the beginning of your confidence
firm unto the end, your ways will be established in God; and what
grace has begun, glory will crown in the kingdom of our God. The
fruits of the Spirit are “love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”
If Christ be within us, we shall crucify the flesh with the affections
and lusts.
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