Camp Meeting Address Boulder, Colorado, September 25, 1881
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Oh, wondrous condescension! matchless love! As you look upon the
Prince of Life upon the cross, can you cherish selfishness? Can you
indulge hatred or revenge?
Let the proud spirit bow in humiliation. Let the hard heart be
broken. No longer pet and pity and exalt self. Look, oh look upon
Him whom our sins have pierced. See Him descending step by step
the path of humiliation to lift us up; abasing Himself till He could go
no lower, and all to save us who were fallen by sin! Why will we be
so indifferent, so cold, so formal, so proud, so self-sufficient?
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Who of us is faithfully following the Pattern? Who of us has
instituted and continued the warfare against pride of heart? Who of
us has, in good earnest, brought himself to wrestle with selfishness
until it should no longer dwell in the heart and be revealed in the life?
Would to God the lessons given us, as we view the cross of Christ
and see the signs fulfilling which bring us near to the judgment, might
be so impressed upon our hearts as to render us more humble, more
self-denying, more kind to one another, less self-caring, less critical,
and more willing to bear one another’s burdens than we are today.
I have been shown that, as a people, we are departing from the
simplicity of the faith and from the purity of the gospel. Many are in
great peril. Unless they change their course, they will be severed from
the True Vine as useless branches. Brethren and sisters, I have been
shown that we are standing upon the threshold of the eternal world.
We need now to gain victories at every step. Every good deed is as a
seed sown, to bear fruit unto eternal life. Every success gained places
us on a higher round of the ladder of progress and gives us spiritual
strength for fresh victories. Every right action prepares the way for its
repetition.
Some are closing their probation; and is it well with them? have
they obtained a fitness for the future life? Will not their record show
wasted opportunities, neglected privileges, a life of selfishness and
worldliness that has borne no fruit to the glory of God? And how
much of the work which the Master has left for us to do has been left
undone. All around us are souls to be warned; but how often has the
time been occupied in self-serving, and the record gone up to God of
souls passing to their graves unwarned and unsaved.
The Lord still has purposes of mercy toward us. There is room for
repentance. We may become the beloved of God. I entreat you who