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Testimonies for the Church Volume 5
it will lead the workers in the publishing houses to manifest greater
energy and zeal to make the work a success. None should become
careless, blinded to the wants of the cause and the perils that attend
every soul; but each should seek to be a channel of light.
In all our institutions there is too much of self, and too little of
Christ. All eyes should turn to our Redeemer, all characters should
become like His. He is the model to copy, if we would have well-
balanced minds and symmetrical characters. His life was as the garden
of the Lord, in which grew every tree that is pleasant to the sight
and good for food. While embracing in His soul every lovely trait of
character, His sensibility, courtesy, and love brought Him into close
sympathy with humanity. He was the creator of all things, sustaining
worlds by His infinite power. Angels were ready to do Him homage
and to obey His will. Yet He could listen to the prattle of the infant
and accept its lisping praise. He took little children in His arms and
pressed them to His great heart of love. They felt perfectly at home in
His presence and reluctant to leave His arms. He did not look upon the
disappointments and woes of the race as a mere trifle, but His heart
was ever touched by the sufferings of those He came to save.
The world had lost the original pattern of goodness and had sunk
into universal apostasy and moral corruption; and the life of Jesus
was one of laborious, self-denying effort to bring man back to his
first estate by imbuing him with the spirit of divine benevolence and
unselfish love. While in the world, He was not of the world. It was
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a continual pain to Him to be brought in contact with the enmity,
depravity, and impurity which Satan had brought in; but He had a work
to do to bring man into harmony with the divine plan, and earth in
connection with heaven, and He counted no sacrifice too great for the
accomplishment of the object. He “was in all points tempted like as we
are.” Satan stood ready to assail Him at every step, hurling at Him his
fiercest temptations; yet He “did no sin, neither was guile found in His
mouth.” “He ... suffered being tempted,” suffered in proportion to the
perfection of His holiness. But the prince of darkness found nothing
in Him; not a single thought or feeling responded to temptation.
His doctrine dropped as the rain; His speech distilled as the dew.
In the character of Christ was blended such majesty as God had never
before displayed to fallen man and such meekness as man had never
developed. Never before had there walked among men one so noble,