Unity and Love in the Church
437
are burned away. Every member of the church will be subjected to the
furnace, not to consume, but to purify.
The Lord has wrought among you, but Satan has also intruded
himself, to bring in fanaticism. There are other evils also to be avoided.
Some are in danger of being satisfied with the glimpses they have had
of the light and love of God, and so ceasing to advance. Watchfulness
and prayer have not been maintained. At the very time when the
[486]
acclamation is made, “The temple of the Lord, The temple of the
Lord, are these,” temptations come in, and darkness gathers about
the soul—earthliness, selfishness, and self-glorification. There is a
necessity for the Lord Himself to communicate His own ideas to the
soul. What a thought!—that instead of our poor, earthly, contracted
ideas and plans the Lord will communicate to us His own ideas, His
own thought, noble, broad, far-reaching, always leading heavenward!
Here is your danger, in failing to press forward “toward the mark
for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Has the Lord
given you light? Then you are responsible for that light; not merely
while its rays are shining upon you, but for all which it has revealed
to you in the past. You are to surrender your will to God daily; you
are to walk in the light, and to expect more; for the light from the dear
Saviour is to shine forth in clearer, more distinct rays amid the moral
darkness, increasing in brightness more and more unto the perfect day.
Are all the members of your church seeking to gather fresh manna
every morning and evening? Are you seeking divine enlightenment?
or are you devising means whereby you can glorify yourselves? Are
you, with your whole soul, might, mind, and strength, loving and
serving God in blessing others around you by leading them to the
Light of the world? Are you satisfied with past blessings? or are you
walking as Christ walked, working as He worked, revealing Him to
the world in your words and actions? Are you, as obedient children,
living a pure and holy life? Christ must be brought into your life. He
alone can cure you of envy, of evil surmising against your brethren;
He alone can take away from you the self-sufficient spirit that some of
you cherish to your own spiritual detriment. Jesus alone can make you
feel your weakness, your ignorance, your corrupt nature. He alone can
[487]
make you pure, refine you, fit you for the mansions of the blessed.
“Through God we shall do valiantly.” What an amount of good you
can do by being loyal to God and to your brethren, by repressing every