Important Testimony
43
been heeded by those who professed to believe them, and as a result
there has been a wide departure from God, and the withdrawal of His
blessing.
To effect the salvation of men, God employs various agencies. He
speaks to them by His word and by His ministers, and He sends by
the Holy Spirit messages of warning, reproof, and instruction. These
means are designed to enlighten the understanding of the people, to
reveal to them their duty and their sins, and the blessings which they
may receive, to awaken in them a sense of spiritual want, that they may
go to Christ and find in Him the grace they need. But many choose to
follow their own way instead of God’s way. They are not reconciled to
God, neither can be, until self is crucified and Christ lives in the heart
by faith.
Every individual, by his own act, either puts Christ from him by
refusing to cherish His spirit and follow His example, or he enters into
a personal union with Christ by self-renunciation, faith, and obedience.
We must, each for himself, choose Christ, because He has first chosen
us. This union with Christ is to be formed by those who are naturally
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at enmity with Him. It is a relation of utter dependence, to be entered
into by a proud heart. This is close work, and many who profess to
be followers of Christ know nothing of it. They nominally accept the
Saviour, but not as the sole ruler of their hearts.
Some feel their need of the atonement, and with the recognition
of this need, and the desire for a change of heart, a struggle begins.
To renounce their own will, perhaps their chosen objects of affection
or pursuit, requires an effort, at which many hesitate and falter and
turn back. Yet this battle must be fought by every heart that is truly
converted. We must war against temptations without and within. We
must gain the victory over self, crucify the affections and lusts; and
then begins the union of the soul with Christ. As the dry and apparently
lifeless branch is grafted into the living tree, so may we become living
branches of the True Vine. And the fruit which was borne by Christ
will be borne by all His followers. After this union is formed, it can
be preserved only by continual, earnest, painstaking effort. Christ
exercises His power to preserve and guard this sacred tie, and the
dependent, helpless sinner must act his part with untiring energy, or
Satan by his cruel, cunning power will separate him from Christ.