Chapter 62—Practical Godliness
Dear Brethren and Sisters at Oakland,
My mind is drawn out to write to you. Again and again I find
myself talking to you in my dreams, and in every case you are in
trouble. But whatever comes, let it not enfeeble your moral courage
and cause your religion to degenerate into a heartless form. The loving
Jesus is ready to bless abundantly; but we need to obtain an experience
in faith, in earnest prayer, and in rejoicing in the love of God. Shall
any of us be weighed in the balances and be found wanting? We must
watch ourselves, watch the least unholy promptings of our nature, lest
we become traitors to the high responsibilities God has bestowed upon
us as His human agencies.
We must study the warnings and corrections He has given His
people in past ages. We do not lack light. We know what works we
should avoid and what requirements He has given us to observe; so
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if we do not seek to know and do that which is right, it is because
wrongdoing suits the carnal heart better than rightdoing.
There will always be faithless ones, who wait to be carried forward
by the faith of others. They have not an experimental knowledge of the
truth and consequently have not felt its sanctifying power on their own
souls. It should be the work of every member of the church quietly
and diligently to search his own heart and see if his life and character
are in harmony with God’s great standard of righteousness.
The Lord has done great things for you in California, particularly
in Oakland; but there is much more that He would be well pleased to
do if you would make your works correspond with your faith. God
never honors unbelief with rich blessings. Review what God has done,
and then know that it is only the beginning of what He is willing to do.
We must place a higher value than we have upon the Scriptures,
for therein is the revealed will of God to men. It is not enough merely
to assent to the truthfulness of God’s word, but we must search the
Scriptures to learn what they contain. Do we receive the Bible as the
“oracle of God”? It is as really a divine communication as though its
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