Important Testimony
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glorifying self. If there is any good in you, it is wholly attributable
to the mercy of a compassionate Saviour. Your birth, your reputation,
your wealth, your talents, your virtues, your piety, your philanthropy,
or anything else in you or connected with you, will not form a bond of
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union between your soul and Christ. Your connection with the church,
the manner in which your brethren regard you, will be of no avail
unless you believe in Christ. It is not enough to believe about Him;
you must believe in Him. You must rely wholly upon His saving grace.
Many of you at Battle Creek are living without prayer, without
thoughts of Christ, and without exalting Him before those around you.
You have no words to exalt Christ; you do no deeds that honor Him.
Many of you are as truly strangers to Christ as though you had never
heard His name. You have not the peace of Christ; for you have no
true ground for peace. You have no communion with God because
you are not united to Christ. Said our Saviour: “No man cometh to the
Father, but by Me.” You are not useful in the cause of Christ. Except
ye abide in Me, says Jesus, ye can do nothing—nothing in God’s sight,
nothing that Christ will accept at your hands. Without Christ you can
have nothing but a delusive hope, for He Himself declares: “If a man
abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men
gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.”
Advancement in Christian experience is characterized by increas-
ing humility, as the result of increasing knowledge. Everyone who is
united to Christ will depart from all iniquity. I tell you, in the fear of
God, I have been shown that many of you will fail of everlasting life
because you are building your hopes of heaven on a false foundation.
God is leaving you to yourselves, “to humble thee, and to prove thee, to
know what was in thine heart.” You have neglected the Scriptures. You
despise and reject the testimonies because they reprove your darling
sins and disturb your self-complacency. When Christ is cherished in
the heart, His likeness will be revealed in the life. Humility will reign
where pride was once predominant. Submission, meekness, patience,
will soften down the rugged features of a naturally perverse, impetuous
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disposition. Love to Jesus will be manifested in love to His people. It
is not fitful, not spasmodic, but calm and deep and strong. The life of
the Christian will be divested of all pretense, free from all affectation,
artifice, and falsehood. It is earnest, true, sublime. Christ speaks in
every word. He is seen in every deed. The life is radiant with the