Character of God Revealed in Christ
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Brethren and sisters, it is by beholding that we become changed.
By dwelling upon the love of God and our Saviour, by contemplating
the perfection of the divine character and claiming the righteousness
of Christ as ours by faith, we are to be transformed into the same
image. Then let us not gather together all the unpleasant pictures—
the iniquities and corruptions and disappointments, the evidences
of Satan’s power—to hang in the halls of our memory, to talk over
and mourn over until our souls are filled with discouragement. A
discouraged soul is a body of darkness, not only failing himself to
receive the light of God, but shutting it away from others. Satan loves
to see the effect of the pictures of his triumphs, making human beings
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faithless and disheartened.
There are, thank God, brighter and more cheering pictures which
the Lord has presented to us. Let us group together the blessed assur-
ances of His love as precious treasures, that we may look upon them
continually. The Son of God leaving His Father’s throne, clothing His
divinity with humanity, that He might rescue man from the power of
Satan; His triumph in our behalf, opening heaven to man, revealing
to human vision the presence chamber where Deity unveils His glory;
the fallen race uplifted from the pit of ruin into which sin had plunged
them, and brought again into connection with the infinite God, and,
having endured the divine test through faith in our Redeemer, clothed
in the righteousness of Christ and exalted to His throne—these are the
pictures with which God bids us gladden the chambers of the soul.
And “while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things
which are not seen,” we shall prove it true that “our light affliction,
which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory.”
In heaven God is all in all. There holiness reigns supreme; there
is nothing to mar the perfect harmony with God. If we are indeed
journeying thither, the spirit of heaven will dwell in our hearts here.
But if we find no pleasure now in the contemplation of heavenly things;
if we have no interest in seeking the knowledge of God, no delight
in beholding the character of Christ; if holiness has no attractions for
us—then we may be sure that our hope of heaven is vain. Perfect
conformity to the will of God is the high aim to be constantly before
the Christian. He will love to talk of God, of Jesus, of the home of
bliss and purity which Christ has prepared for them that love Him. The