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Testimonies for the Church Volume 6
And the Father demonstrates His infinite love for Christ, who paid our
ransom with His blood, by receiving and welcoming Christ’s friends
as His friends. He is satisfied with the atonement made. He is glorified
by the incarnation, the life, death, and mediation of His Son.
No sooner does the child of God approach the mercy seat than
he becomes the client of the great Advocate. At his first utterance of
penitence and appeal for pardon Christ espouses his case and makes
it His own, presenting the supplication before the Father as His own
request.
As Christ intercedes in our behalf, the Father lays open all the
treasures of His grace for our appropriation, to be enjoyed and to be
communicated to others. “Ask in My name,” Christ says; “I do not
say that I will pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loveth
you, because you have loved Me. Make use of My name. This will
give your prayers efficiency, and the Father will give you the riches of
His grace; wherefore, ‘ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be
full.”’
John 16:24
.
God desires His obedient children to claim His blessing and to
come before Him with praise and thanksgiving. God is the Fountain
of life and power. He can make the wilderness a fruitful field for the
people that keep His commandments, for this is for the glory of His
name. He has done for His chosen people that which should inspire
every heart with thanksgiving, and it grieves Him that so little praise
is offered. He desires to have a stronger expression from His people,
showing that they know they have reason for joy and gladness.
The dealings of God with His people should be often repeated.
How frequently were the waymarks set up by the Lord in His dealings
with ancient Israel! Lest they should forget the history of the past, He
commanded Moses to frame these events into song, that parents might
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teach them to their children. They were to gather up memorials and
to lay them up in sight. Special pains were taken to preserve them,
that when the children should inquire concerning these things, the
whole story might be repeated. Thus the providential dealings and the
marked goodness and mercy of God in His care and deliverance of His
people were kept in mind. We are exhorted to call to “remembrance the
former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great
fight of afflictions.”
Hebrews 10:32
. For His people in this generation
the Lord has wrought as a wonder-working God. The past history of