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Testimonies for the Church Volume 8
God, and not self-created, they should be appreciated as talents from
God to be employed in His service.
The heaven-entrusted faculties of the mind are to be treated as the
higher powers, to rule the kingdom of the body. The natural appetites
and passions are to be brought under the control of the conscience and
the spiritual powers.
The religion of Christ never degrades the receiver; it never makes
him coarse or rough, discourteous or self-important, passionate or hard-
hearted. On the contrary, it refines the taste, sanctifies the judgment,
and purifies and ennobles the thoughts, bringing them into captivity to
Christ. God’s ideal for His children is higher than the highest human
thought can reach. He has given in His holy law a transcript of His
character.
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Christ is the greatest Teacher that the world has ever known. And
what is the standard that He holds before all who believe in Him? “Be
ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”
Matthew 5:48
. As God is perfect in His sphere, so man may be perfect
in his sphere.
The ideal of Christian character is Christlikeness. There is opened
before us a path of constant advancement. We have an object to gain,
a standard to reach, that includes everything good and pure and noble
and elevated. There should be continual striving and constant progress
onward and upward toward perfection of character.
Paul says: “I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one
thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth
unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 3:13, 14
.
This is the will of God concerning human beings, even their sanc-
tification. In urging our way upward, heavenward, every faculty must
be kept in the most healthy condition, prepared to do faithful service.
The powers with which God has endowed man are to be put to the
stretch. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with
all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy
neighbor as thyself.”
Luke 10:27
. Man cannot possibly do this of
himself; he must have divine aid. What part is the human agent to act?
“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God
which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.”
Philippians 2:12, 13
.