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Counsels for the Church
that accompanies the third angel’s message to prepare a people for the
coming of the Lord
“Ye Are Not Your Own”
We believe without a doubt that Christ is soon coming. This is not
a fable to us; it is a reality. When He comes He is not to cleanse us of
our sins, to remove from us the defects in our characters, or to cure us
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of the infirmities of our tempers and dispositions. If wrought for us at
all, this work will all be accomplished before that time.
When the Lord comes, those who are holy will be holy still. Those
who have preserved their bodies and spirits in holiness, in sanctification
and honor, will then receive the finishing touch of immortality. But
those who are unjust, unsanctified, and filthy will remain so forever.
No work will then be done for them to remove their defects and give
them holy characters. The Refiner does not then sit to pursue His
refining process and remove their sins and their corruption. This is all
to be done in these hours of probation. It is now that this work is to be
accomplished for us.
We are in a world that is opposed to righteousness and purity
of character, and to a growth in grace. Wherever we look we see
corruption and defilement, deformity and sin. And what is the work
that we are to undertake here just previous to receiving immortality? It
is to preserve our bodies holy, our spirits pure, that we may stand forth
unstained amid the corruptions teeming around us in these last days.
“Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which
is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are
bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your
spirit, which are God’s.”
1 Corinthians 6:19, 20
.
We are not our own. We have been purchased with a dear price,
even the sufferings and death of the Son of God. If we could under-
stand this, and fully realize it, we would feel a great responsibility
resting upon us to keep ourselves in the very best condition of health,
that we might render to God perfect service. But when we take any
course which expends our vitality, decreases our strength, or beclouds
the intellect we sin against God. In pursuing this course we are not glo-
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Testimonies for the Church 3:161