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Counsels for the Church
help us
Darkness and discouragement will sometimes come upon
the soul and threaten to overwhelm us, but we should not cast away
our confidence. We must keep the eye fixed on Jesus, feeling or no
feeling. We should seek to faithfully perform every known duty, and
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then calmly rest in the promises of God.
At times a deep sense of our unworthiness will send a thrill of
terror through the soul, but this is no evidence that God has changed
toward us, or we toward God. No effort should be made to rein the
mind up to a certain intensity of emotion. We may not feel today the
peace and joy which we felt yesterday; but we should by faith grasp
the hand of Christ, and trust Him as fully in the darkness as in the
light.
By faith look upon the crowns laid up for those who shall over-
come; listen to the exultant song of the redeemed, Worthy, worthy is
the Lamb that was slain and hast redeemed us to God! Endeavor to
regard these scenes as real.
If we would permit our minds to dwell more upon Christ and the
heavenly world, we should find a powerful stimulus and support in
fighting the battles of the Lord. Pride and love of the world will lose
their power as we contemplate the glories of that better land so soon
to be our home. Beside the loveliness of Christ, all earthly attractions
will seem of little worth.
Though Paul was at last confined in a Roman prison—shut away
from the light and air of heaven, cut off from his active labors in the
gospel, and momentarily expecting to be condemned to death—yet
he did not yield to doubt or despondency. From that gloomy dungeon
came his dying testimony, full of a sublime faith and courage that has
inspired the hearts of saints and martyrs in all succeeding ages. His
words fitly describe the results of that sanctification which we have in
these pages endeavored to set forth: “I am now ready to be offered,
and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight,
I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is
laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them
also that love his appearing.”
2 Timothy 4:6-8
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28
Selected Messages 1:350, 351, 353
29
The Sanctified Life, 89-96