Chapter 16—The Necessity of Doing Our Best
The Lord has made provision that our minds may be elevated.
Instead of allowing our thoughts to dwell upon small and unimportant
matters, the nobler powers of the mind, which are adapted to the
contemplation of exalted themes, should be trained for high pursuits.
But instead of this, men pervert the higher faculties of the mind, and
press them into the service of the earthly and the temporal interests, as
if the attainment of the things of earth were of supreme importance.
In this way the higher powers have been dwarfed, and have failed
to develop so that men might be qualified for the duties of life that
devolve upon them; for even in the performance of the obligations
relating to this life, they fail to act with integrity, if the nobler powers
of the mind are not cultivated. It is Satan’s design that these high
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faculties of the mind should become belittled and sensualized; but it is
not God’s will that any one should yield the mind to the control of the
evil one. He would have his children make progress in intellectual and
spiritual pursuits.
Let no one suppose that conversion is the beginning and end of
the Christian life. There is a science of Christianity that must be
mastered. There is to be growth in grace, that is constant progress and
improvement. The mind is to be disciplined, trained, educated; for the
child of God is to do service for God in ways that are not natural, or in
harmony with inborn inclination. Those who become the followers of
Christ find that new motives of action are supplied, new thoughts arise,
and new actions must result. But they can make advancement only
through conflict; for there is an enemy that ever contends against them,
presenting temptations to cause the soul to doubt and sin. Besides
this ever vigilant foe, there are hereditary and cultivated tendencies to
evil that must be overcome. The training and education of a lifetime
must often be discarded that the Christian may become a learner in
the school of Christ, and in him who would be a partaker of the divine
nature, appetite and passion must be brought under the control of the
Holy Spirit. There is to be no end to this warfare this side of eternity,
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