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Christ’s Object Lessons
certainly gain a victory if you see these mistakes and regard them as
beacons of warning. Thus you turn defeat into victory, disappointing
the enemy and honoring your Redeemer.
A character formed according to the divine likeness is the only
treasure that we can take from this world to the next. Those who are
under the instruction of Christ in this world will take every divine
attainment with them to the heavenly mansions. And in heaven we are
continually to improve. How important, then, is the development of
character in this life.
The heavenly intelligences will work with the human agent who
seeks with determined faith that perfection of character which will
reach out to perfection in action. To everyone engaged in this work
Christ says, I am at your right hand to help you.
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As the will of man co-operates with the will of God, it becomes
omnipotent. Whatever is to be done at His command may be accom-
plished in His strength. All His biddings are enablings.
Mental Faculties
God requires the training of the mental faculties. He designs that
His servants shall possess more intelligence and clearer discernment
than the worldling, and He is displeased with those who are too careless
or too indolent to become efficient, well-informed workers. The Lord
bids us love Him with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all
the strength, and with all the mind. This lays upon us the obligation of
developing the intellect to its fullest capacity, that with all the mind
we may know and love our Creator.
If placed under the control of His Spirit, the more thoroughly the
intellect is cultivated, the more effectively it can be used in the service
of God. The uneducated man who is consecrated to God and who
longs to bless others can be, and is, used by the Lord in His service.
But those who, with the same spirit of consecration, have had the
benefit of a thorough education, can do a much more extensive work
for Christ. They stand on vantage ground.
The Lord desires us to obtain all the education possible, with the
object in view of imparting our knowledge to others. None can know
where or how they may be called to labor or to speak for God. Our
heavenly Father alone sees what He can make of men. There are before