56 A Sketch of the Christian Experience and Views of Ellen G. White
God. Lay all upon his altar, self, property and all, a living sacrifice. It
will take all to enter glory. Lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven
where no thief can approach or rust corrupt. Ye must be partakers of
Christ’s sufferings here, if ye would be partakers with him of his glory
hereafter.”
Heaven will be cheap enough, if we obtain it through suffering.
We must deny self all along the way, die to self daily, and have Jesus
alone appear, and have his glory continually in view. I saw that those
who of late have embraced the truth would have to know what it was
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to suffer for Christ’s sake. That they would have trials to pass through
that would be keen and cutting, in order that they may be purified,
and fitted through suffering to receive the seal of the living God, pass
through the time of trouble, and see the King in his beauty, and dwell
in the presence of God, and in the society of pure and holy angels.
As I saw what we must be to inherit glory, and then saw how much
Jesus had suffered for us to obtain for us so rich an inheritance, I prayed
that we might be baptized into Christ’s sufferings, that we might not
shrink at trials, but bear them with patience and joy, knowing what
Jesus had suffered, that we might through his poverty and sufferings
be made rich. Said the angel, “Deny self, ye must step fast.” I saw
that some of us have had time to get the truth, and to advance step by
step, and every step we have taken has given us strength to take the
next. But now time is almost finished, and what we have been years
learning, they will have to learn in a few months. And they will have
to unlearn much, and learn again. And those who will not receive the
mark of the beast and his image, when the decree goes forth, must
have decision now to say, nay, we will not regard the institution of the
beast.