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a knowledge of God. “This is life eternal, that they might know Thee
the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou has sent.”
This knowledge is the secret spring from which flows all power.
It is through the exercise of the faculty of faith that we are enabled to
receive and practice the word of God. No excuse can be accepted, no
plea of justification received for the failure to know and understand
the will of the Lord. The Lord will enlighten the heart that is loyal to
Him. He can read the thoughts and intents of the heart. It is useless
to plead that if it had been so and so, we would have done so and so.
There is no if about God’s requirements; His word is yea and amen.
There can be no question in the heart of faith as to the power of God to
perform His promises. Pure faith works by love, and purifies the soul.
To the distressed father, seeking for the tender love and pity of
Christ to be exercised in behalf of his afflicted son, Jesus said: “If thou
canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.” All things
are possible with God, and by faith we may lay hold on His power.
But faith is not sight; faith is not feeling; faith is not reality. “Faith
is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
To abide in faith is to put aside feeling and selfish desires, to walk
humbly with the Lord, to appropriate His promises, and apply them
to all occasions, believing that God will work out His own plans and
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purposes in your heart and life by the sanctification of your character;
it is to rely entirely, to trust implicitly, upon the faithfulness of God. If
this course is followed, others will see the special fruits of the Spirit
manifested in the life and character.
The education received by Moses, as the king’s grandson, was very
thorough. Nothing was neglected that was calculated to make him a
wise man, as the Egyptians understood wisdom. This education was a
help to him in many respects; but the most valuable part of his fitting
for his life work was that received while employed as a shepherd. As
he led his flocks through the wilds of the mountains and into the green
pastures of the valleys, the God of nature taught him the highest and
grandest wisdom. In the school of nature, with Christ himself for
teacher, he contemplated and learned lessons of humility, meekness,
faith, and trust, and of a humble manner of living, all of which bound
his soul closer to God. In the solitude of the mountains he learned that
which all his instruction in the king’s palace was unable to impart to
him,—simple, unwavering faith, and constant trust in the Lord.