Basic HTML Version
Right Methods, Principles, and Motives
205
* * * * *
Less of Self
[Special Testimonies, Series A 4:20-25 (1895).]
Granville, Australia,
September 13, 1895
There must certainly be a change in our ministers. In heart and
character there must be more of Christ and less of self. We are to
be representatives of our Lord. Those who have had great light and
precious opportunities are accountable to God, who has given to
every man his work. They are never to betray the sacred trust, but
are to be indeed the light of the world.
“Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and
sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Here is language that
expresses His mind toward a corrupt and idolatrous people: “How
shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? how
[246]
shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? Mine
heart is turned within Me, My repentings are kindled together.” Must
He give up the people for whom such a provision has been made,
even His only-begotten Son, the express image of Himself? God
permits His Son to be delivered up for our offenses. He Himself
assumes toward the Sin Bearer the character of a judge, divesting
Himself of the endearing qualities of a father.
Herein His love commends itself in the most marvelous manner
to the rebellious race. What a sight for angels to behold! What a
hope for man, “that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”!
The just suffered for the unjust; He bore our sins in His own body
on the tree. “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up
for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”
As witnesses chosen of God, do we value Christ’s purchased
possession? Are we ready to make any and every sacrifice within
our power, to place ourselves under Christ’s yoke, to cooperate with
Him and to be laborers together with God? All who are bearing the
test of God, obeying His commandments, love the perishing human
race as Christ loved them. They follow the example of Christ in
most earnest, self-sacrificing labor, to seek out in the highways and