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Testimonies to Southern Africa
Christ has purchased the whole being, mind, soul, strength, and body,
and I am to express, in my words, my deportment, my actions, a sense
of my obligation to God. I am wholly His. My life is hid with Christ
in God, and when He who is my life shall appear, then shall I also
appear with Him in glory.”
This stand is to be taken and maintained through every hour of
Christian experience. Christ’s influence is to be felt in our world
through His believing children. He who is converted is to exert the
same kind of an influence which through God’s instrumentality was
made effectual in his conversion. All our work in this world is to be
done in harmony and love and unity. We are to keep the example of
Christ ever before us, walking in His footsteps. Union is strength,
and the Lord desires that this truth should be ever revealed in all
the members of the body of Christ. All are to be united in love, in
meekness, in lowliness of mind. Organized into a society of believers,
for the purpose of combining and diffusing their influence, they are to
work as Christ worked. They are ever to show courtesy and respect
for one another. Every talent has its place, and is to be kept under the
control of the Holy Spirit.
The church is a Christian society, formed for the members com-
posing it, that each member may enjoy the assistance of all the graces
and talents of the other members, and the working of God upon them,
according to their several gifts and abilities. The church is united
in the holy bonds of fellowship in order that each member may be
benefited by the influence of the other. All are to bind themselves to
the covenant of love and harmony. The Christian principles and graces
of the whole society of believers is to gather strength and force in
harmonious action. Each believer is to be benefited and improved by
the refining and transforming influence of the varied capabilities of the
other members, that the things lacking in one may be more abundantly
displayed in another. All the members are to draw together, that the
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church may become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men.
The covenant of agreement in church membership is that each
member will walk in the footsteps of Christ, that all will take His yoke
upon them, and learn of Him who is meek and lowly of heart. Doing
this, “Ye shall,” saith the dear Saviour, “find rest unto your souls. For
my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Those who wear Christ’s
yoke will draw together. They will cultivate sympathy and forbearance,