Behold Him!, May 25
            
            
              Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we
            
            
              should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not,
            
            
              because it knew him not.
            
            
              1 John 3:1
            
            
              .
            
            
              “Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.” It does not
            
            
              understand the principles that underlie our course of action. We must stand before
            
            
              God with a conscience void of offense. There are wonderful privileges for every
            
            
              one of us. God never places before us a requirement without giving us the power
            
            
              to perform it. He never asks us to take one step in advance of Him. He leads the
            
            
              way, and we are to follow after. Following Him, we are in no danger of going
            
            
              astray. Thus only can we perfect a Christian character as stewards of the grace of
            
            
              God.
            
            
              To us have been entrusted the truths of the gospel for this time. It is a wonderful,
            
            
              wonderful treasure, and the Lord desires us to have our eyes enlightened and our
            
            
              hearts quickened. He desires us to be nerved and strengthened by the power that
            
            
              He will give us if we will only be true to Him. He desires every one of us to
            
            
              perfect a character after the divine similitude. The Christian who does not do this
            
            
              casts a reflection on God. He dishonors his Saviour. Those who have access to the
            
            
              words written in Scripture are without excuse if they do not apply these words to
            
            
              themselves, if they do not thus cleanse their hearts from sin. By the lights shining
            
            
              from the throne of God upon our pathway, we shall be judged at the last great
            
            
              day....
            
            
              To have light shining upon the pathway in the clearness of the gospel of Christ,
            
            
              as it has shone upon our pathway, is a fearful responsibility. We are to follow on
            
            
              step by step, with our eyes fixed upon our Leader. He will not lead us one step out
            
            
              of the right way.
            
            
              God gave Christ to our world to save us from eternal death. Behold Him,
            
            
              behold Him! Keep looking upon Him till you reflect His image. Do not accept the
            
            
              words of any man, unless you can see that he is conformed to the divine image,
            
            
              because if you do, you sustain him in doing wrong; you sustain him by asking his
            
            
              counsel and following his directions.
            
            
              What we need is the pure word from the Holy Bible. Christ has bidden
            
            
              us conform our lives to His life. We are to know what it means to keep the
            
            
              commandments of God in truth and righteousness. The love that was in the heart
            
            
              of Christ is to be in our hearts, that we may reveal it to those around us. We need
            
            
              to be daily strengthened by the deep love of God, and to let this love shine forth to
            
            
              those around us.—
            
            
              Manuscript 66, May 25, 1905
            
            
              , “The Need of Home Religion,”
            
            
              a talk.
            
            
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