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they will bear witness to the preciousness of the experience they have
gained in working for others.—
Gospel Workers, 199
.
Our Own Graces Exercised—Had there been nothing in the
world to work at cross purposes with us, patience, forbearance, gen-
tleness, meekness, and longsuffering would not have been called into
action. The more these graces are exercised, the more will they be
increased and strengthened. The more we deal our temporal bread to
the hungry, the oftener we clothe the naked, visit the sick, and relieve
the fatherless and the widow in their affliction, the more decidedly
shall we realize the blessing of God.—
Manuscript 64, 1894
.
Why Blessings Are Withheld—The blessing of God cannot come
upon those who are idlers in His vineyard. Professed Christians who
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do nothing neutralize the efforts of real workers by their influence and
example. They make the grand and important truths they profess to
believe, appear inconsistent, and cause them to have no effect. They
misrepresent the character of Christ. How can God let the showers of
His grace come upon the churches that are largely composed of this
kind of members? They are of no manner of use in the work of God.
How can the Master say to such, “Well done, thou good and faithful
servant: ... enter thou into the joy of thy Lord,” when they have been
neither good nor faithful? God cannot speak a falsehood. The power
of the grace of God cannot be given in large measure to the churches.
It would dishonor His own glorious character to let streams of grace
come upon the people who will not wear the yoke of Christ, who will
not bear His burdens, who will not deny self, who will not lift the
cross of Christ. Because of their slothfulness they are a hindrance to
those who would move out in the work if they did not block up the
way.—
The Review and Herald, July 21, 1896
.
Become a Living Stream of Good Deeds—If God and Christ and
angels rejoice when even one sinner repents and becomes obedient
to Christ, should not man be imbued with the same spirit, and work
for time and for eternity with persevering effort to save, not only his
own soul, but the souls of others? If you work in this direction with
wholehearted interest as the followers of Christ, discharging every duty,
improving every opportunity, your own souls will be gradually settling
into the mold of a perfect Christian. The heart will not be sere and
unfeeling. The spiritual life will not be dwarfed. The heart will glow
with the impress of the divine image, for it will be in close sympathy
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