This is Pure Religion
25
watching to see how we treat these persons who need our sympathy,
love, and disinterested benevolence. This is God’s test of our character.
If we have the true religion of the Bible, we shall feel that a debt of
love, kindness, and interest is due to Christ in behalf of His brethren;
and we can do no less than to show our gratitude for His immeasurable
love to us while we were sinners unworthy of His grace, by having
a deep interest and unselfish love for those who are our brethren and
who are less fortunate than ourselves.—
Testimonies for the Church
3:511
.
How Does Your Light Shine?—Those who should have been the
light of the world have shed forth but feeble and sickly beams. What
is light? It is piety, goodness, truth, mercy, love; it is the revealing
of the truth in the character and life. The gospel is dependent on the
personal piety of its believers for its aggressive power, and God has
made provision through the death of His beloved Son, that every soul
may be thoroughly furnished unto every good work.—
The Review and
Herald, March 24, 1891
.
The Sign Distinguishing True and False Religion—True sym-
pathy between man and his fellow man is to be the sign distinguishing
those who love and fear God from those who are unmindful of His
law. How great the sympathy that Christ expressed in coming to this
world to give His life a sacrifice for a dying world! His religion
led to the doing of genuine medical missionary work. [
The reader
should bear in mind that the term “medical missionary work” as often
employed by Mrs. White stretched far beyond the bounds of profes-
sional medical service to embody all acts of mercy and disinterested
kindness.—Compilers.
] He was a healing power. “I will have mercy,
[37]
and not sacrifice,” He said. This is the test that the great Author of
truth used to distinguish between true religion and false.—
Manuscript
117, 1903
.
Practical Sympathy the Test of Purity—Satan is playing the
game of life for every soul. He knows that practical sympathy is a test
of the purity and unselfishness of the heart, and he will make every
possible effort to close our hearts to the needs of others, that we may
finally be unmoved by the sight of suffering. He will bring in many
things to prevent the expression of love and sympathy. It is thus that
he ruined Judas. Judas was constantly planning to benefit self. In this
he represents a large class of professed Christians of today. Therefore