Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. Isaiah 43:10.

Satan is constantly alluring away from faithfulness and thoroughness in the essential works of preparedness for the great event that will try every man’s soul. The work in the heavenly sanctuary is going forward. Jesus is cleansing the sanctuary. The work on earth corresponds with the work in heaven. The heavenly angels are at work constantly to draw man, the living agent, to look to Jesus to contemplate and meditate upon Jesus that he may, in viewing the perfection of Christ, be impressed with the imperfections of His own character. The promised Comforter, Christ … declared, “shall testify of me.” This is the burden of the message for this time….

Talk as Christ talked. Work as Christ worked. We must look to Christ and live. Catching sight of His loveliness, we long to practice the virtues and righteousness of Christ. It is by beholding Christ that we become changed into His image, and by renouncing self, giving our hearts up wholly to Jesus for His Spirit to refine, ennoble, and elevate, we will be in close connection with the future world, bathed in the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness. We rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Then we are commanded to go into other cities and towns and tell them the good news with hearts all aglow with divine love, even to them that are afar off, even as many as the Lord your God shall call.

Tell to others the blessed truths of His Word, and in obeying the words of Christ, continue in His love. How He urges us by the love we bear to Him to keep His commandments. He does this, not to urge us to do impossible things, but because He knows what it means to keep His Father’s commandments. He wants every soul that heareth His invitation to say the same to others, and to receive His richest gifts, for He knows that in keeping the commandments of God, we are not brought into servile bondage, but are made free through the blood of Jesus Christ. “And in keeping of them [His commandments] there is great reward” (Psalm 19:11).

Tell it to others with pen and voice, with piety, with humility, with love, representing the character of Christ. “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:17).—Manuscript 48, November 26, 1890, “Reflections on Labors in Brooklyn.”

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Unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. Matthew 25:29.

Let not my brother … question God’s wise arrangements, for God hath said He will make His strength perfect in your weakness. Ever bear a humble, contrite heart, and you will afford God an opportunity of manifesting His love and grace to the frail instrument. Let not one moment be wasted in lamenting the opportunities you never had.

You have often thought: “If I had been in another position in life, and had had the advantages that many others have had, I might have had a larger capital to invest for my Lord.” The Lord knew all about this matter when He selected you for the work He has given you to do. In God’s beautiful arrangement, the one talent may be increased by use, even becoming ten. And ever remember that God will accept according to what a man hath, and not according to what he hath not. (see 2 Corinthians 8:12).

God has given you your talents. He has chosen you to bear responsibilities, not because you had a thorough education, not because you were an orator, or a man of brilliant intellect; He chose you because through His grace you walked humbly with God, and manifested faithfulness in that which is least.

Jesus has been delivering His goods to His servants age after age. One generation after another has been gathering up the hereditary trust; the talents have increased largely by use, and have descended to us. We are as His hired servants. He has bought us, paid the ransom money in His own blood to secure our willing service.

Some, like yourself, feel the responsibility of trading upon the goods of heaven committed to them. You long to bring a greater income to your Lord. You are unreconciled to the smallness of the largest gifts which you can lay on the altar for Christ; the utmost of time and effort you can give to the Master seems all too little, and you bemoan the imperfect service. Look to the uplifted Saviour. He is not dead and in Joseph’s new tomb, with a great stone rolled before it. He has risen! … He stands as our great high priest! He maketh intercession for you.

All He asks of you is just to use the talents entrusted. If you think that God has given you five talents, then be consoled that He does not require of you the improvement of ten. In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, I bid you look up! The rainbow of promise is encircling the throne.—Manuscript 8, November 25, 1892, to a General Conference leader.

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Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world. Titus 2:12.

Do not, because you are among unbelievers, become careless in your words, for they are taking your measure. If you sit at their table, eat temperately, and only of food that will not confuse the mind. Keep yourself from all intemperance. Be yourself an object lesson, illustrating right principles. If they offer you tea to drink, tell them in simple words [of] its injurious effect on the system. Tell them also that you do not use spirituous drinks of any kind, because you desire to keep your mind in such a condition that God can impress it with the sacred truths of His Word, and that you cannot afford to weaken any of your mental and physical powers, lest you shall be unable to discern sacred things. Thus you can sow the seeds of truth, and lead out upon the subject of keeping soul, body, and spirit in such a condition that you can understand eternal realities.

Study yourself the instruction given to Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron. They “offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not.” Taking common fire, they placed it upon their censers, “and there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them. Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that the Lord spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified” (Leviticus 10:1-3)….

The Lord desires you to be soul winners. Do not try to reveal your smartness as theologians, even of Bible truth, for by so doing you will speak to many words that will be as little understood by them as Greek…. Connect yourself firmly with Christ, and present the truth as it is in Him. Work as Paul worked. Wherever he was, whether before scowling Pharisees or Roman authorities, rich or poor, learned or ignorant, the cripple at Lystra or the convicted sinners in a Macedonian dungeon, he lifted up Christ as One who hates sin and loves the sinner, the One who bore our sins that He might have full power and authority to impart to us His righteousness.

Hearts cannot fail to be touched by the story of the atonement. Those who realize the necessity of keeping the heart under the control of the Holy Spirit will be enabled to sow seed that will spring up unto eternal life.—Manuscript 23, November 24, 1890, “Diary.”

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Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. John 5:19.

We are safe if we do the will of our heavenly Father…. See the entire dependence of the Son on the Father, was shown in the words “The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do”—mark the implicit obedience in the words—“for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise” (John 5:19). No less entire is to be our dependence on Christ, and no less implicit our obedience. Christ’s words regarding this matter are definite….

“For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth” (verse 20). It was in our behalf that Christ came to this world to make known the will of His Father, and to show human beings what they must become before they can stand before God in the heavenly courts. It is our work to obey God—to learn and obey the laws of His kingdom.

God chose Israel to be His people, and by His mighty power He delivered them from Egyptian bondage. The Egyptians saw and felt the scourging of God. The whole land bore evidence to the power of Him who ruleth in the heavens. All Egypt was desolated before Pharaoh would submit to God’s will. Thus God worked to lead His people in all future ages to magnify His power and to look to Him as the supreme Ruler.

The Son of God, enshrouded in the pillar of cloud, was the leader of the children of Israel, overseeing every phase of their experience. He educated and disciplined them, often testing their faith. Fleeing from Pharaoh’s host, they found themselves at one time hemmed in by inaccessible mountains, with the Red Sea before them and the enemy following hard after. The command came, “Go forward,” and as they obeyed, the waters parted before them. In their journey through the wilderness, the Israelites were led and protected by the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night….

Moses, the visible leader of the Israelites, was admitted into the secret councils of the Most High. The people were given evidence that Moses did indeed talk with God, receiving from Him the instruction given them…. God’s divine philosophy is revealed in the experience of Israel, chosen by Him from all nations to be His peculiar people. From His dealing with them we learn that He must be obeyed, that those who are determined to exalt themselves must be blotted out.—Letter 259, November 23, 1903, to “Dear Sister Hall.”

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By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth…. For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast. Psalm 33:6-9.

We need more to be shut in the audience with God. There is need of guarding our own thoughts. We are surely living amid the perils of the last days. We must walk before God meekly, with deep humility, for it is only such that will be exalted.

O how little man can comprehend the perfection of God, His omnipresence united with His almighty power. A human artist receives his intelligence from God. He can only fashion his work in any line to perfection from materials already prepared for his work. In his finite power he could not create and make his materials to serve his purpose if the Great Designer had not been before him, giving him the very improvements first in his imagination.

The Lord God commands things into being. He was the first Designer. He is not dependent on man, but graciously invites man’s attention, and cooperates with him in progressive and higher designs. Then man takes all the glory to himself, and is extolled by his fellow men as a very remarkable genius. He looks no higher than man. The one First Cause is forgotten….

I am afraid we have altogether too cheap and common ideas. “Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee” (1 Kings 8:27). Let not anyone venture to limit the power of the Holy One of Israel. There are conjectures and questions in regard to God’s work—“Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground” (Exodus 3:5)….

In the formation of our world, God was not beholden to preexistent substance or matter. For the “things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” (Hebrews 11:3). On the contrary, all things, material or spiritual, stood up before the Lord Jehovah at His voice, and were created for His own purpose. The heavens and all the host of them, the earth and all things that are therein, are not only the work of His hand; they came into existence by the breath of His mouth.

The Lord had given evidence that by His power He could in one short hour dissolve the whole frame of nature. He can turn things upside down, and destroy the things that man has built up in his most firm and substantial manner…. In fires, in floods, in earthquakes, in the fury of the great deep, in calamities by sea and by land, the warning is given that God’s Spirit will not always strive with men.—Manuscript 127, November 22, 1897, untitled manuscript.

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