To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. Isaiah 61:3.

Affliction and adversity may cause much inconvenience and may bring great depression, but it is prosperity that is dangerous to spiritual life. Unless the human subject is in constant submission to the will of God, unless he is sanctified by the truth and has the faith that works by love and purifies the soul, prosperity will surely arouse the natural inclination to presumption….

In the valley of humiliation, where men depend on God to teach them and to guide their every step, there is comparative safety. But let everyone who has a living connection with God pray for … those who are standing on a lofty pinnacle and who, because of their exalted position, are supposed to have much wisdom. Unless such men feel their need of an Arm stronger than the arm of flesh to lean upon, unless they make God their dependence, their view of things will become distorted and they will fall.

The Lord has instructed me to urge everyone to realize that man is human. The church of Christ is in need of close communion with the Lord Jesus. Those who feel most their dependence upon God are usually those who have the least amount of earthly treasure on which to depend.

Of all the trees, the Scotch fir tree is one of the best from which Christians may draw inspiring lessons. The Scotch fir requires less soil for its roots than any other tree. In a dry soil and amidst barren rocks it finds sufficient nourishment to keep it as green in the winter as in the summer. With the least amount of earth about its roots, it towers above all the other trees of the wood, reaching the highest toward heaven….

The church members who are standing in their lot and place are trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord. Although their surrounding circumstances may be adverse, yet, like the fir tree with little soil about its roots, they constantly reach heavenward, drawing nourishment from above. Like the fragrant boughs of the fir tree, they impart grace for grace received. The hidden nourishment that comes from God is returned to Him in purest service…. God calls for every man’s best energies. No man can find in any human being the strength that will enable him to serve God with all his powers. He must be a partaker of the divine nature.—Manuscript 145, September 2, 1902, “Diary.”

From The Upward Look – Page 259

Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men. 2 Corinthians 3:2.

O how greatly we need Jesus Christ every moment! … Let every man stand in his lot and in his place, working with earnestness, decision, and power to advance God’s cause, bearing aloft the standard on which are inscribed the words “The commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” … We may teach the Bible ever so zealously, but if we do not honor the truth by efforts proportionate to its greatness, we shall form ideas of Christ which do not honor the self-denying, self-sacrificing Redeemer. We need Christ every moment. We need to look up and study His character. What would Christ do were He in my place? is to be our measurement of our duty. It is possible to preach the Word and walk directly contrary to its teaching, showing in the home life and in business life a form of godliness without the power.

Vague suppositions regarding Christ are not enough. We need an abiding Christ. We need to eat His Word. He is the Bread of Life. The revealed Word is our photograph of Christ. The world can only be expelled from the soul by filling the soul with Christ. Just as the life of the body is produced by the temporal food eaten, so the life of the soul is produced by the spiritual food eaten.

He who would have spiritual life and vigor must eat the flesh and drink of the blood of the Son of God. Christ declares, “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.” “Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me” (John 6:35, 54-57).

O that the workers in every line of the service of God would eat of the leaves of the tree of life, which are for the healing of the nations.

But I cannot write more now. I will try to write again soon. I could not sleep after one o’clock this morning. I have had many things to think of. Today Willie and Dr. [A. J.] Sanderson go to San Francisco to attend a meeting of the Medical Board, where some important matters will be settled, we hope, after the mind of Christ.—Letter 125, September 1, 1901, to Elder and Mrs. S. N. Haskell, who were doing evangelistic work among the blacks of New York City.

From The Upward Look – Page 258

As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. John 17:2.

God would have every man look unto Jesus, who is the Author and the Finisher of our faith. As Christians, we must in words and actions exercise the noble traits of character that dwelt in Jesus Christ, as the very highest gift that can be conferred upon the soul of man. Will everyone who names the name of Christ depart from all iniquity? The word used here does not always mean the grosser forms of sin. It means every action we would not be pleased to meet in heaven. From all such actions we are to depart. We are not to practice them in this life, either in the family or in the church. All who enter heaven where Jesus is will have in this life the characteristics that will make heaven here below. Blessed and beneficent are the rays of light from the Sun of Righteousness who is now pouring His enlightening, healing beams upon everyone who will open the windows of the soul heavenward.

There are many who, though they profess to be Christians, would spoil heaven should they be translated with a spirit and character such as they now have. Their lives are full of earthliness; their tempers are unsanctified; they harbor prejudices that ought never to exist; they are wholly human. An atmosphere so unlike the character of Christ has surrounded the soul, so that they could not enjoy the change from earth to heaven. This earth is our school where we are to be proved and tried to see if we will become stewards of the grace of Christ. The power of the grace of Christ is to work in the children of disobedience until Christ Himself is formed within, the hope of glory. We must reveal that we are converted, born again, before we can see heaven. Shall we begin now to labor as humble learners of Jesus Christ? O how infinite is His love and grace! How utterly beyond price is His love expressed for fallen man! Christ, because He loves us, holds the standard high, and He will take our disposition, and make it like His own….

Through faith all may receive much, if they will open the windows of the soul heavenward to let the Sun of Righteousness shine in…. We are to accept the ways and works of God through whomsoever He shall send them. We are to follow humbly in the way of the Lord. The way to evidence to the world that we are Christ’s followers is to manifest unselfish love for one another, not seeking the supremacy….

O that God would so impress His people that they may behold His glory, and exclaim, I have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!—Manuscript 93, August 31, 1903, “Concerning the Signing of Contracts.”

From The Upward Look – Page 257

They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood. But the Lord is my defence; and my God is the rock of my refuge. Psalm 94:21, 22.

Planted firmly upon the earth, and reaching heavenward to the throne of God, is a ladder of shining brightness. God is above the ladder, and His light is shining along its whole length. This ladder is Christ. Every round that you climb, you are coming step after step into fellowship with the sufferings of Christ, and are becoming fashioned after His divine similitude. The angels of God are constantly ascending and descending this glorious ladder. They will not let you fall, if you keep your eye fixed upon the glory of God which is at the top of the ladder….

Satan is seeking to cast his hellish shadow across your pathway, that he may hinder your journey heavenward. Act as though you had within you a power from above, that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth you may resist that power which is working intensely from beneath. To have in the heart the sweet, mellow Spirit of Jesus Christ is of more consequence than any amount of self-sufficiency and self-exaltation, which separate you from Christ.

Christ teaches humanity never to be self-sufficient. He says, “Learn of me; … I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls” (Matthew 11:29). Learn of the One who was meek and lowly in heart—the One who has promised, “Ye shall find rest unto your souls.” This glorious experience will come, and you can say, “I know Him! I know Him! I have tested Him; I have proved Him, and He has never failed me.” …

If you send up your petition to God, He says He hears you. What is your evidence? Do you feel any better than before? Do you think of and examine your feelings to see if some great change has taken place within? You should step out on the Word of God, and go straight forward, knowing that He answers your prayers, because He has promised to give, if you ask. Thus by exercising faith, [you] bring about the answer to your petitions. As you work to answer your own prayers, you will find that God will reveal Himself unto you…. Begin now to reach higher and still higher. Prize the things of heaven above earthly attractions and inducements…. Learn how to pray; learn how to bear a clear and intelligent testimony, and God will be glorified in you. If you trust God, if you commit the keeping of your souls unto Him as unto a faithful Creator, you will have the sweet assurance of His love.—Manuscript 85, August 30, 1901, “Teachers to Have an Abiding Christ,” talk given at a church school teachers’ institute, Healdsburg, California.

From The Upward Look – Page 256

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16.

After the Saviour had fasted forty days and forty nights, “he was afterward an hungered.” Then it was that Satan appeared to Him. He came as a beautiful angel from heaven, claiming that he had a commission from God to declare the Saviour’s fast at an end. “If thou be the Son of God,” he said to Christ, “command that these stones be made bread” (Matthew 4:3). But in Satan’s insinuation of distrust, Christ recognized the enemy whose power He had come to earth to resist. He would not accept the challenge, nor be moved by the temptation. He stood firmly to the affirmative. “Man shall not live by bread alone,” He said, “but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (verse 4).

Christ stood by every word of God, and He prevailed. If we would always take such a position as this when tempted, refusing to dally with temptation or argue with the enemy, the same experience would be ours. It is when we stop to reason with the devil that we are overcome. It is for us to know individually that we are right in the warfare, to take the affirmative in the sight of God, and there to stand. It is thus that we will obtain the divine power promised, through which we obtain “all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue” (2 Peter 1:3).

There is such a thing as being partaker of the divine nature. We shall all be tempted in a variety of ways, but when we are tempted we need to remember that a provision has been made whereby we may overcome…. He who truly believes in Christ is made partaker of the divine nature, and has power that he can appropriate under every temptation. He will not fall under temptation or be left to defeat….

We think it costs us something to stand in this position before the world; and so it does. But what has our salvation cost the heavenly universe? To make us partakers of the divine nature, heaven gave its most costly treasure…. He engaged to stand in a fallen world as the representative of the Father. And He would die in behalf of a lost race. What a work was this! If He should fail, if He should be overcome by temptation, a world would be lost.—Manuscript 99a, August 29, 1908, “Called to Glory and Virtue,” sermon preached at Loma Linda, California.

From The Upward Look – Page 255