Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. 1 Peter 5:8.

Christ has laid down the conditions of acceptable service. “He that loveth his life shall lose it,” He says; “and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour” (John 12:25, 26).

It is Christ’s method of serving that is of value in God’s sight. The service of those who serve in the world’s way is worthless, for it is all for self. The selfishness of human nature takes control. They do not serve as Christ has given them example.

Let us study the life and death of Christ. Let us do all in our power to work out the plan of God. What tongue can tell, what pen unfold the mighty results of looking to Jesus and living His life? How few of those claiming to be Christians have any real right to that sacred name.

Satan watches eagerly to find Christians off their guard. O that the followers of Christ would remember that eternal vigilance is the price of eternal life. Many have a slumbering faith. Unless they are invigorated, revived, quickened into action, their souls will be lost.

Self must die, and Christ must be enthroned in the heart as all and in all. The thoughts must be stayed on Him. Then the life will be an honor to His name. The soul will receive power from on high to resist Satan’s specious devisings.

Have Seventh-day Adventists forgotten the warning given in the sixth chapter of Ephesians? We are engaged in a warfare against the hosts of darkness. Unless we follow our Leader closely, Satan will obtain the victory over us.

“Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:13-17).—Letter 140, July 5, 1903, to “My Dear Brethren.”

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Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. Daniel 8:14.

God bids us give our time and strength to the work of preaching to the people the messages that stirred men and women in 1843 and 1844….

My brethren, take your position where God bids you. Leave alone those who, after light has been repeatedly given them, have taken a stand on the opposite side…. Take up the work which has been given us. With the Word of God as your message, stand on the platform of truth and proclaim the soon coming of Christ. Truth, eternal truth, will prevail.

For more than half a century [i.e., since 1844] the different points of present truth have been questioned and opposed. New theories have been advanced as truth, which were not truth, and the Spirit of God revealed their error. As the great pillars of our faith have been presented, the Holy Spirit has borne witness to them, and especially is this so regarding the truths of the sanctuary question. Over and over again the Holy Spirit has in a marked manner endorsed the preaching of this doctrine. But today, as in the past, some will be led to form new theories and to deny the truths upon which the Spirit of God has placed His approval.

Any man who seeks to present theories which would lead us from the light that has come to us on the ministration in the heavenly sanctuary should not be accepted as a teacher. A true understanding of the sanctuary question means much to us as a people. When we were earnestly seeking the Lord for light on that question, light came. In vision I was given such a view of the heavenly sanctuary, and the ministration connected with the holy place, that for many days I could not speak of it.

I know from the light that God has given me that there should be a revival of the messages that have been given in the past, because men will seek to bring in new theories, and will try to prove that these theories are scriptural, whereas they are error, which, if allowed a place, will undermine faith in the truth. We are not to accept these suppositions and pass them along as truth. No, no; we must not move from the platform of truth on which we have been established.

There will always be those who are seeking for something new, and who stretch and strain the Word of God to make it support their ideas and theories. Let us, brethren, take the things that God has given us, and which His Spirit has taught us is truth, and believe them, leaving alone those theories which His Spirit has not endorsed.—Manuscript 125, July 4, 1907, “Lessons From the Visions of Ezekiel.”

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This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 1 John 1:5.

Before the fall of Adam, not a cloud rested on the mind of our first parents to obscure their clear perception of the divine character of God. They were perfectly conformed to the will of God. A beautiful light, the light of God, surrounded them. Nature was their lesson book. The Lord instructed them in regard to the natural world and then left with them this open book that they might behold beauty in every object upon which their eyes should rest. The Lord visited the holy pair, and instructed them through the works of His hands.

The beauties of nature are an expression of the love of God for human intelligences, and in the Garden of Eden the existence of God was demonstrated in the objects of nature that surrounded our first parents. Every tree planted in the Garden spoke to them, saying that the invisible things of God were clearly seen, being understood by the things which were made, even His eternal power and Godhead.

But while thus God could be discerned in nature, this affords no solid argument in favor of a perfect knowledge of God being revealed in nature to Adam and his posterity after the Fall. Nature could convey her lessons to man in his innocence, but sin and transgression brought a blight upon nature, and intervened between nature and nature’s God. Had man never disobeyed his Creator, had he remained in his state of perfect rectitude, he could have understood and known God. But when man disobeyed God, he gave evidence that he believed the words of an apostate rather than the words of God….

Adam and Eve listened to the voice of the tempter, and sinned against God. The light, the garments of heavenly innocence, departed from these tried, deceived souls, and in parting with the garments of innocence, they drew about them the dark robes of ignorance of God. The clear and perfect light of innocence, which had hitherto surrounded them, had lightened everything which they approached; but deprived of that heavenly light, the posterity of Adam could no longer trace the character of God in His created works.

Therefore, after the Fall, nature was not the only teacher of man. In order that the world might not remain in darkness, in eternal, spiritual night, the God of nature must meet man in Jesus Christ. The Son of God came to the world as a revelation of the Father. He was “the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.”—Manuscript 86, July 3, 1898, “Notes of the Week of Prayer.”

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And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. Romans 12:2.

God will accept nothing less than unreserved surrender. Halfhearted, sinful, professing Christians would spoil heaven, were they permitted to enter. They would stir up a second rebellion there. Those who know the truth, yet do not exalt the Author of truth, will never enter the City of God. Heaven would be purgatory to them, because they know nothing of the high, holy principles that govern the members of the royal family above.

The directions that Christ has given are so distinct and so definite that no one need take a false step…. Let us not think that because we have made crooked paths for our feet, every other professing Christian has done the same thing. Let the one who in the past has been a faultfinder begin to climb the ladder heavenward, keeping his eyes fixed on the light above.

The true Christian keeps the windows of the soul open heavenward. He lives in fellowship with Christ. His will is conformed to the will of God…. Shall we not, in the few days of probation that remain to us, act like men and women seeking for life in the kingdom of God, even an eternity of bliss?

We are to strive earnestly to reach the standard set before us. Not as a penance are we to do this, but as the only means of gaining true happiness. The only way to gain peace and joy is to have a living connection with Him who gave His life for us, who died that we might live, and who lives to unite His power with the efforts of those who in this life are striving to overcome.

Holiness is constant agreement with God. Shall we not be that which Christ so greatly desires us to be—Christians in deed and in truth—that the world may see in our lives a revelation of the saving power of truth? This world is our preparatory school, and while here we shall meet with trials and difficulties. But we are safe while we cleave to Him who gave His life as an offering for us….

In the lower school of earth we are to learn the lessons that will prepare us to enter the higher school, where our education will continue under the personal instruction of Christ. Then He will open to us the meaning of His Word. We cannot afford to miss the privilege of seeing His face and of hearing the gospel from His lips. Shall we not put our whole souls into the work of preparing for admission into the higher school, where we shall see Christ face to face?—Manuscript 61, July 2, 1903, “Unreserved Surrender.”

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O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day. Psalm 119:97.

Let those who talk of principle as if they would not on any account depart from it be sure that they understand the principles laid down in the Word of God for our guidance. There are some who follow false principles. Their idea of principle is misleading. Following right principle means the faithful doing of the first four and the last six commandments. In obedience to these divine commands, we eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ, appropriating all that is embraced in the atonement made on Calvary. Christ will stand by the side of all who receive Him as their Saviour. To them He will give power to become the sons of God. “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

The One here referred to as the Word is the Son of God, who was the Commander in the heavenly courts, and who came to this world to open heavenly things to fallen human beings. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is the Word that was with God before the world was. In clothing His divinity with humanity, He became possessed of two natures, the divine and the human. And because of this, He was fully able to accomplish for the human race their complete redemption, and their restoration to the privileges of the higher life.

He began His earthly life as human beings begin theirs, coming to this world as a helpless babe. And while here, He lived the life that every human being may live who will receive the great gift that the Lord made to our world in sending His Son to work out the plan of salvation.

Christ bore the penalty of sin, the stroke of divine justice, that human beings might not be left to perish. He bore in His body the sentence pronounced against sinners. This is the science of salvation, which can safely be searched into, and which it is profitable to strive to understand….

Those who continue in transgression will be judged according to their refusal of light. They choose to stand on the side of the prince of darkness, to become the helping hand of him who, if it were possible, would deceive the very elect. They refuse the wonderful gift of heaven, and though they may profess righteousness, and talk of “adherence to principle,” they are at the same time following principles opposed to the noble principles of heaven, and they teach others to follow the same corrupting principles.—Manuscript 161, July 1, 1903, “The Peril of Rejecting Light.”

From The Upward Look – Page 196