I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live. Deuteronomy 30:19.

Those who are carrying forward the work of God must stand firm and steadfast, as faithful sentinels in the Lord’s army. They must stand under the bloodstained banner of Prince Emmanuel…. The last message of mercy is to be proclaimed. Men and women are to be aroused to prepare for the great issues before them….

The reason why men and women today do not believe the truth is because it condemns their life practices. They see that the truth calls for a reform, and they fight it because they hate the work involved in sanctification….

He whose conscience is a sure guide will not stop to reason [i.e., rationalize away] when light shines upon him out of God’s Word. He will not be guided by human counsel. He will not allow worldly business to stand in the way of obedience. He will lay every selfish interest at the door of investigation, and will approach the Word of God as one whose eternal interest is hanging in the balance.

There is a right side—the side of Him who declared, “I have kept my Father’s commandments” (John 15:10). “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul” (Psalm 19:7). There is a wrong side—the side of the one who in heaven rebelled against God. With his sympathizers he was expelled from the heavenly courts, and from his action we may understand that no matter how high a position a man may occupy in the church or in the world, if he is disloyal to God, if he accepts human laws instead of the laws of Jehovah, he can never enter heaven, for he is living in direct opposition to God. He will receive punishment in accordance with the power of influence which instead of being placed on the side of God was placed on the side of Satan. The greater the talents and influence given him, the greater will be his punishment. God will require at his hands the souls he has turned aside from truth to falsehood. Instead of leading them to God, he led them away from God, and their blood will be charged to him….

In the day of judgment those who have refused the light and have led others to honor the false sabbath will see the course Satan has pursued in causing men to transgress the law of God. They will see and fully comprehend the virtue of God’s sign….

God’s people have a serious, solemn work to do. He bids them, “Lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins” (Isaiah 58:1).—Manuscript 27, May 6, 1900, “Obedience and Disobedience.”

From The Upward Look – Page 140

My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of his correction. Proverbs 3:11.

Do not permit yourself to be discouraged. Do not permit yourself to be provoked, but let intelligent reason control your actions. Inquire what good it would do to be impatient. It would only gratify the enemy and confirm the opinion of those who would think evil of you. You may, by an even course of conduct, prove the words of evil-minded persons untrue. Do not enter into self-defense, but pass along doing your duty with perseverance.

God help you, my son [Edson], to make sure work for eternity. This is your work. No one can do this work for you. Trust wholly in God. Our heavenly Father is mindful of your infirmities. I am thankful that He is acquainted with all our weaknesses and with all our temptations. He knows how to pity us and how to strengthen us if we will flee to Him, the Stronghold, for help. Do not, when your faith is tested, become reckless. Just wait and calmly submit your judgment and your will and your way and be willing to be led.

There is no other way to be saved but that devised by our Redeemer, and of which He has given us a practical illustration in His own life of self-denial and self-sacrifice. You know He submitted to insult, to scorn and mockery without retaliation. When He was reviled, He reviled not again. “I came … not,” says Christ, “to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me” (John 6:38). We must have the mind of Christ. We must walk in His footsteps.

Those who have lived for others’ good and have had an eye single to the glory of God will win eternal life. Those who will not make exertion, but drift with the current, live for self. They will never hear the “Well done” spoken to them…. Precious souls are to be saved, and we have a work to do to win them to Christ.

Remember that hardships and trials are a part of the Christian legacy. Christ, the Majesty of heaven, came to our world to show us how to bear the world’s rebuffs without fainting or without retaliation. Every trial borne wisely will be a blessing to those who have them. They will lift up, but not cast down. Those who are continually seeking to shirk the hard and stony places but are seeking an easier path, a pleasanter way, will ever meet with disappointment and adversity. But if they brace the soul for trial and for duty, march forward bravely in God, they will find the path of self-denial and self-sacrifice will lead to honor and heavenly riches in the future, immortal life…. Pray much and exercise living faith, and you will surely sing the song of victory.—Letter 24, May 5, 1874, to Edson White.

From The Upward Look – Page 139

Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 2 Timothy 2:22.

Our young people need to be surrounded with wholesome, uplifting influences. They are to be kept in the love of the truth. The standard set before them should be high. Some feel a desire to be left without restraint, that they may do as they please…. The fathers and mothers … in the church are under sacred obligation to watch for the souls of their children as they that must give an account. Let none, neither parents nor the youth, begin to believe that amusements are essential, and that a careless disregard of the Holy Spirit during hours of selfish pleasure is to be lightly regarded. God will not be mocked. Let every young man, every young woman, consider, “Am I prepared today for my life to close? Have I the heart preparation that fits me to do the work which the Lord has given me to do?”

Every youth should make God’s Word his guide and daily gather from the Word the instruction that is given. If some refuse to be guided by this instruction, they are sowing seeds that the enemy has placed in their hands, and they will not care to reap the harvest of the seeds sown….

There are many things which are right in themselves, but which, perverted by Satan, prove a snare to the unwary. The gathering together of our youth for a singing exercise sounds very harmless, but it has been my experience, during half a century, that these singing exercises often prove a source of much harm to souls. If the hearts of all who attend were right with God; if all loved God supremely, and desired to keep His glory in view; if all would strive to please Him, then such exercises would not prove harmful. But usually there are present many who do not realize that they are becoming more and still more unconcerned regarding their duty to please God. Their souls become indifferent. One has an influence over another, and the indifference manifested toward spiritual things increases. God’s Holy Word is not studied diligently day by day, and because of lack of spiritual food, they grow weak in moral power….

Oh, that every member, every worker, might realize that this life is a school in which to prepare for examination by the God of heaven with regard to purity, cleanness of thought, unselfishness of action. Every word and act, every thought, is recorded on the record books of heaven.—Letter 144, May 4, 1906, to the church in Mountain View, California.

From The Upward Look – Page 138

If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. John 15:19.

The Lord our Saviour knew every phase of experience His disciples would meet and all the conflicts they would experience. The Lord Jesus Christ said to His disciples, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you” (John 15:18). We must not as Christians become fretful and impatient over coming in contact with worldly men. They have not the belief of the truth, and whatever they say or do, keep your temper.

Every time you allow your feelings to become irritated you manifest in your words that you have not that faith that works by love and sanctifies the soul. You have personal pride and a large stock of self-sufficiency, and you are not in any case prepared to connect together in business capacity or even as Christians, because your own attributes of character are not of the Bible order, to retain your position as partners.

Christians can maintain an untarnished reputation if they are Christians, which means Christlike. God has made every provision that through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ they should not fail or be discouraged in a dark, troubled future, which He knew must come. The Lord Jesus Christ is grieved for His disciples, that they must pass through manifold afflictions from the world. He prepares them for that time of trial, of great temptation to lose their faith, by presenting before their minds the hopeful part of the future. He must mingle the bright, hopeful lines with the dark. “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me” (verse 26).

Then He tells them that they will also cooperate with the Holy Spirit. The great Source of their strength—which is our changeless consolation and hope and courage—would ever be within their reach. They were to be Christ’s witnesses. “And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning” (verse 27). They should be His faithful representatives to an apostate world. While in the world they are not to be of the world, but bear a faithful testimony against the evil that is working in worldly policy plans contrary to the truth and righteousness.—Manuscript 80, May 3, 1893, “Diary.”

From The Upward Look – Page 137

Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18:3.

Read the instruction given in the eighteenth chapter of Matthew. There is nothing more positive than this in all the oracles of God; and yet God is dishonored and His cause marred by the doing of the wrongs pointed out in this chapter. These words are for you and for me, and for all who claim to be disciples of the meek and lowly Jesus. He shows us the principles upon which we are to act in all cases and under all circumstances. There is to be no striving for the supremacy. Christ teaches that in His spiritual kingdom it is not position, not outward splendor or authority, that constitutes greatness, but spiritual excellence manifested in true conversion.

We are ever to be learners of Christ. He has invited us, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and [in your own experience, as you partake of My spirit and principles] ye shall find rest unto your souls” (Matthew 11:28, 29). Christ’s yoke is a yoke of submission and obedience….

In our daily lives, before our brethren and before the world, we are to be living interpreters of the Scriptures, doing honor to Christ by revealing His meekness and His lowliness of heart. Christ’s teachings are to be to us as the leaves of the tree of life. As we eat and digest the bread of life, we shall reveal a symmetrical character. By our unity, by esteeming others better than ourselves, we are to bear to the world a living testimony of the power of the truth. We are not to fear that unless we labor to be first, self will not be properly estimated. If men had higher and greater views of Christ, if they had greater confidence in Him and less confidence in themselves, their characters would be molded and fashioned after the divine likeness. When self is hid in Christ, the Saviour will appear as the One altogether lovely and the chiefest among ten thousand.

When men submit entirely to God, eating the bread of life and drinking the water of salvation, they will grow up into Christ. Their characters are composed of that which the mind eats and drinks. Through the Word of life, which they receive and obey, they become partakers of the divine nature. Then their entire service is after the divine similitude, and Christ, not man, is exalted.—Letter 64, May 2, 1900, to “Brother and Sister Steed.”

From The Upward Look – Page 136