For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. Matthew 6:14.

“Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors,” Christ taught us to pray. But it is most difficult even for those who claim to be followers of Jesus to forgive as He forgave us. The true spirit of forgiveness is so little practiced, and so many interpretations are placed upon Christ’s requirement, that its force and beauty are lost sight of. We have very uncertain views of the great mercy and loving-kindness of God. He is full of compassion and forgiveness and freely pardons when we truly repent and confess our sins…. We must bring into our characters the love and sympathy expressed in Christ’s life….

If we have received the gift of God and have a knowledge of Jesus Christ, we have a work to do for others. We must imitate the long-suffering of God toward us. The Lord requires of us the same treatment toward His followers that we receive of Him. We are to exercise patience and to be kind, even though they do not meet our expectations. The Lord expects us to be pitiful and loving, to have sympathetic hearts. He desires us to show the fruits of the grace of God in our deportment one to another. Christ did not say, You may tolerate your neighbor, but, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” This means a great deal more than professing Christians carry out in their daily life….

Christ proceeds to teach that the principles of God’s law reach even to the intents and purposes of the mind. And He plainly states that if we faithfully keep the ten precepts, we shall love our neighbor as ourselves….

A consistent religious life, holy conversation, a godly example, true-hearted benevolence, mark the representatives of Christ. They will labor to pluck sinners as brands from the burning; they will perform every duty faithfully. Thus they will become a beacon light.

Reader, we are nearing the judgment. Talents have been lent us on trust. Let none of us be at last condemned as slothful servants. Send forth the words of life to those in darkness. Let the church be true to her trust. Her earnest, humble prayers will make the presentation of truth effectual, and Christ will be glorified.—The Review and Herald, May 19, 1910.

From From the Heart

Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me. Revelation 22:12.

Look upon the world today. Is the voice of prayer heard amidst the din of confusion? Altars are erected, but it is not to God that the sacrifices are offered. Deceivers, robbers, and murderers are many. Pride of ancestry and pride of wealth minister to the work of soul destruction. Avarice, sensuality, malice—these are the attributes that bear sway. Thousands are standing on the brink of perdition. Do you not see them, many of them lost, eternally lost, whilst professing Christians sleep the sleep of indifference?

Earnest, self-sacrificing men and women are needed, men and women who will go to God, and with strong crying and tears plead for the precious souls that are going to ruin…. Christ gave His life to save sinners, and He says to His followers, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end.” He has laid out before us the work to be done and has declared that He will give power for the accomplishment of this work….

The work is fast closing up, and on every side wickedness is increasing. We have but a short time in which to work. God is not willing that any should perish. He has provided abundantly for the salvation of all. If His people had gone forth as they should, giving the invitation of mercy, many souls would have been won to Christ. Let us awake from spiritual slumber and consecrate all that we have and are to the Lord. His Spirit will abide with true missionaries, furnishing them with power for service. God is an overflowing fountain of efficiency and strength. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. When this power is utilized, it will be found to be more than sufficient to meet the power of the enemy.

It is impossible for those of us who believe in Christ to see the work that needs to be done and not do anything. Daily the church is to receive from heaven the healing balm of God’s grace to impart to the needy and suffering. The church of God is weighted with the most sacred responsibilities and the most glorious privileges. All who believe the message of Christ’s soon coming will go forth to do something for the Master…. In practical obedience to the divine command, their confidence will increase and their talents will multiply.—Signs of the Times, November 28, 1906.

From From the Heart

Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth. Revelation 14:6.

The fourteenth chapter of Revelation outlines the work that is to be done by the people of God just before the second advent of our Savior. Three messages are there represented, which must go to all the inhabitants of the world.

John writes of an angel which he saw flying “in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people…. And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen…. And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God….”

These three angels represent the people who accept the light of God’s messages and go forth as His agents to sound the warning throughout the length and breadth of the earth. Christ declared to His followers, “Ye are the light of the world.” To every soul that accepts Jesus, the cross of Calvary speaks: “Behold the worth of the soul. ‘Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.’” Nothing is to be permitted to hinder this work. It is the all-important work for this time, and it is to be far-reaching as eternity….

In this day, God has called His church, as He called ancient Israel, to stand as a light in the earth. By the mighty cleaver of truth—the messages of the first, second, and third angels—He has separated a people from the churches and from the world, to bring them into a sacred nearness to Himself. He has made them the depositaries of His law and has committed to them the great truths of prophecy for this time. Like the holy oracles committed to ancient Israel, these are a sacred trust to be communicated to the world….

In the issue of the contest, all Christendom will be divided into two great classes—those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and those who worship the beast and his image and receive his mark…. The prophet of Patmos beholds “them that had gotten the victory over the beast, … having the harps of God” and singing the “song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb.”—Signs of the Times, January 25, 1910.

From From the Heart

I am the way, the truth, and the life. John 14:6.

If the churches established in our world would follow Christ, they would pray as Christ prayed, and the result of their prayers would be seen in the conversion of souls; for when communication is opened up between souls and God, a divine influence is shed upon the world. When the members of the church abide in Christ, they deliver an effective testimony in their lives. They fulfill the words of Christ, “Ye are my witnesses.” By their influence all the day long, by precept and example, they say, “Come,” “behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” …

Jesus is the fountainhead of knowledge, the treasure-house of truth, and He longed to open before His disciples treasures of infinite value, that they in turn might open them to others. But because of their blindness He could not unfold to them the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. He said to them, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.” The minds of the disciples were to a great degree influenced by the traditions and maxims of the Pharisees, who placed the commandments of God on a level with their own inventions and doctrines. The scribes and Pharisees did not receive or teach the Scriptures in their original purity, but interpreted the language of the Bible in such a way as to make it express sentiments and injunctions that God had never given. They put a mystical construction upon the writing of the Old Testament and made indistinct that which the infinite God had made clear and plain. These learned men placed before the people their own ideas and made patriarchs and prophets responsible for things they never uttered. These false teachers buried the precious jewels of truth beneath the rubbish of their own interpretations and maxims, and covered up the plainest specifications of prophecy regarding Christ….

When the Author of truth came to our world and was the living interpreter of His own laws, the Scriptures were opened to His hearers like a new revelation; for He taught as one having authority, as one who knew whereof He was speaking. The minds of people were confused with false teaching to such an extent that they could not fully grasp the meaning of divine truth, and yet they were attracted to the great Teacher and said, “Never man spake like this man.”—Signs of the Times, September 11, 1893.

From From the Heart

Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:20.

The professed church of God may be possessed of wealth, education, and knowledge of doctrine, and may say by her attitude, “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing”; but if its members are devoid of inward holiness, they cannot be the light of the world. The church is to reflect light into the moral darkness of the world as the stars reflect light into the darkness of the night. These who have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof do not reflect light into the world and will not have power to reach the hearts of the unsaved. Without vital connection with Christ the value of truth cannot be made to appear in good fruit in the world; but if Christ is formed within, the hope of glory, His saving grace will be manifested in sympathy and love for perishing souls.

Every soul truly converted to God will be a light in the world. Bright, clear rays from the Sun of Righteousness will shine forth through human agents who use their entrusted ability to do good; for they will cooperate with heavenly agencies and labor with Christ for the conversion of souls. They will diffuse the light which Christ sheds upon them. The Sun of Righteousness shining in their hearts will shine forth, enlightening and blessing others.

The rays of heaven shining from human agents will exert a subduing influence upon those whom Christ is drawing to Himself. The church is weak before the angels of heaven unless power is revealed through its members for the conversion of those who are perishing. Unless the church is the light of the world, it is darkness. But of the true followers of Christ it is written, “We are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.”

The church may be composed of those who are poor and uneducated; but if they have learned of Christ the science of prayer, the church will have power to move the arm of Omnipotence. The true people of God will have an influence that will tell upon hearts. It is not the wealth or the educated ability which the members of the church may possess that constitutes their efficiency…. It is when the Sun of Righteousness shines forth from the people of God that Christ is glorified and His kingdom advanced. It is then that they are chosen vessels of salvation and are fitted for the Master’s use.—Signs of the Times, September 11, 1893.

From From the Heart