Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. Ephesians 4:29.

Consecration is a very simple thing. When brought daily into our individual life in practice, we shall know far more by consecration than by trusting to an experience. Each day, each hour, let the heart go out after God: “Here, Lord, am I, Thy property; take me, use me today. I lay all my plans at Thy feet; I will have no way of my own in the matter. My time is Thine; my whole life is Thine.” Let the heart be constantly going forth to God for strength, for grace every moment.

Let not one evil word escape our lips, because our lips, our voice, belong to the Lord, and must be consecrated to the Lord and to His service. These lips must not dishonor Jesus, for they belong to Him. He has bought them and I must speak nothing that will offend Jesus. My ears must be closed to evil. Thus day by day we can consecrate ourselves to God. The ears must not be defiled by listening to any gossip that faultfinding ones would have us hear, for I not only cause them to sin in allowing them to talk of others’ faults, but I sin myself in listening to them. I can prevent much evil speaking in thus having ears consecrated to God. I can say before the evil is done, “Let us pray,” then ask God to enlighten both our minds to understand our true relation to one another and our true relation to God.

Let us open our hearts to Jesus with all the simplicity that a child would tell his earthly parents his perplexities and the things that trouble him. Thus we can restrain evil not only in ourselves but in others. Practice consecration to God daily; then there will be no danger in the life of service to God. We want gratitude brought into our life, words, and works.

Every word, every thought of complaining indulged in, is a reflection upon God, a dishonor to His name. We want our hearts attuned to His praise, full of thankfulness, talking of His love, our hearts softened and subdued by the grace of Christ, full of sweetness and peace and fragrance. We shall be patient, kind, tenderhearted, pitiful, courteous, even when dealing with those who are disagreeable. Oh, how many precious blessings we lose because we esteem self altogether too highly and have so little esteem for others….

We must not demerit ourselves and lightly esteem the ability given us of God, neither should we overestimate our own importance and trust to our human ability.—Letter 7a, August 11, 1886, to a husband and wife working in England.

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And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. Luke 4:22.

This morning my heart is drawn out to God in earnest longing of soul for the Holy Spirit’s guidance. What words can I speak that will be appreciated and understood? When Christ was in our world He said to the Pharisees and scribes, “Why do ye not understand my words and appreciate them?” They were continually placing their own construction upon the plain words of truth that fell from His lips….

With clearness and power He spoke the words that were to come down to our time as a treasure of goodness. What precious words they were, and how full of encouragement! From His divine lips there fell with fullness and abundant assurance the benedictions that showed Him to be the fountain of all goodness, and that it was His prerogative to bless and impress the minds of all present. He was engaged in His peculiar, sacred province, and the treasures of eternity were at His command. In the disposal of them He knew no control. It was no robbery with Him to act in the office of God. In His blessings He embraced those who were to compose His kingdom in this world. He had brought into the world every blessing essential to the happiness and joy of every soul, and before that vast assembly He presented the riches of the grace of heaven, the accumulated treasures of the eternal, everlasting Father….

There were occasions when Christ spoke with an authority that sent His words home with irresistible force, with an overwhelming sense of the greatness of the Speaker, and the human agencies shrank into nothingness in comparison with the One before them. They were deeply moved. Their minds were impressed that He was repeating the command from the most excellent glory. As He summoned the world to listen, they were spellbound and entranced, and conviction came to their minds. Every word made for itself a place, and the hearers believed and received the words that they had no power to resist. Every word He uttered seemed to the hearers as the life 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 bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me” (John 1:14, 15). Yes, He was before John. Enshrouded in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, He led the children of Israel through the wilderness. “And of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.”—Manuscript 118, August 10, 1905, “A Divine Saviour.”

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Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. Matthew 11:29.

Those who would at last be received into heaven as members of the royal family must here give themselves, body, soul, and spirit, to the service of Him who paid the price of their redemption. All that we have and are belongs to the Lord. “Ye are not your own,” the apostle declares. “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20)….

Have you consecrated yourself wholly to the Lord? Can He use you as a vessel unto honor? Are you faithfully acting your part in His cause? To every man God has given his work. He expects every believer to cooperate with Him in the work of soul-saving. When His cause is suffering for means, how can anyone set a price on his services, refusing to take up the cross daily, and practice self-denial for Christ’s sake?

The fulfillment of the promise that we shall be joint-heirs with Christ rests upon our willingness to deny self. When Christ takes possession of His kingdom, it will be those who on this earth have followed Him in self-denial and sacrifice who will receive the reward of everlasting life.

Christ’s call to sacrifice and unreserved surrender means crucifixion of self. In order to obey this call, we must have unquestioning faith in Him as the perfect Example, and we must have a clear realization that we are to represent Him to the world. Those who work for Christ are to work in His lines. They are to live His life. His call to unreserved surrender is to be to them supreme. They are to allow no earthly tie or interest to prevent them from giving Him the homage of their hearts and the service of their lives. Earnestly and untiringly they are to labor with God to save perishing souls from the power of the tempter.

Those who are thus connected with Christ learn constantly of Him, passing through the successive stages of progress in Christian experience. Difficulty and perplexity come to them, that they may learn more perfectly the will and way of Christ. But they pray and believe, and by exercise their faith increases.

“Take my yoke upon you,” Christ said, as in human nature He lived and worked upon this earth. Constantly He wore the yoke of submission, meeting the difficulties that human beings must meet, bearing the trials that they must bear. The enemy will continually assault us as he assaulted Christ, bringing against us strong temptation. But for everyone there is a way of escape.—Manuscript 88, August 9, 1903, “Be Not Weary in Well-doing.”

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Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. Jeremiah 7:23.

The Lord desires everyone to work for his own spiritual and eternal good. This can only be done as we obey the lessons Christ has given. If we gain the eternal reward, we must follow the example of Christ, our Pattern, who did good and only good with the Lord’s entrusted talents. He cheerfully gave up His life to ransom a wicked, apostate race. But today selfishness, worldliness, pride, and self-indulgence are constantly consuming the means entrusted to those who claim to be Christians. They are misappropriating the money that the Lord requires them to use to bring many sons and daughters to Him.

When Christians work as the Head of the church worked, they will not be constantly contriving how they can use the Lord’s money for their own pleasure. Is it not honor enough for them to be cooperating with the world’s Redeemer? Worldly schemes, worldly investments, made to please and glorify self, bring no returns worth the having. God condemns them, and what God condemns is not safe for any living soul to practice.

“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). Here is an experience to be gained that will not prove disappointing. The mighty God, who through Jesus Christ created man, calls upon every soul to prove Him, and see what this will bring to all who do this. They are tested and tried, and in conformity to the will of God, they realize what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of their Creator.

Worldly conformity is hindered and made impossible through obedience to the plain, simple “Thus saith the Lord.” Gospel sanctification and transformation of soul, body, and spirit sends the feet of all such through the strait gate into the narrow way, the path cast up for the ransomed of the Lord to walk in. In cooperation with God, they work as Christ worked for the souls and bodies of their fellow men….

The Lord calls upon you … to look at these things with eyes enlightened not by worldly advisers, but by His Spirit. Take the Word as it reads…. Place yourself where the riches of the glory of heaven shall shine before you and behind you and on every side of you, because you are all light in the Lord.—Letter 110, August 8, 1899, to a woman of means.

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But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. Proverbs 4:18.

Christ’s love in the heart, revealing through the life its wondrous power—this is the greatest miracle that can be performed before a fallen, quarreling world. Let us try to work this miracle, not in our own power, but in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, whose we are and whom we serve. Let us put on Christ, and the miracle-working power of His grace will be so plainly revealed in the transformation of character that the world will be convinced that God has sent His Son into the world to make men as angels in character and life.

Those who truly believe in Christ sit together with Him in heavenly places. Let us accept the badge of Christianity. This is not an outward sign, not the wearing of a cross or a crown, but it is something that reveals the union of man with God. Let us “put off the old man with his deeds; and … put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him” (Colossians 3:9, 10). The beauty of holiness is revealed as Christians draw near together, blending in Christlike love.

“Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having an high priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching” (Hebrews 10:19-25).

There is only one true religion, only one way to heaven; only one light to illuminate the way as the pilgrims press on. As we follow on to know the Lord, we shall acknowledge at every step that Christ is the Light of the world, that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life; and we shall find that the path that He bids us follow is “as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day” (Proverbs 4:18)….

The Lord is good and greatly to be praised…. How blest, how doubly blest, is the home in which father, mother, and children are consecrated to the service of Christ.—Letter 126, August 7, 1902, to an evangelist in New York City.

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