Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. Psalm 42:5.

Dear Husband: I received your telegram….

Satan will not sift the chaff, because he gains nothing in this. He sifts the wheat. The devil will not try and tempt and persecute those whom he is sure of, because [they are] living in known transgression of the law of God. Those who have enlisted in the army of the Lord standing under the bloodstained banner of Prince Emmanuel, Satan will seek to harass and destroy. Christians will meet and have many and severe conflicts with the wily foe, who is merciless. He will bring them into the most difficult places and then exult in their distress. But, thank God, Jesus lives to make intercession for every one of us. Our safety is in committing ourselves to God and resting by faith in His merits who has said, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Hebrews 13:5).

I rejoice that Jesus has a firm hold of us. Our grasp is feeble and easily broken, but our safety depends upon the firm hold Jesus has upon us. I rejoice in Jesus today. We have, my husband, walked for more than thirty years side by side in the trials and conflicts of life amid temptations and the buffetings of Satan, his arrows aimed at us to wound and destroy; but Jesus has been our defense. Satan has been repulsed. The Spirit of the Lord has lifted up a standard for us against the enemy. Our sun is westering, but it will not set in darkness. Jesus ever liveth to make intercession for us. We will in the latter days of our pilgrimage repose in God and wait upon Him. If we walk with God, our faith will grow brighter and brighter unto the perfect day, and the reward of the faithful will be ours at last.

My spirit at times is triumphant in God. I see in prospect just before us the eternal weight of glory. We have not earned it. Oh, no, Jesus earned it for us and it is a free gift, not for any righteousness and goodness of our own. Let us, in the few probationary hours left us, walk humbly with God and do the work He has committed to our hands with fidelity.

I am glad you are in the grand old mountains [of Colorado]. I mean to be there soon. To be thus brought near to God through His created works is refreshing and inspiring…. While viewing the grand works of God’s creation, we may walk with God. We may talk with Him. To have God as our companion, as our guest, will be the most exalted honor that heaven can bestow upon us.

May the Lord bless you all is the prayer of your Ellen.—Letter 42, July 27, 1878, to James White, General Conference president.

From The Upward Look – Page 222

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. Luke 10:27.

The question which the lawyer put to Christ was one of vital consequence. The Pharisees who had prompted the lawyer to ask this question were expecting the Lord Jesus to answer it in such a way that they could find something against Him whereby they might accuse and condemn Him before the people. The self-possession of Christ, the wisdom and authority by which He spake, was something they could not interpret.

When this question was asked by the lawyer, Christ knew that the suggestion came from His bitterest enemies, who were setting a trap to catch Him in His words. The Lord Jesus responded to the question by placing the burden upon the lawyer to answer his own question before that crowd. “What is written in the law? how readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live” (Luke 10:26-28). Obedience to the commandments of God is the price of eternal life.

There is a very broad and deep work to be accomplished in fallen humanity. This is the true interpretation of genuine conversion. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The answer to this question, as given by the lawyer, comprehends the entire duty of man, who is seeking eternal life. The lawyer was unable to evade the question so directly and pointedly expressed as to the conditions of eternal life. He understood its bearings, and the necessity of answering the demands of the law in loving God supremely, and his neighbor as himself. He knew he had not done either of these, and the conviction of his neglect to obey the first four commandments and the last six commandments plainly specified in the words of the holy oracles of God was impressed by the Holy Spirit upon his heart. He saw himself weighed in the balances of the sanctuary and found wanting. He did not serve God supremely, because he had not loved Him supremely, with his whole heart, with all his soul, and all his strength, and with all his mind. Lacking decidedly in this requirement of Jehovah’s law, he failed decidedly to love his neighbor as himself.

Thus, before the multitude he himself had given in concise words the gospel conditions of eternal life for every member of the human family, who are standing before God today.—Manuscript 45, July 26, 1900, “What Is the Chaff to Wheat?”

From The Upward Look – Page 221

Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. Matthew 10:34.

The peace that Christ calls His peace, and which He bequeathed to His disciples, is not a peace which prevents all divisions; but it is a peace which is given and enjoyed in the midst of divisions. The peace that the faithful defender of the cause of Christ has is the consciousness that he is doing the will of God and reflecting His glory in good works. It is an internal rather than an external peace. Without are wars and fightings through the opposition of avowed enemies, and the coldness and suspicion of those even who claim to be friends.

Christ enjoins upon His followers to “love your enemies, … do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). He would have us love those who oppress us and do us harm. We must not express in words and acts the spirit they manifest, but improve every opportunity to do them good.

But while we are required to be Christlike toward those who are our enemies, we must not, in order to have peace, cover up the faults of those we see in error. Jesus, the world’s Redeemer, never purchased peace by covering iniquity, or by anything like compromise. Though His heart was constantly overflowing with love for the whole human race, He was never indulgent to their sins. He was too much their friend to remain silent while they were pursuing a course which would ruin their souls—the souls He had purchased with His own blood. He was a stern reprover of all vice, and His peace was the consciousness of having done the will of His Father, rather than a condition of things that existed as the result of having done His duty.

He labored that man should be true to himself in being all that God would have him, and true to his higher and eternal interest. Living in a world marred and seared with the curse brought upon it by disobedience, he [man] could not be at peace with it unless he left it unwarned, uninstructed, and unrebuked. This would be to purchase peace at the neglect of duty.

Everyone who loves Jesus and the souls for whom He died will follow after the things that make for peace. But His followers are to take special care lest in their efforts to prevent discord, the truth is surrendered, lest in warding off divisions, they make a sacrifice of its principles. True brotherhood can never be maintained by compromising principle. As surely as Christians approach the Christlike model, … so surely will they experience the strength and venom of that old serpent the devil.—Manuscript 23b, July 25, 1896, “How to Secure Peace.”

From The Upward Look – Page 220

But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope. Psalm 130:4, 5.

There have been sins among us as among ancient Israel, but thank God we have had an open door which no man can shut. Men may say, “I forgive all the injuries you have done to me,” but their forgiveness would not blot out one sin. But the Voice sounding from Calvary—“My son, my daughter, thy sins be forgiven thee”—is all-efficacious. That word alone has power and awakens the gratitude in the grateful heart. We have a Mediator. There is but one channel of forgiveness and that channel is ever open, and through that channel a rich flood of divine mercy and forgiveness comes pouring down to us….

Many have expressed wonder that God demanded so many slain victims in sacrificial offerings of the Jews, but it was to rivet in their minds the great and solemn truth that without shedding of blood there was no remission of sins. A lesson was embodied in every sacrifice, impressed in every ceremony, solemnly preached by their priests in holy office and inculcated by God Himself—this great truth that through the blood of Christ alone there is forgiveness of sins….

I wish I could present this matter before our people just as I view it—the great offering made in behalf of man. Justice asked for the sufferings of a man. Christ, equal with God, gave the sufferings of a God. He needed no atonement Himself. It was for man—all for man…. His depth of agony was proportionate to the dignity and grandeur of His character. Never shall we see and comprehend the intense anguish of the sufferings of the spotless Lamb of God until we feel how deep is the pit from which we have been delivered, how grievous the sin of which humanity is guilty, and by faith grasp the full and entire pardon.

Here is where thousands are failing. They do not really believe that Jesus pardons them individually. They fail to take God at His word. He has assured us that He is faithful that hath promised to forgive us and be just to His own law. His mercy is not wanting in anything. Were there one defective link in the chain, then we are hopelessly ruined in our sins…. There is not one flaw in it, not one missing link. Oh, precious redemption! Why do we not bring this great truth more fully into our lives? How broad it is, that God for Christ’s sake forgives us—me, even me—the moment we ask Him to, in living faith, believing that He is fully able to do this.—Letter 85, July 24, 1886, to Uriah Smith, editor of the Review and Herald.

From The Upward Look – Page 219

Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. Jude 24.

There is a real work to be wrought in us. Constantly we must submit our will to God’s will, our way to God’s way. Our peculiar ideas will strive constantly for the supremacy, but we must make God all and in all. We are not free from the failings of humanity, but we must constantly strive to be free from these failings, not to be perfect in our own eyes, but perfect in every good work. We must not dwell on the dark side. Our souls must not rest in self, but in the One who is all and in all.

By beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, we are actually to be changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. We expect too little, and we receive according to our faith. We are not to cling to our own ways, our own plans, our own ideas; we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, that we may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Besetting sins are to be conquered, and evil habits overcome. Wrong dispositions and feelings are to be rooted out, and holy tempers and emotions begotten in us by the Spirit of God.

This the Word of God explicitly teaches, but the Lord cannot work in us to will and to do of His good pleasure unless we crucify self, with the affections and lusts, at every step. If we try to work in our own way, we shall grievously fail…. We have a great work to do, and if we are laborers together with God, the ministering angels will cooperate with us in the work…. Then let us lay hold of this mighty power by living faith, praying and believing, trusting and working. Then God will do that which only God can do….

Self is the most difficult thing we have to manage. In laying off burdens, let us not forget to lay self at the feet of Christ. Hand yourself over to Jesus, to be molded and fashioned by Him, that you may be made vessels unto honor. Your temptations, your ideas, your feelings, must all be laid at the foot of the cross. Then the soul is ready to listen to words of divine instruction. Jesus will give you to drink of the water which flows from the river of God. Under the softening and subduing influence of His Spirit your coldness and listlessness will disappear. Christ will be in you a well of water, springing up into everlasting life….

Let the sanctifying power of truth be expressed in your life and revealed in your character. Let Christ mold you, as clay is molded in the hands of the potter.—Letter 57, July 23, 1887, to J. H. Durland and A. A. John, workers in England.

From The Upward Look – Page 218