For we are labourers together with God; ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building. 1 Corinthians 3:9.

It is the Saviour’s delight to see His followers colaborers with God, receiving bountifully all the means of fruit-bearing, and giving bountifully, as workers under Him. Christ glorified His Father by the fruit He bore, and the lives of His true followers will produce the same result. Receiving and imparting, His workers will produce much fruit. “Hitherto,” Christ said to His disciples, “have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.”

The God of providence still walks among us, though His footsteps are not seen, though His positive and direct workings are not recognized or understood. The world in its human wisdom knows not God. The Lord designs that through human beings His glory, not the glory of men, shall be manifested. It is His light that shines through His agencies. Providence and revelation work in divine harmony, revealing God as first, and last, and best in everything.

Christ is drawing sinners to Himself by the cords of love, seeking to unite them to Himself, that they may be laborers together with God, not in pride and self-sufficiency, but in meekness and lowliness. When sinners are converted, God is glorified before the principalities and powers of heaven and earth. These converted ones are a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. “Ye are my witnesses,” God says. By looking to Me you are to become transformed in character. By the manifestation of Christlike forbearance and love you are to reveal this transformation.

By imparting to others the love and tenderness which God has so abundantly bestowed on us, we are to let our light shine. We should put every gift of God to the best possible use, making it a producer of good. To God we can give nothing which is not already His, but we can help the suffering ones around us. We can supply them with the necessities of this life, and at the same time speak to them of the wonderful love of God.

Christ has identified His interests with those of His people. He has plainly stated that we can minister to Him by ministering to His suffering ones. Words of encouragement and cheer, spoken when the soul is sick and the pulse of courage is low, these are regarded by the Saviour as if spoken to Himself….

We are to be in the world as a corrective influence, as salt that retains its savor. Among an unholy, impure, idolatrous generation, we are to be pure and holy, showing that the grace of Christ has power to restore in man the divine likeness. We are to exert a saving influence upon those in the world.—The Bible Echo, June 11, 1900.

From Reflecting Christ

I am the light of the world. John 9:5.

God desires us to shine as lights in the world. Darkness has covered the earth, and gross darkness the people; and Christ says to His followers, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” We are to give the light of truth to others, ever asking, ever receiving, ever imparting, working in all simplicity through the sanctification of the Spirit.

Christ pointed out the position His people should occupy when He said, “Ye are the light of the world.” From the members of the church there is to go forth an influence which shall enlighten others. The Light-giver arranges the lamps so that all in His house (the world) may be enlightened. He has an inexhaustible supply of light, and He places those who truly believe in Him where they will shine brighter and brighter. Constantly our light is to increase in brightness because we are constantly receiving light from the Source of all light. Beholding Christ, we are to become changed into His image, reflecting His light to the world.

Each soul united to Christ becomes a light in God’s house. Each is to receive and impart, letting his light shine forth in clear, bright rays. We are held responsible by God if we do not let light shine to those who are in darkness. God has given each member of His church the work of giving light to the world, and those who faithfully act their part in this work will receive an increasing supply of light to impart. By His Spirit the Lord will mold and fashion the human agent, quickening his energies, and giving him light wherewith to enlighten others.

Life always shows itself in action. If the heart is living, it will send the lifeblood to every part of the body. Those whose hearts are filled with spiritual life will not need to be urged to reveal this life. The divine life will flow forth from them in rich currents of grace. As they pray, and as they speak, God is glorified.

There is no limit to the Lord’s efficiency. He is prepared to advance and to add new territory to His kingdom; but His people must do their part in carrying forward this work. “Ask, and it shall be given you” is the promise. Our part is to rest on the word with unwavering faith, believing that God will do according to His promise. Let faith cut its way through the shadows of the enemy. When a questioning doubt arises, go to Christ, and let the soul be encouraged by communion with Him. The redemption He has purchased for us is complete. The offering He made was plenteous and without stint. Heaven has a never-failing supply of help for all who need help.—The Bible Echo, June 11, 1900.

From Reflecting Christ

Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. 1 Peter 2:9.

The church is God’s appointed agency for the salvation of men. It was organized for service, and its mission is to carry the gospel to the world. From the beginning it has been God’s plan that through His church shall be reflected to the world His fullness and His sufficiency. The members of the church, those whom He has called out of darkness into His marvelous light, are to show forth His glory. The church is the repository of the riches of the grace of Christ; and through the church will eventually be made manifest, even to “the principalities and powers in heavenly places” (Ephesians 3:10), the final and full display of the love of God.

Many and wonderful are the promises recorded in the Scriptures regarding the church. “Mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people” (Isaiah 56:7). “I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing” (Ezekiel 34:26)…. “Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me” (Isaiah 49:16).

The church is God’s fortress, His city of refuge, which He holds in a revolted world. Any betrayal of the church is treachery to Him who has bought mankind with the blood of His only-begotten Son. From the beginning, faithful souls have constituted the church on earth. In every age the Lord has had His watchmen, who have borne a faithful testimony to the generation in which they lived. These sentinels gave the message of warning; and when they were called to lay off their armor, others took up the work. God brought these witnesses into covenant relation with Himself, uniting the church on earth with the church in heaven. He has sent forth His angels to minister to His church, and the gates of hell have not been able to prevail against His people.

Through centuries of persecution, conflict, and darkness, God has sustained His church. Not one cloud has fallen upon it that He has not prepared for; not one opposing force has risen to counterwork His work, that He has not foreseen. All has taken place as He predicted. He has not left His church forsaken, but has traced in prophetic declarations what would occur, and that which His Spirit inspired the prophets to foretell has been brought about. All His purposes will be fulfilled. His law is linked with His throne, and no power of evil can destroy it. Truth is inspired and guarded by God; and it will triumph over all opposition.—The Acts of the Apostles, 9-12.

From Reflecting Christ

And the child Samuel grew on, and was in favour both with the Lord, and also with men. 1 Samuel 2:26.

The fulfillment of Hannah’s vow to dedicate her child to the Lord was not deferred until he could be presented at the tabernacle. From the earliest dawn of intellect she trained his infant mind to love and reverence God, and to regard himself as the Lord’s. By every familiar object surrounding him she sought to lead his thoughts up to the Creator.

When separated from her child, the faithful mother’s solicitude did not cease. He was the subject of her prayers. Every year she made him a little coat, and when she came with her husband to the yearly sacrifice, she presented it to the child as a token of her love. With every stitch of that coat she had breathed a prayer that he might be pure, noble, and true. She did not ask that he might be great, but earnestly pleaded that he might be good.

Her faith and devotion were rewarded. She saw her son, in the simplicity of childhood, walking in the love and fear of God. She saw him growing up to manhood in favor with God and man, humble, reverent, prompt in duty, and earnest in the service of his divine Master….

Would that every mother could realize how great are her duties and her responsibilities, and how great will be the reward of faithfulness. The mother’s daily influence upon her children is preparing them for everlasting life or eternal death. She exercises in her home a power more decisive than the minister in the desk, or even the king upon his throne. The day of God will reveal how much the world owes to godly mothers for men who have been unflinching advocates of truth and reform—men who have been bold to do and dare, who have stood unshaken amid trials and temptations; men who chose the high and holy interests of truth and the glory of God, before worldly honor or life itself.

When the Judgment shall sit, and the books shall be opened; when the “well done” of the great Judge is pronounced, and the crown of immortal glory is placed upon the brow of the victor, many will raise their crowns in sight of the assembled universe, and pointing to their mother say, “She made me all I am through the grace of God. Her instruction, her prayers, have been blessed to my eternal salvation.”

Samuel became a great man in the fullest sense, as God estimates character…. Young men should be trained to stand firm for the right amid the prevailing iniquity, to do all in their power to arrest the progress of vice, and to promote virtue, purity, and true manliness. The impressions made upon the mind and character in early life are deep and abiding.—The Signs of the Times, November 3, 1881.

From Reflecting Christ

Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. Genesis 26:5.

[Abraham’s] own example, the silent influence of his daily life, was a constant lesson. The unswerving integrity, the benevolence and unselfish courtesy, which had won the admiration of kings, were displayed in the home. There was a fragrance about the life, a nobility and loveliness of character, which revealed to all that he was connected with Heaven. He did not neglect the soul of the humblest servant. In his household there was not one law for the master and another for the servant; a royal way for the rich and another for the poor. All were treated with justice and compassion, as inheritors with him of the grace of life.

“He will command his … household.” There would be no sinful neglect to restrain the evil propensities of his children, no weak, unwise, indulgent favoritism; no yielding of his conviction of duty to the claims of mistaken affection. Abraham would not only give right instruction, but he would maintain the authority of just and righteous laws.

How few there are in our day who follow this example! On the part of too many parents there is a blind and selfish sentimentalism, miscalled love, which is manifested in leaving children, with their unformed judgment and undisciplined passions, to the control of their own will. This is the veriest cruelty to the youth, and a great wrong to the world. Parental indulgence causes disorder in families and in society. It confirms in the young the desire to follow inclination, instead of submitting to the divine requirements. Thus they grow up with a heart averse to doing God’s will, and they transmit their irreligious, insubordinate spirit to their children and children’s children. Like Abraham, parents should command their households after them. Let obedience to parental authority be taught and enforced as the first step in obedience to the authority of God….

Those who seek to lessen the claims of God’s holy law are striking directly at the foundation of the government of families and nations. Religious parents, failing to walk in His statutes, do not command their household to keep the way of the Lord. The law of God is not made the rule of life. The children, as they make homes of their own, feel under no obligation to teach their children what they themselves have never been taught. And this is why there are so many godless families….

Not until parents themselves walk in the law of the Lord with perfect hearts will they be prepared to command their children after them. A reformation in this respect is needed—a reformation which shall be deep and broad.—Patriarchs and Prophets, 142, 143.

From Reflecting Christ