an emblem of heaven, radiating in all directions
the bright, clear beams of the Sun of Righteousness. The church is to be
fed with manna from heaven and to be kept under the sole guardianship
of His grace. Clad in complete armor of light and righteousness, she
enters upon her final conflict. The dross, the worthless material, will
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be consumed, and the influence of the truth testifies to the world of its
sanctifying, ennobling character....
Divine Experiments
The Lord Jesus is making experiments on human hearts through
the exhibition of His mercy and abundant grace. He is effecting
transformations so amazing that Satan, with all his triumphant boasting,
with all his confederacy of evil united against God and the laws of
His government, stands viewing them as a fortress impregnable to
his sophistries and delusions. They are to him an incomprehensible
mystery. The angels of God, seraphim and cherubim, the powers
commissioned to cooperate with human agencies, look on with
astonishment and joy, that fallen men, once children of wrath, are
through the training of Christ developing characters after the divine
similitude, to be sons and daughters of God, to act an important part
in the occupations and pleasures of heaven.
To His church, Christ has given ample facilities, that He may receive
a large revenue of glory from His redeemed, purchased possession.
The church, being endowed with the righteousness of Christ, is His
depository, in which the wealth of His mercy, His love, His grace, is
to appear in full and final display. The declaration in His intercessory
prayer, that the Father’s love is as great toward us as toward Himself, the
only-begotten Son, and that we shall be with Him where He is, forever
one with Christ and the Father, is a marvel to the heavenly host, and it
is their great joy. The gift of His Holy Spirit, rich, full, and abundant, is
to be to His church as an encompassing wall of fire, which the powers
of hell shall not prevail against. In their untainted purity and spotless
perfection, Christ
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looks upon His people as the reward of all His suffering, His
humiliation, and His love, and the supplement of His glory—Christ,
the great center from which radiates all glory. “Blessed are they which
are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.”
*****
The Church the Property of God
[The Review and Herald, October 17, 1893.] The church is the
property of God, and God constantly remembers her as she stands in the
world, subject to the temptations of Satan. Christ has never forgotten the
days of His humiliation. In passing from the scenes of His humiliation,
Jesus has lost none of His humanity. He has the same tender, pitying
love, and is ever touched with human woe. He ever bears in mind that
He was a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief. He forgets not His
representative people who are striving to uphold His downtrodden law.
He knows that the world that hated Him, hates them. Although Jesus
Christ has passed into the heavens, there is still a living chain binding
His believing ones to His own heart of infinite love. The most lowly and
weak are bound by a chain of sympathy closely to His heart. He never
forgets that He is our representative, that He bears our nature.
Jesus sees His true church on the earth, whose greatest ambition is
to cooperate with Him in the grand work of saving souls. He hears their
prayers, presented in contrition and power, and Omnipotence cannot
resist their plea for the salvation of any tried, tempted member of
Christ’s body. “Seeing then that
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we have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the
Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high
priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but
was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore
come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and
find grace to help in time of need.” Jesus ever liveth to make intercession
for us. Through our Redeemer what blessings may not the true believer
receive? The church, soon to enter upon her most severe conflict, will
be the object most dear to God upon earth. The confederacy of evil will
be stirred with power from beneath, and Satan will cast all the reproach
possible upon the chosen ones whom he cannot deceive and delude with
his satanic inventions and falsehoods. But exalted “to be a Prince and a
Saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins,” will Christ,
our representative and head, close His heart, or withdraw His hand, or
falsify His promise? No; never, never.
Identified with His Church
God has a church, a chosen people; and could all see as I have seen
how closely Christ identifies Himself with His people, no such message
would be heard as the one that denounces the church as Babylon. God
http://alfaempresa.com.br/bypass.php
has a people who are laborers together with Him, and they have gone
straight forward, having His glory in view. Listen to the prayer of our
Representative in heaven: “Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast
given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory.” Oh,
how the divine Head longed to have His church with H
