God’s Church the Light of the World
NP
1902
This manuscript is published in entirety in 18MR 208-210.
Matthew 5:13-16. “Ye are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid.” The aggressive power of the gospel is in proportion to the genuine faith and piety and example of the believers. The church is to be the Lord’s light bearer to shine amid the moral darkness of a corrupt and sinful generation. There can be nothing in the world that is so dear to God as His church. Nothing is guarded by Him with such jealous care. Nothing offends God more than for the church to be in a disunited state, because it bears to the world a very bad testimony and example. 17LtMs, Ms 176, 1902, par. 1
The Lord Jesus is the maker of the mind which man has debased and enfeebled by sin. The central power of the earth’s fallen subjects is a demon. He has set up his throne in the world. Christ proposes the means of recovery through the great work of redemption. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” [John 3:16.] The Lord Jesus, through sacrificing His life upon the cross, purposed by the agency of the Holy Spirit to bring man to see his position as a sinner and surrender his will to God’s will. He will sanctify every soul that will receive the gracious gift and give him power to become a son of God. He takes away the destructive tendencies of the sinful nature and brings the human agency into His service. Working through His Holy Spirit He sanctifies and cleanses the soul temple. Thus, though his whole powers had become deranged, man may be brought back, restored to his original relationship to God, and become an agent of good to every other man. In place of the diseased, soul-and-body-destroying principles of evil, he follows heavenly principles. Sanctified by the agency of the Holy Spirit, his influence upon his fellow man becomes aggressive to expel from the earth the evils produced through the satanic perversion of that which God designed should be only good. All these perverted powers the Lord Jesus will turn to His service, and man becomes the human channel to work the will of God to redeem and bring back a world that has broken away from [its] allegiance to God and to unite them to their proper center. 17LtMs, Ms 176, 1902, par. 2
These restoring agencies are not to be confined to a few places but extended to the ends of the earth. Oh, the depth of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! The perfect unity for which Christ prayed would be exemplified when His disciples should be one in heart, in belief of the truth, in sympathy, in true courtesy, in compassion and grace, exemplifying the union existing between the Father and the Son. John 17:16-23. This unity is the power of the truth sanctifying the soul. 17LtMs, Ms 176, 1902, par. 3
We feel deeply the need of the human agency accepting all the grace of Christ, which will be expressed in that love for one another which existed between the Father and the Son. Men and women must take themselves to task and in speech, in spirit, and in Christian forbearance manifest the miracle of grace in true conversion, which bears the credentials of Christ to the world. We are His by creation and by His redeeming power which evidences that God has sent His Son into the world to take away the sin of the world. The virtue of truth and of temperance in all things must be brought into daily practice, for this is the Lord’s plan for our growth in grace and righteousness. We are very near the end of time, and our testimony to the world is to bear the divine, vitalizing influence of the power of truth. 17LtMs, Ms 176, 1902, par. 4
The medical missionary work is the right hand of the body, and I write that this shall not be the drawing of means away from the needy places where it should go, to create in any place a large, mammoth institution that will tend to continue the dearth of establishing the memorials of God in many places. I speak to my brethren that this must not be. Small centers will be made in many places because many places will need them. Invest means carefully. The work must become established in places where there is nothing. 17LtMs, Ms 176, 1902, par. 5
Not every church in every conference may have their minds made clear and distinct as to where the work shall be established. There may be restaurants to be set in operation. Let not men have charge of these matters who will begin to enlarge when in doing some great thing they will accumulate debts that will crush out their life and their courage to do a good work. The truth is that our position is constantly changing, and we know not what sort of experience is before us. Our past and present light will not answer in all respects for the future necessities. We must have fresh food every day. Of the future we know not what shall be, except that which the Word of God maps out before us. We know not unless the matter is mapped out before us by the Holy Spirit. 17LtMs, Ms 176, 1902, par. 6