EGW
The cross of Calvary is to be a constant reminder of the future, nobler world, the mansions that Jesus has gone to prepare for all who love him. We are to be enthusiasts. And as we by faith view the glories within the temple of God, we shall seek to awaken enthusiasm in others, a desire to behold things unseen. Our work is to attract minds away from earth to heaven; to take others with us as companions, to walk the path that is cast up for the ransomed of the Lord. The children of the Heavenly King are to move among men, not as citizens of the world, but as citizens of the kingdom above. We are pilgrims and strangers in this world, seeking a better country, even a heavenly. “And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.” ST August 17, 1891, par. 1
We do not realize the claims of redemption. Christ has purchased us by his own precious life. His tender care has been over us every moment of our existence. Then has he not a right to our service? He has the claims of redemption, but we have lost the sense of what it means. Redemption has been accepted in a vague way by us, but it seems like a long-past transaction, when we were lost to heaven, lost to God, condemned by the law, without hope. But here we are with the bright rays of the Sun of Righteousness shining upon us. Look at the cross of Calvary. Shall its solemn mysteries fade from our minds? It is a theme that should quicken us into gratitude, that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” How can the church look upon these words, and yet be slothful servants? ST August 17, 1891, par. 2
The Lord has work for all to do. God intends that men shall be laborers together with him. He has laid fathers and mothers under tribute to him, to begin the work in their homes in a decided, Christ-like spirit, that the love of Christ may win their children. They must do everything possible to save their loved ones. Christ is constantly making intercession for the fallen race. He will furnish the grace, the Holy Spirit, if human agencies will become his channels to communicate the same to the world. The benevolence of Christ, his yearning love for souls, is deep and full. Where are the workers to help him? Where is the money to sustain them in their fields of labor? ST August 17, 1891, par. 3
The cross of Christ is to be the great center round which everything must revolve. Everything else must be in subordination to it. The cross is planted midway between divinity and humanity, between heaven and earth. It never moves nearer the earth. All things concerning the salvation of man must lie in the shadow of the cross. Heavenly intelligences,*The original publication had the spelling “intelligencies.” uniting with the earthly, bow to this central attraction, and voices from heaven and earth unfold to the universe the plan of redemption. The cross is not to lose its significance to either world. All property, all wealth, that finds its way into the Lord's treasury, finds its true place in the arrangement of God. ST August 17, 1891, par. 4
The truth must ever struggle with error in order to lift high the standard of God's law, and to exalt Christ, because he bore its penalty that he might save man, and yet vindicate the immutability of the law. If Christians are like Christ, they will not hoard their Lord's money, or bind it up in worldly projects, but will invest their all in the cause of God and bring an ample revenue of glory to lay at the feet of their Redeemer. ST August 17, 1891, par. 5
Brethren and sisters, will you work for selfish purposes? Will you let the world with its selfish aims and principles come between you and your God? Will you serve mammon? Christ plainly declares that you cannot serve God and mammon. Will you subscribe your name on the pages of the world's record, or will you relate yourself to God, and let him write your name in the record books of heaven, to be immortalized in the universe of God? Christ has the first claim on you. “Ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.[”] ST August 17, 1891, par. 6
I entreat you, spring into action at once, and be all that the name Christian signifies. You will then have no desire to live for self. You will have the high distinction of living wholly for Christ. By his mediatorial right all things belong to Christ. For him and by him all things were created. But when man sinned, the Son of God chose to assume human nature, and come to our world to die for the guilty race. By the cross of Calvary was revealed to the sinless universe the character of Satan. In putting to death through human agencies the Lord of life and glory, Satan made manifest the wickedness of his deceptive character. Christ had cast up the immeasurable sum of guilt to be canceled because of sin, and he gathered to his dying soul this vast responsibility, taking the sins of the whole world upon himself. Human nature was to him a robe of suffering; and when the crisis came, when he yielded himself a victim to Satan's rage, when he hung agonizing upon the cross, dying the cruelest, most ignominious of deaths, the hosts of evil exulted, but man was saved. ST August 17, 1891, par. 7
While we contemplate the cross, the Son of God assuming the mass of human guilt, the mystery of redemption seems wonderful. Jesus points us to the love of God; the Father provided this propitiation because he loved us, that there might be a medium through which he could be reconciled to man and man to him. And our Lord, having committed himself to the wonderful work of redemption, would withhold nothing necessary to the completion of his plan. He poured out all heaven to man in that one great gift. And then he completed the work by surrounding man with unlimited blessings, favor upon favor, gift upon gift, opening to our view all the treasures of the future world. ST August 17, 1891, par. 8
But what of man? Is he so palsied with sin that he is incapable of appreciating the elements of a divine life? Christ draws man, but, alas! how few respond to the influence. Human selfishness is the barrier to eternal life. How can Heaven look upon any disloyalty or rebellion against the authority of God? It is stirred with indignation at the greatness of the guilt of man, the widespread rebellion that would turn all things created by him for the benefit of man, into weapons of war against him, exalting human wisdom above God's, and human achievements above the works of God. Wherever we may go, into business places, into national councils and government offices, God is there to assert his original claims. He declares, “I made all things; all are mine.” The cross was planted midway between heaven and earth in order that Christ might reach both ways, and bridge the gulf that sin had made between God and man. ST August 17, 1891, par. 9