To Lift the Standard High, July 27

We Must Have the Courage of Our Convictions

Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people. Isaiah 62:10.SD 215.1

Perplexities will increase; but let us, as believers in God, encourage one another. Let us not lower the standard, but keep it lifted high, looking to Him who is the Author and the Finisher of our faith.^{64Letter 2, 1912.}SD 215.2

We all need greater Christian courage, that we may uplift the standard on which is inscribed the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. We are to make no compromise with the leaders of rebellion.... We must have a firm determination to do the Lord's will at all times and in all places.^{65The Review and Herald, May 9, 1899.}SD 215.3

Let the truth for this time be cordially received and become the basis of character, and it will produce steadfastness of purpose, which the allurements of pleasure, the fickleness of custom, the contempt of the world-loving and the heart's own clamors of self-indulgence are powerless to influence.... We have marked illustrations of the sustaining power of firm, religious principle. Even the fear of death could not make the fainting David drink of the water of Bethlehem, to obtain which, valiant men had risked their lives. The gaping lions’ den could not keep Daniel from his daily prayers, nor could the fiery furnace induce Shadrach and his companions to fall down before the idol which Nebuchadnezzar set up. Young men who have firm principles will eschew pleasure, defy pain, and brave even the lions’ den and the heated fiery furnace rather than be found untrue to God.^{66Testimonies for the Church 5:43.}SD 215.4

Let it be written upon the conscience as with a pen of iron upon the rock, that real success, whether for this life or for the life to come, can be secured only by faithful adherence to the eternal principles of right.^{67Testimonies for the Church 7:164.}SD 215.5