God Wants Us to Have the Best Manners, November 4

We Are Elevated, Ennobled, Refined

Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners. 1 Corinthians 15:33.SD 315.1

The religion of Christ never degrades the receiver, never makes him coarse or rough or uncourteous.^{8Letter 134, 1901.}SD 315.2

There is much to do in order to fit us for the courts of the Lord. The roughness of spirit, the coarseness of speech, the cheapness of character, must be put away, or we can never wear the garment woven in the heavenly loom,—the righteousness of Christ....SD 315.3

Those who, under the education of Christ, make it possible to reach the highest attainments will take every divine improvement with them to the higher school. But those who are unwilling to have their characters molded after the divine similitude make the angels sad; for by clinging to their sinful habits and practices they spoil the design of God.^{9The Review and Herald, July 4, 1899.}SD 315.4

Be polite to God and to one another. Remember that He wants you to have the best of manners, that you may glorify Him before the world. He desires you to live in unity with one another and to love one another. Remember that if you love one another here, you will live with the redeemed through the ceaseless ages of eternity.^{10Manuscript 21, 1903.}SD 315.5

Selfishness and pride hinder the pure love that unites us in spirit with Jesus Christ. If this love is truly cultivated, finite will blend with finite, and all will center in the Infinite. Humanity will unite with humanity, and all will be bound up with the heart of Infinite love. Sanctified love for one another is sacred. In this great work Christian love for one another,—far higher, more constant, more courteous, more unselfish, than has been seen,—preserves Christian tenderness, Christian benevolence, and politeness, and enfolds the human brotherhood in the embrace of God, acknowledging the dignity with which God has invested the rights of man. This dignity Christians must ever cultivate for the honor and glory of God.^{11Letter 10, 1897.}SD 315.6

As sons and daughters of God, we should have a conscious dignity of character, in which pride and self-importance have no part.^{12The Review and Herald, March 27, 1888.}SD 315.7