Writing the law in the heart is simply having Christ dwell in us. Christ was the living law, the law in life. Christ’s Spirit is the Spirit of that divine-human life that lived in obedience to God’s commandments. That is the Spirit He puts upon us, His other self dwelling in us. The law of God is ministered by the Spirit of God. When that comes into the heart, it is Christ Himself; it is “Christ in you the hope of glory.” And when Christ comes into our hearts, He is the living law, the law of God worked out in character. Christ dwelling in our hearts, means bringing the character of God into our lives. Keeping the commandments of God is manifesting the character of Jesus Christ.BEST January 27, 1896, page 28.1

Now a word as to obeying the commandments of God. Keeping the commandments of God is obeying the commandments, but there is an infinite amount of attempting to obey the commandments that is not keeping them. But righteousness does not come by the law. Some people hang the law upon the wall, read it over, and then try to do what it says. They have a terribly hard time, and then do not do it. Why?-because they put it up there. That is not where God puts it. He says He will put it in your heart, and you are to keep it there. “Out of the heart are the issues of life.” Do you suppose that out of a heart where the law of God is written, can come murders? God has told us what is in the natural heart. He say, “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.” Mark 7:21, 22. That is what God sees in the natural heart, but does man see all that? “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” Man says, I am no murderer; I am a very moral man. I go to church regularly, nothing of the kind is in my heart. But those very things are there. Unless Christ is there and has cast them out, they have come in and defiled the temple of the soul.BEST January 27, 1896, page 28.2

But when Christ, who is the living law comes in, the law is written on the tables of the heart. And when Christ comes in, all the evils of the natural heart are cast out by His holy presence. When we submit to Him, He writes His law in our hearts and lives. Religion cannot be communicated as a theory. Religion is life. When Christ writes His law in our hearts, it is by writing it in our lives, and when this is done, murder and deceit are cast out! That is writing the law in the heart; that is putting the very life of Christ as our life, so that our life manifests His life.BEST January 27, 1896, page 28.3

It is a terrible mistake to think that keeping the commandments of God means to take the law, look at it, and then make up our minds that we will do it. That means only failure and discouragement. It is when we see that Christ is the law of God which we are to receive, and when we receive Him, that the law is written in our hearts, and our lives are brought into harmony with that law. The law of the Lord is holy, just, and good. We cannot make our lives holy, but Christ can do it for us. Oh, that we might see in its true light the privilege of being in harmony with God’s law. It is the privilege of being like Christ, the privilege of leading a true life, the privilege of communing with God, who created all things through Jesus Christ. It is the great privilege of humanity to be in harmony with God’s law.BEST January 27, 1896, page 28.4

OBJECT OF CHRIST’S LIFE ON EARTH

The whole work of Christ was to show the perfection of God’s law, and to make it possible for us to be in harmony with it. And when we have Christ’s life and teaching to show us what the law of God is, it is perfectly amazing that so many will allow the devil to cheat them out of the privilege of being in harmony with that law. To be like Christ, to be like God, to lead a true life, to be exalted, to be brought into communion with God,-this is indeed a privilege. There are those that say, but if I live in harmony with the law of God, I will lose my situation, and what will my family do? But there is nothing that can happen to those who are in harmony with the law of God, except what God permits. If He takes away one thing, it is to give a better thing in its place. It may not mean more money, but what of that? Does not God care for His own? “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33. That is what God says. Let God be true, and every man a liar. Faith makes God’s word true, and believes what He says, and sees nothing except the word of God.BEST January 27, 1896, page 28.5

GOD CARES FOR THOSE WHO ARE TRUE TO HIM

God is caring for His people in these times. There is abundant proof that those who observe the seventh day, even in these hard times, are better situated financially than the average people. God will care for everyone who is true to Him. He spread a table in the wilderness to show us that, if necessary, He can bring bread from heaven and water from the rock. Trust God to do it. The time is right upon us when we shall need to trust Jesus Christ and His word to keep us in food and clothing, to keep us temporally and spiritually, and those only will be safe who are hidden in Jesus Christ. That is literally coming to pass, and those who do not trust in Jesus Christ will perish. God is warning us, trying to win people away from the destruction that is to come. Submission to Him in all things is our only safety now. “Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”BEST January 27, 1896, page 28.6

THE LAW KEPT IN CHRIST

Although we cannot keep the commandments till we get them, that does not mean that the precepts of the law will not be lived out in our lives. That is just what will be done. No man can do it of himself; but we are to receive the law of God in Jesus Christ and to obey the law of God in Jesus Christ. Then it is that God dwells with us, and the law is written in our hearts.BEST January 27, 1896, page 28.7

“Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” It is because they keep the faith of Jesus that they keep the commandments. “Thy word have I hid in mine heart,” said the psalmist, “that I might not sin against Thee.” And “sin is the transgression of the law.” Jesus Christ is the Alpha and Omega, the A to Z; and when we hide Him in the heart, we hide the Word of God in the heart; and what we keep as a living law turns about and keeps us.BEST January 27, 1896, page 28.8

“Behold, I come quickly; hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.” We are living just before the second coming of Christ. Through the faith of Jesus Christ, let God’s word be true in our character. God wants us to keep His commandments because they are what will keep us. Christ said, “I know that His commandment is life everlasting,” and that is why He could say, “If a man keep My saying, He shall never see death.” John 12:50; 8:51. The work of Christ has changed into a sleep the death that came as the result of Adam’s transgression. “If a man keep My saying he shall never see death;” for he has within him the living Word. “He that doeth the word of God abideth forever.” He may fall asleep, but he will never see death. But those who do not keep God’s commandments will see death from which there is no wakening.BEST January 27, 1896, page 28.9

THE PATIENCE OF THE SAINTS

“Here is the patience of the saints.” “For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.” Hebrews 10:36. We have need of patience. “For yet a little while, and He that shall come, will come, and will not tarry.” Those that have been keeping His commandments and waiting for Him, have need of endurance, for there is yet a little while.BEST January 27, 1896, page 28.10

“The just shall live by faith.” There are three places in the New Testament where this scripture is used, and the emphasis used in each case is different. “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, the just shall live by faith” Romans 1:17. There the emphasis is placed on being righteous.BEST January 27, 1896, page 28.11

“But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God it is evident; for, the just shall live by faith.” Galatians 3:11. There faith is emphasised.BEST January 27, 1896, page 28.12

“Now the just shall live by faith; but if any man draw back, My soul shall have no pleasure in him.” Hebrews 10:38. Here living is the leading thought. The keeping of the commandments has been going on, yet here is a time when Christ seems to delay. If we live by faith, we shall live through all the destruction about us. “A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.” “The just shall live by faith.” “Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.” That is the promise of God to us, but He also says, “Ye have need of patience.” “Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.” Job endured, although he could not see the reason for it. But in that trial of Job God was working out before the universe the fact that His love can keep a man when all temporal blessings are taken away.BEST January 27, 1896, page 28.13

In the 18th chapter of Luke we have the case of the widow and the unjust judge recorded as instruction for us, with reference to the delay of the coming of the Lord. This is the time above all others, just before the coming of the Lord, when we are not to faint. “And he spake a parable unto them, to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint; saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man. And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary [or opponent]. And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.” To get rid of her he would vindicate her of her opponent at law. “And shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily.”BEST January 27, 1896, page 29.1

DISTRESSING TIMES AHEAD

We are in the time of trouble foretold in God’s word. These distressing times we see about us are but the beginning of these things. “This know also, that in the last days perilous [or hard] times shall come.” 2 Timothy 3:1. Are we not seeing hard times, hard times financially and spiritually? And these times on which we have entered, though there may be times when they will brighten, will grow worse and worse. The slight revival financially in these colonies is not permanent. God has sent out His message to prepare a people for His coming, to gather out a people who will understand these things. Men’s hearts are already failing them for fear; they are saying, What do these things mean? “But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” We shall see violence and murder. That is the devil’s work. We shall see in this world a situation such as the human mind has never conceived of; we shall see a situation that will strike terror into every heart that does not know Jesus Christ and the power of His salvation. We can see it coming.BEST January 27, 1896, page 29.2

In that day God’s people cry unto Him for deliverance; but He seems to put off the day of delivering them, because we shall have come to that time when the deliverance of God’s people means the death of their adversaries. The deliverance of God’s people from their foes can only be followed by the coming of the Lord Jesus and the destruction of their enemies. God is so slow to pour out His wrath upon those who have rejected Him, that He seems almost to have deserted His people. But God will “avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them.”BEST January 27, 1896, page 29.3

“But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified; for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by. Then said He unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. But before all these they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prison, being brought before kings and rulers for My name’s sake.” Luke 21:9-12. Notice what they are brought up for. Because a man is hated, it does not follow that he is a Christian. He must be hated for “My name’s sake.” Because the world does not like a man, it does not follow that he is a Christian. It must dislike him for the same reason that it disliked Christ. Those that are Christians will be reviled because they are in harmony with Christ’s life and character. “And it shall turn to you for a testimony. Settle it, therefore, in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist. And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for My name’s sake. But there shall not an hair of your head perish. In your patience possess ye your souls.” Verses 13-19. In your endurance acquire your lives. We are living just before the coming of the Lord. “For yet a little while, and He that shall come, will come, and will not tarry.” It is in our endurance that we acquire our lives. Before the coming of the Lord, there will be a people who will be fulfilling His will. Our place is to be one of them. Our place is to be one of those of whom the Lord can say, “Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”BEST January 27, 1896, page 29.4

January 20, 1896

February 3, 1896