January 10, 1895

“Yet a Little While”

EGW

“Yet a little while is the light with you.” This was the Saviour's argument to the Jews, who were resisting all his efforts to reflect upon them the light of the Sun of Righteousness. This is the warning we would give to you who claim to believe the truth! “Yet a little while is the light with you.” We would ask you to consider the shortness of human life, how swiftly time is passing. Golden opportunities and privileges are within our reach. The plenteous, abundant mercy of God is waiting your demand upon its richest treasures. The Saviour is waiting to dispense his blessing freely, and the only question is, Will you accept them? The rich provisions have been made, and light is shining in a variety of ways; but this light will lose its preciousness to those who do not appreciate it, who do not accept and respond to it, or, having received it, do not pass the light along to others.YI January 10, 1895, par. 1

Your life, your soul, your strength, your capabilities, your powers of mind and body, are to be regarded by you as intrusted capital to be improved for your Lord during the period of your life. You are to stand in your allotted order in God's great army, to work out his plan in saving your own soul and the souls of others. This you may do by living a consistent Christian life, by putting forth earnest efforts, by learning in the school of Christ his ways, his purposes, and subordinating your will and ways to the will and way of Christ.YI January 10, 1895, par. 2

Will not all those who claim to be the children of God consider the words of the great Teacher? His words are not mysterious and hard to be understood. When the disciples thought them hard to be understood, they made it evident that they were not united to Christ as the branch is united to the living vine. They did not have true discernment. They misunderstood the words of Christ. That which was plain to those who had true faith, became a stumbling-block to those who lacked spiritual discernment. They were offended because he spoke words to them that the natural heart could not comprehend and receive, and they refused to walk any more with Jesus.YI January 10, 1895, par. 3

Are there not among the believers some who love the world and whose affections are so absorbed in their relatives and friends who obey not the truth, that they are confused in mind, and through the temptations of Satan take their stand on his side, instead of on the Lord's side? The love of God for fallen men is without a parallel. Christ declares: “Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.” These were the words over which some of the disciples stumbled, but Jesus removed everything that might constitute a stumbling-block, and said to them: “Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” It is the word of God abiding in the heart that will quicken the spiritual faculties.YI January 10, 1895, par. 4

We wish to impress upon our people who claim to believe the truth for this time that they need to heed the counsel of the True Witness, who represents their state as spiritually fallen, and calls upon them in decided language to repent and to return to their first love. Who is our first love?—The world's Redeemer is our first love, and must ever remain our first love. The Christian is to live a life distinctly different from that of the worldling. The worldling lives a cheap quality of life. He consents not to spiritual life. It is he who has the love of God that has life; it is he whose hope is centered, not in this world, but in Christ, the great center.YI January 10, 1895, par. 5

Jesus has loved men, and has made every provision that the blood-bought soul shall have a new birth, a new life derived from his own life, as the branch derives its life from the parent stock. “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” Those who believe in Christ derive their motive power and the texture of their characters from him in whom they believe. “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” “Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? ... What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and 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.”YI January 10, 1895, par. 6

Our position is plainly marked out. The endowment which we have of God is plainly described, and our accountability and duty are plainly stated. The declaration of Christ is given in language not to be misunderstood: “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.”YI January 10, 1895, par. 7

Mrs. E. G. White