Exhaust God’s Mercy
Unless the Holy Spirit is with the worker, his efforts are without avail. Why! Have we not had the most ennobling, elevating truths? What more can we have than that we have had? And they are presented to us in the simplest form, that the ignorant and unlearned may grasp them.
The forgiveness of sins and iniquities and transgressions, belongs in a special sense to this time. We are in the anti-typical day of atonement, and every soul should now be humbling himself before God, seeking pardon for his transgressions and sins, and accepting the justifying grace of Christ, the sanctifying of the soul by the operations of the Holy Spirit of Christ; thus the carnal nature is transformed, renewed in holiness after the image of Christ's righteousness and true holiness. The precious, golden links of truth are not separate, detached, disconnected doctrines; but link after link, form one string of golden truth, and constitute a complete whole, with Christ as its living center. Salvation comes through practical godliness and faith in Jesus Christ. Faith is made perfect through works, and is evidenced in the character. To those who are teaching the truth, whose hearts are impure, and who have not been converted, Christ says, "What hast thou to do to declare my statutes? Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord." Oh, what truths we have--full of power, and it is not possible to controvert these Bible doctrines. There is no truth in heaven or in earth that would affect some characters, although it might be presented in all power and matchless purity and loveliness, because the heart does not love the practice of these holy sentiments. The truth we have set before us for the past few years, is immense in its importance, reaching into heaven and compassing eternity. Satan and his confederacy of evil have made every effort to cover up, to confuse minds, to make of none effect the precious, glorious truths of God's word. We are living in strangely solemn times, and at the very time when the people of God should be wide awake, and many are asleep or dead spiritually. There is great need of much work being done. Every individual member of the church should look to the Captain for orders.
We are now on the very borders of the heavenly Canaan. You know how it was with ancient Israel.
Satan, through his agents, worked with his temptations, and licentiousness came into the camp in a very bold defiant attitude. The very harshest punishments alone could stop the bold advance of impurity and crime. Well, we are now on the borders of the heavenly Canaan, and those who are not now with all the advantages, all the light and evidences of truth shining upon us as a people, purifying their souls by living up to these advantages, are like the inhabitants of Sodom and the antediluvian world, walking in the imaginations of their own hearts. What guilt rests upon those who make this choice! The wickedness of the antediluvians and Sodomites was such that God could not perpetuate their headstrong, independent, wicked lives. In mercy he proved himself a God of vengeance. He who could so abundantly bless, who was so full of compassion, ready to pardon, going forth to meet the returning prodigal, humbling himself at every step to meet man in his fallen condition, ready to heal the bruised and smitten, will show himself strong to punish the persistent, independent despisers of his grace.
It is a terrible thing to exhaust the mercy and patience of our compassionate God, for God delighteth in mercy. O, it is so painful to the heart to see ministers, favored with every spiritual advantage of clear, pure, unadulterated truth take the course which they do. We have messages of mercy and love presented before us,--an open fountain of eternal truth, continually flowing with mercy,--and attending them, the gift of eternal life. Yet they turn away, saying to the Spirit of God, "Go thy way for this time; when I have a more convenient season, I will call for thee." But there is another voice that makes itself heard; it is the voice of the arch-deceiver; and to him they give heed, and continue to profess the truth and protract their rebellion against God. They have less and less conviction of sin, less and less power to break the spell that is upon them, less and less inclination to resist temptation, and, like Cain, sin lieth at their own door. PH002 25,26