Follow
the Example of Christ to the Death
THIS DAY WITH GOD, PAGE 263
Keep on an Even Keel, September 11
For I have given you an example. John
13:15.
We are forming characters for heaven. No
character can be complete without trial and suffering. We must be tested, we must be tried. Christ bore the test of character
of our behalf that we might bear this test in our own behalf through the divine
strength He has brought to us. Christ is our example in patience, in
forbearance, in meekness and lowliness of mind. He was at variance and at war
with the whole ungodly world, yet He did not give way to passion and violence
manifested in words and actions, although receiving shameful abuse in return
for good works. He was afflicted, He was rejected and
despitefully treated, yet He retaliated not. He possessed self-control, dignity, and majesty. He suffered with
calmness and for abuse gave only compassion, pity, and love....
Imitate your Redeemer
in these things. Do not get excited when things go wrong.
Do not let self arise, and lose your self-control
because you fancy things are not as they should be.
Because others are wrong is no excuse for you to do wrong. Two wrongs will not
make one right. You have victories to gain in order to overcome as Christ
overcame.
Christ never murmured,
never uttered discontent, displeasure, or resentment. He was never
disheartened, discouraged, ruffled, or fretted. He was patient, calm, and
self-possessed under the most exciting and trying circumstances. All His works
were performed with a quiet dignity and ease, whatever
commotion was around Him. Applause did not elate Him. He feared not the threats
of His enemies. He moved amid the world of excitement, of violence and crime,
as the sun moves above the clouds. Human passions and commotions and trials
were beneath Him. He sailed like the sun above them all. Yet He was not
indifferent to the woes of men. His heart was ever touched with the sufferings
and necessities of His brethren, as though He Himself was the one afflicted. He
had a calm inward joy, a peace which was serene. His will was ever swallowed up
in the will of His Father. Not My will but Thine
be done, was heard from His pale and quivering lips.—Letter 51a, September
11, 1874, to Edson and Emma White.