God's Plan.
The Kingdom Within.
173. God's way is to give man something that he has not, to make him something that he is not. Man's way is to get an easy place, and indulge appetite and selfish ambition. God's plan is to set man at work in reformatory lines, then he will learn by experience how long he has tampered with fleshly appetites, and ministered to his own temperament, bringing weakness upon himself. God's way is to work in power. He gives grace if the sick man realizes that he needs it. God proposes to purify and refine the defiled soul, then he will implant in the heart his own righteousness and peace and health, and man will become complete in him. This is the kingdom of God within you. Day by day men are revealing whether the kingdom of God is within them. If Christ rules in their hearts, they are gaining strength of principle, with power and ability to stand as faithful sentinels, true reformers. Then, like Daniel, they make impressions upon other hearts that will never be effaced, and their influence will be carried to all parts of the world.
Our Duty To Others.
174. It is the duty of those who have received light upon this important subject to manifest a greater interest for those who are still suffering for want of knowledge. Those who are looking for the soon appearing of their Saviour should be the last to manifest a lack of interest in this great work of reform. . . . This (2 Corinthians 7:1) is our work as Christians, to cleanse our robes of character from every spot. The spirit must be in harmony with the Spirit of Christ; the habits must be in conformity to his will, in obedience to his requirements.
Vital Vigor and Energy.
175. God has provided us with constitutional force, which will be needed at different periods of our life. If we recklessly exhaust this force by continual overtaxation, we shall sometime be losers. Our usefulness will be lessened, if not life itself destroyed.
176. God endowed man with so great vital force that he has withstood the accumulation of disease upon the race in consequence of perverted habits, and has continued for six thousand years. . . .
If Adam, at his creation, had not been endowed with twenty times as much vital force as men now have, the race, with their present habits of living in violation of natural law, would have become extinct.
177. The tree of life possessed the power to perpetuate life, and as long as they [Adam and Eve] ate of it, they could not die. The lives of the antediluvians were protracted because of the life-giving power of this tree, which was transmitted to them from Adam and Eve.
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