p. 178 | HOLY LIVING by E. C. Teter

Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · March 18, 1880

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 55, No. 12

HOLY LIVING.

By E. C. Teter

BY E. C. TETER.

A mere profession is an empty sound, unless we carry out in our intercourse with the world the great principles we profess. It therefore becomes us to live in such a way as to prove by our daily lives the sincerity of our religion. The apostle said, “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.” From this passage we are taught the necessity and importance of holiness. We are far from believing that a strict conformity to the externals of religion is sufficient to constitute a Christian. It is essential, in the first place, to experience a change of heart,—to obtain an evidence that God, for Christ’s sake, has forgiven our sins. This is what the apostle calls “being sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,” the Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. When devotion erects her altar in the heart, and the spirit of adoption enables us to cry “Abba Father,” and we publicly declare that we have experienced a change,—that a great and glorious work has been wrought in the soul, it then becomes important for us to establish the truth of what we say, and the best way to do this is to adorn the doctrine of our God and Saviour by an upright walk and godly conversation,—a holy life.

May the Lord hasten the time when the gospel in its purity shall be preached, when the outward forms of Christianity shall not be considered alone sufficient, but the power shall be sought also. Then shall sinners be turned from darkness to light, and from the power of sin and Satan to God.