Let no one think he can overcome without the help of God. You must have the energy, the strength, the power, of an inner life developed within you. You will then bear fruit unto godliness, and will have an intense loathing of vice. You need to constantly strive to work away from earthliness, from cheap conversation, from everything sensual, and aim for nobility of soul and a pure and unspotted character. Your name may be kept so pure that it cannot justly be connected with any thing dishonest or unrighteous, but will be respected by all the good and pure, and it may be written in the Lamb’s book of life, to be immortalized among the holy angels.— Manuscript 4a, 1885.
(MM 144.1)
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Directors and helpers, ... I speak to you as Christians, as to men and women whose souls are united to Christ as the branch is united to the living vine. If you have not been renewed in the spirit of your mind, for your soul’s sake make no delay to have your life hidden with Christ in God. This is the first business of your life. When Christ is abiding in the heart, you will not be light, chaffy, and immodest, but circumspect, and reliable in every place, sending forth pure words like streams from a pure fountain, refreshing all with whom you come in contact.
(MM 144.2)
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If you decide to continue your idle talk and frivolous conduct, go into some other place where your influence and example will not be so widely felt, contaminating other souls. What you all need is such a sense of the purity and holiness of Christ as will lead you to despise this pretense of religion which blesses no one, gives no peace of conscience, no repose of faith.
(MM 144.3)
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