The Lord permits suffering and calamity to come upon men and women to call us out of our selfishness, to awaken in us the attributes of His character,—compassion, tenderness, and love.
(CS 23.1)
MC
VC
Divine love makes its most touching appeals when it calls upon us to manifest the same tender compassion that Christ manifested. He was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. In all our afflictions He is afflicted. He loves men and women as the purchase of His own blood, and He says to us, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.”(John 13:34)—The Review and Herald, September 13, 1906.
(CS 23.2)
MC
VC
God is the source of life and light and joy to the universe. Like rays of light from the sun, blessings flow out from Him to all the creatures He has made. In His infinite love He has granted men the privilege of becoming partakers of the divine nature, and, in their turn, of diffusing blessings to their fellow men. This is the highest honor, the greatest joy, that it is possible for God to bestow upon men. Those are brought nearest to their Creator who thus become participants in labors of love. He who refuses to become a “laborer together with God,”(1 Corinthians 3:9)—the man who for the sake of selfish indulgence ignores the wants of his fellow men, the miser who heaps up his treasures here,—is withholding from himself the richest blessing that God can give him.—The Review and Herald, December 6, 1887.
(CS 23.3) 1 I
MC
VC