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Character

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 10, 1870

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 35, No. 21.

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Character.

By John Nevins Andrews

Our character is but ourselves as viewed in the light of our real qualities of heart and mind. We make ourselves what we are. We shall find that we are held accountable by God not only for what we do, but also for what we are. We are good or evil in his sight, and the fault of being evil, if we are such, is wholly our own. It is true that the grace of God alone can raise us out of the ruin that our fallen nature involves us in. But this grace is freely given to all who ask it, and faithfully co-operate with it.
By the aid of God's grace our evil passions may all be subdued, and we may form characters that shall stand the test of the day of Judgment,. But what a work this is! Little do we realize that we are in God's workshop; that our fiery trials are designed by him to soften our evil natures, that he may hammer them into such form as he chooses to give them. God means to save us if possible, but he will do only his part of the work. Ours must be faithfully performed or we shall come short of the kingdom of God.
Our character is formed by ourselves. The man of humility is such because that with the help of God's grace he has humbled himself again and again, times almost without number. The meek man is such because that with the help of God's grace he has many times endured the buffetings of Satan, and the shame and the reproach and the vexation that the wicked have heaped upon him. The patient man is such from a right use of afflictions. The temperate man is such from the constant use of self-denial. The virtuous man is such because his words, his thoughts, and his acts, are governed by virtue and purity.
We form our characters little by little like the growth of an icicle. Drop by drop this forms. One drop of dirty water will make itself appear in the formation of the icicle. One evil thought, one wicked word, will enter into, and help form, our character. Would you be pure in God's sight? Then let his fear govern all your acts, all your words, and all your thoughts. Set God before you in every thing. The stamp of immortality will only be placed on the pure in heart. J. N. A.