Ripe for Heaven by Angelia S. Edmunds

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 20, 1870

Ripe for Heaven.

By Angelia S. Edmunds

WHAT a state of perfection we must attain to be in this condition.

We must have no more angry, impatient, feelings, but a meek and quiet spirit, and pure thoughts at all times.

All pride of heart; every secret fault, every presumptuous sin, envyings, evil surmisings, whisperings, backbiting, all jealousy, all selfishness, must be completely eradicated. Our wills must be in perfect subjection to the will of God.

Am I ripe for Heaven? No, no, I feel that I am not. Reader are you?

Can we ever attain that state of perfection? Yes, by adding all the Christian graces. The last, the crowning grace of charity, will help us to overcome, will ripen us.

Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, (margin, is not rash) is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth.” 1 Cor. 13: 4–7.

God is love. Jesus is love. We must love. How can I obtain that charity or love which I should have at all times? I will go to the closet. There I will ask for it and my Father that seeth in secret will reward me openly.

My brother or sister, we may be branches of the vine, not sickly and withered ready to be pruned off, but deriving sap and nourishment daily, thereby bearing fruit that will ripen into perfection, and we at last have an entrance through the pearly gates into that city of love. ANGELIA S. EDMUNDS.

Johnstown, Mich., Sept. 1, 1870.