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Character Building

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Oct 8, 1903

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 80, No. 40.

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Character Building

By D. H. KRESS

D. H. KRESS
The one thing needful in his world is development of character, or holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Only those who recognize him as a God of love shall see him as he is when he appears the second time. By beholding him in every experience of life, they become like him. They have purified themselves; and “blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” They shall see him as he is because they endure, as seeing him who is invisible.
The secret of character building is the recognition of God in all our experiences, in every trial, every affliction, “let good or ill befall.” When we fail to recognize him, and see only the dark waves, like Peter, we shall begin to sink. We must be able to say, even when called upon to suffer evil, “Ye thought evil against me: but God meant it unto good.” To those who exercise authority we may say, “Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above.” This is a recognition of God’s power instead of man’s power. Then where others see only Satan or evil men, we shall see the King in his beauty.
Seeing the Lord’s hand on the lever controlling the affairs of life, recognizing that all things work after the counsel of his own will, and for our good, we can never fear, complain, or murmur against what he permits to come to us for our good. Recognizing God in every trial, in every experience, makes character building possible; then, even though taskmasters be set over us to afflict us with heavy burdens, and our lives be made bitter with hard bondage, and in all manner of service, it may be said of us, as of ancient Israel, “The more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew.”
No one can interfere with my Christian growth and development of character but myself. The best place for me must be where I am. That which I need to develop character God permits to come to me daily; therefore, daily I must take up the cross, expecting to be crucified upon it. “I die daily;” but a daily death means a daily resurrection, to walk in newness of life; this is development of character. When the Moabites cast the dead man into the sepulcher of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet. Trials are designed to kill. “But though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.” It is at this daily death we are brought in contact with Christ. When this contact is made, we, too, experience resurrection power. “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river [of life], and shall not see when heat [or adversity] cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.”