p. 120 | PUT IT INTO THE FIRE by L. A. S.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 25, 1902

PUT IT INTO THE FIRE.

By L. A. S.

Put into the fire that disposition to criticise and dwell upon the faults, real or imaginary, of your brethren. Put into the fire that tendency you have to look for evil, rather than for good in your brethren, and to believe an evil report concerning them quicker than a statement to their credit. Do the same with your inclination to criticise and hold aloof from an effort made in the cause of God because it is not conducted according to your ideas of the proper method. And anything else that causes you to hold back, and assume an attitude of indifference or of opposition toward the work of God should be treated likewise. Put it into the fire.

What fire?

There is a fire that will consume all these, and that is the fire of zeal for the Lord. The zealous servant of God cannot dwell upon the things that are evil, upon the imperfections, and that which is merely negative in its influence and without any power to advance the interests of his Master's cause. His heart is full of faith, full of the expectation of

success, full of the knowledge of the power of God through whom wonders are to be accomplished in the cause of right and of truth. Zeal for the Lord will cause you to forget, or to regard as unworthy trifles, the things which otherwise seem to you of great moment, and which intrude themselves into a position of precedence to everything else. The love of God will fill your heart with love to your fellow men,—with the love which thinketh no evil, and covereth a multitude of sins.

Open your heart to the Lord, and let Him work in it both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Then you will quickly get rid of the dross; “for our God is a consuming fire.” L. A. S.