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PRIVILEGE AND DUTY

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 28, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 42.

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PRIVILEGE AND DUTY.

By I. E. Kimball

BY ELDER I. E. KIMBALL.
It is every man's privilege to know God, his Creator and Father. The idea is expressed in the proverb, "Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God." The knowledge of God embraces an understanding of his ways, character, and will, and also embraces personal acquaintance.
"This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." "Ye know him, for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you." "I will dwell in them and walk in them." "We will come to you and make our abode with you." "We know him, because he hath given to us of his Holy Spirit."
It would seem that it is everyone's privilege to know that the Spirit which raised up Christ from the dead dwells also in his mortal body, bringing within the range of his possibilities all things that pertain to life and godliness.
It is our privilege to ask and receive of this Spirit, because the Lord says to us, "Ask, that ye may receive." "I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh." "God is a Spirit," and God's Spirit is the very life and power of the Lord himself. So we have the privilege of claiming, taking hold upon and using life directly from God himself. But to do this we must lay down our own life wholly at his feet.
Who will not take hold upon life so freely and fully urged upon them? Do we then love death? We see it before us, on our track, and at our right and left. Will we choose to live in the flesh, or choose the better part and live in the Spirit? It is everyone's privilege to take hold upon that life just as freely as he partakes of the air and water which God gives, and as freely as his own life is brought under the power of the Spirit.
God's strength is made perfect in weakness, and many have yet to learn that the power of God is freely given so that wisdom and strength may be realized wholly as a gift, without effort, without work, a power and wisdom wholly superior to what we are naturally in possession of. Thus we may be able to say with Paul, "I know whom I have believed."
One cannot estimate the privilege of knowing God by his indwelling Spirit, for shadows and darkness and fear all pass away; they flee his presence forever. It is a sure testimony of a new creation, a restitution, a resuscitation from the death in which we are now involved.
God's Spirit is the gift of "a new man," "of righteousness," of "power over all the power of the enemy," Satan. But Satan "has the power of death," so you may be possessed of a power superior to and able to abolish death. Such is the unspeakable gift and privilege. But what about duty?
It is everyone's duty to render perfect obedience to God the Father. No one has any right at all to indulge in little lapses and deviations. "Shall we sin that grace may abound? God forbid." What is said of sin as a whole is said of sin in all its parts; every idle word, every deviation from temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love, is included in the interdiction. "He that is unfaithful in the least is unfaithful in much." The servant or son who continually deviates from your desires, to please and gratify himself, is not to be trusted with large responsibilities. Is not this perfect walk the example, pattern, copy, given to formulate life in Christ? But you say perfection cannot be attained. We can never reach this. You make the way too straight and narrow. It may do as theory but cannot be wrought out in life. Say you so? But where lies the possibility in the whole matter?—Not in yourself but in God. Is your own strength or life profitable for anything in this matter?—"The flesh profiteth nothing." Then "put no confidence in the flesh." We are not sufficient of ourselves to do anything; but our sufficiency is of God, and we can do all things, all is possible, through the Lord, who is our life.
Well, then, all things are possible with God, and you may have him in his fullness. But still some of your ways contradict him, and belie the fact that God is in you. But that is self and Satan. Well, then, your whole plea for the allowance of your devious ways is a plea to let self remain dominant to some extent in you; it recognizes two masters, not one. But this is not Christ's gospel. It is easier to follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth, and let God have the full life, than to live a divided, half-hearted life.
They who make a covenant with God by sacrifice should sacrifice all freely and then take all from God. He who is unfaithful in little, minor things, trivial things, is not guiltless. He should show the power and life of God to the world, but he does not. He should do the works of Christ, bless, as he blessed; he should speak with authority and all confidence. He ought never to be in darkness, doubt, uncertainty, fear, weakness, and inertia, for all this gives the lie to Christ and God. He ought ever to exercise a positive saving, regenerating, heavenly influence upon every associate, and in every condition of life. He should be able to instill the oil of joy in all mourners' hearts, and everywhere, always, reveal an open treasury of heaven for all the sons of men. This is duty.