p. 16 | The Limit of the Fire

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Dec 7, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 48.

The Limit of the Fire.

The fires under the smelter have a limit. They burn the dross; they refine the gold. The heat of God's last great fiery test has a limit. It burns up that which is combustible. Righteousness is non-combustible. The fires of the last day can not consume it. Righteousness is more than a robe—it is a life, a character. It enters into the fibers of the being. Asbestos will glow, but will not burn. The soul that has in it the righteousness of Christ is only brightened by the test. Everything that can be burned in the purifying fires of the last day will be destroyed forever. That which can not be burned will remain forever. The combustibility of men and things is the result of sin. It is the dead tree and the withered grass that burn so readily. The more sin there is in us, the nearer ripe we are for the burning of that day. God declares that He will shake heaven and earth, so that those things which can not be shaken may remain. What the earthquake can not shake and the fire can not burn will be worthy of perpetuation through all eternity.