The Great Motive Power.
By William S. Foote
"If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love." John xv, 10. Here we have the condition upon which we may have Jesus as our greatest, our perpetual friend; and how can we be his followers unless, like him, we keep his Father's commandments? Love to God and to our neighbor cannot exist in a heart defiled by sin, and we are told that sin is the transgression of the law. Let the world get the ascendancy in our affections, or if we are led away by the temptations of the "strong man armed," how soon the Spirit of God leaves us. Followers of Jesus! ye happy few who have received the glorious truths of these last days, ye who are rejoicing in the light, amid opposition and surrounding darkness, you may, if you will, by faith and keeping the commandments of God, out of pure love to him, stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. Remember, too, it is the time of the patience of the saints. "Be patient therefore unto the coming of the Lord." The truth, unadulterated by the traditions of men, and unstained by the filth of Rome, is being proclaimed; Satan is in a rage; ignorant and false teachers, armed with the panoply of evil, are doing the bidding of the enemy of righteousness; the battle between truth and error, grows stronger and stronger; and where the truth has been proclaimed, the honest in heart have received it, and through the grace of God are trying to live according to its requirements. This enrages Satan and makes false teachers mad. But amidst it all brethren, stand fast. Some of us may be called to resist unto blood, but let us keep our eyes upon the mark for the prize of the high calling of God, in Christ Jesus; and, armed with faith and love, when persecuted, let us bless; when cast down, let us look up; for the city is just in sight, and our redemption draweth near. Let love impel us forward and upward. Seek meekness, it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger. Zeph. ii, 3. By faith and glorious hope, look forward to the period when those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, shall stand with the King of the new earth on mount Zion, having the Father's name written in their foreheads. Rev. xiv, 1.