I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. John 17:23.
Enoch not only meditated and prayed, and put on the armor of watchfulness, but he came forth from his pleadings with God to plead with unbelievers. He did not mask the truth to find favor with unbelievers, thus neglecting their souls. This close connection with God gave him courage to work the works of God. Enoch walked with God and had the testimony that his ways “pleased God.” This is the privilege of every believer today. It is the believer dwelling with God, and God taking up His abode with the believer. “I in them, and thou in me,” says Jesus. To walk with God and have the witness that their ways please Him is an experience not to be confined to Enoch, to Elijah, to patriarchs, to prophets, to apostles, and to martyrs. It is not only the privilege but the duty of every follower of Christ to have Jesus enshrined in the heart, to carry Him with them in their lives, and they will indeed be fruit-bearing trees....
How many who have been entrusted with talents of influence and means have lost sight of the Pattern, and follow the standard of the world instead of the example of Christ. Men and women who have been blessed with an abundance of money, with houses and with lands, generally train their children to a life of idleness and selfish indulgence. Thus they are made useless for this life, and unfit for the future, immortal life. Christ in His life gave people an altogether different example. In His youth He worked with His father at the carpenter's trade; but the youth of today are educated to believe that it is the money that makes the person. The sure result of such education is seen in the pride, the vanity, the love of pleasure, the sinful practices that are so prevalent in this degenerate age.
Where there is an abundance of idleness, Satan works with his temptations to spoil life and character. If youth are not trained to useful labor, whether they be rich or poor, they are in peril, for Satan will find employment for them after his own order. The youth who are not barricaded with principle do not regard time as a precious treasure, a trust from God for which every human being must give an account. Money is also a trust from God. It is given to parents, not to use in an extravagant way to gratify pride to the ruin of themselves and their children, but that they may be the means of doing good to persons in need.—Manuscript 43, 1900.
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