November 11Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue [fortitude] — 2 Pet. 1:5.
One great difficulty with the Lord's people is that, even when determined for a right course and thus resisting the temptation, they do not take sufficiently positive action. Many say to the tempter, I have concluded not to yield at this time. Thus they leave in their own minds an opportunity open by which the tempter may return. Our Lord's course was the proper one: we should dismiss the tempter once and forever. We should take our stand so firmly that even the Adversary would not think it worthwhile to come back at us along that line; "Leave me, Adversary, I will worship and serve my God alone"—Z '04, 10 (R 3296). After we have developed mental appreciation of, and heart reliance upon God and Christ as the foundation of Christian character, we are to build upon this basis the other higher primary graces, beginning with fortitude, whose essence is hope for victory. The Lord has given us the objects for such hope and a sure basis for it in His Oath-bound Covenant, Christ's Priestly office and the Spirit's participation. Such hope will make us brave to meet any difficulty and to fight on against any foe. To develop such fortitude will require constant diligence. Otherwise our efforts, unsustained by faithfulness, will ultimately prove insufficient for overcoming—P '26, 157. Parallel passages: Heb. 11:1, 2, 39; Psa. 27:13; Rom. 8:24, 25; 2 Cor. 4:18; 5:7; Josh. 1:1-9; 2 Chron. 19:11; Prov. 28:1; 1 Cor. 16:13; Phil. 1:27, 28; 2 Tim. 1:7. Hymns: 197, 174, 228, 92, 29, 58, 201. Poems of Dawn, 76: O Soul of Mine! Tower Reading: Z '15, 179 (R 5705). Questions: Have I this week added fortitude to faith? How? Under what circumstances? With what results? |
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O SOUL OF MINE!
O SOUL of mine, be calm, be still,
Submit thyself to God,
In all thy ways yield to His will,
Nor faint beneath the rod.
O soul of mine, like potter's clay
Within the Master's hand,
O let Him mould thee day by day,
Till faultless thou shalt stand.
O soul of mine, have faith, believe,
Nor count the cost of strife,
Fight on, faint not, thou shalt receive
At last the Crown of Life!
O SOUL of mine, be calm, be still,
Submit thyself to God,
In all thy ways yield to His will,
Nor faint beneath the rod.
O soul of mine, like potter's clay
Within the Master's hand,
O let Him mould thee day by day,
Till faultless thou shalt stand.
O soul of mine, have faith, believe,
Nor count the cost of strife,
Fight on, faint not, thou shalt receive
At last the Crown of Life!
