Let us consider the promises assuring us that we may become sons and daughters of God. Let us study Paul's prayer for his Colossian brethren. "For this cause we also," he wrote, "since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness."

How complete this prayer is! There is no limit to the blessings that it is our privilege to receive. We may be "filled with the knowledge of His will." The Holy Ghost would never have inspired Paul to offer this prayer in behalf of his brethren, if it had not been possible for them to receive an answer from God in accordance with the request. Since this is so, we know that God's will is manifested to His people as they need a clearer understanding of His will.

To the church at Ephesus Paul wrote: "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end."

Here are brought to view the possibilities of the Christian life. How far short of reaching this standard falls the church of today! Strife, discord, selfish pride of opinion, self-exaltation,---self, self, self,---all this is manifest in those who claim to be followers of the meek and lowly Jesus. When shall we awake? When shall we meet the expectations of Christ?

I address those who are connected with the work at Nashville. Will you not reach a higher standard? Will you not, in heart and mind and purpose, be one with Christ and with one another, laboring in harmony because Christ is abiding in you? Should Christ appear among you today, how would you stand? How many would be found with garments spotted by sin, not having on the robe of Christ's righteousness?

I have been instructed to speak with authority to our people, to cry aloud and spare not; for there are many who are as those described in the message to the church in Sardis: "These things saith He that hath the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die; for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore how thou hast received, and heard, and hold fast, and repent."

Among those to whom this message to the church in Sardis was sent, there were those who had heard and been convicted by the preaching of John the Baptist, but who had forsaken the faith in which they once rejoiced. There were others who had received the truth from Christ's teaching, and who were once ardent believers, rejoicing in the faith, but who had lost their first love, and were without spiritual strength. Because they did not hold the beginning of their confidence firm unto the end, they were believing as men without faith. They quibbled about matters of no special importance which were not given by the Lord as tests, and dwelt upon their differences of opinion till these differences became as mountains, separating them from Christ and from one another, destroying unity and love.

We are in danger of falling into similar errors. Never should that which God has not given as a test be carried as was the subject of the law in Galatians. I have been instructed that the terrible experience at the Minneapolis Conference is one of the saddest chapters in the history of the believers in present truth. God forbids that the subject of the two laws should ever again be agitated as it then was. Some are not yet healed of their defection and would plunge into this subject once more. Should they do this, differences of opinion would again create division. This question must not be revived.

"These things saith He that hath the seven stars." These words show the origin of the message. Then a plain truth is stated. "I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead." With God, outward show weighs nothing. The outward form of religion, without the love of God in the soul, is worthless.

"Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die." This is our work. There are many ready to die spiritually, and the Lord calls upon us to strengthen them. God's people are to be firm to duty. They are to be bound together by the bonds of Christian fellowship, and are to be strengthened in the faith by speaking often to one another about the precious truth entrusted to them. Never are they to quarrel and condemn. They are to unite upon the importance of obedience to God's law.

"If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee." There must be a waking up among our people. Those who abound in the love of God will not go into apostasy. They will not lose their faith in the truth.

"Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with Me in white; for they are worthy." There are today on the earth a faithful few who love God supremely and their neighbor as themselves.

"He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment, and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels."

God sends to His church today this message: "Unto the church of the Laodiceans write: These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of My mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches."

My brethren and sisters, think on these things, and pray over them. Do not be strengthless, but strong in the Lord, understanding what the will of the Lord is.