Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Clothed in white garments

Phillippines Sunrise

It seems that the elders sitting around the throne were represented to the illuminated eye of John as “clothed in white raiment.” Not in raiment of party-colors, whereon there were some spots, and yet some signs of whiteness. They are without fault before the throne of God; they have “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb,” and the Spirit of God also has so thoroughly renewed them, that they are “without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing;” they have been presented holy and unblameable before the throne of God. Brothers and sisters, in this too, they are an example to us.

Oh that the Spirit of God might keep the members of this Church, that our garments might be always white. Perfection we must not hope to see here; but oh, we must aim after it. If one should never unite with a Christian Church till he found one which is perfect and free from all fault, then such a man must be a schismatic for ever, for with no Christian people could he ever join. Yet, this is what we aspire unto - to be faultless before God. We desire so to walk, and so to act among men, that our conduct may never bring a slur upon our profession - that our language, our actions, our motives, everything that is about us, may witness to the fact that we have been with Jesus, and have learned of him.

From a sermon entitled "The Elders Before The Throne," delivered March 23, 1862. Flickr photo by Benjie Ordoñez; some rights reserved.

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