“We need to think more of God and less of ourselves. If we would but think of him as often as we have evidence of his care for us, we would keep him ever in our thoughts, and would delight to talk of him and praise him. We talk of temporal things because we have an interest in them. We talk of our friends because we love them; our joys and our sorrows are bound up with them. Yet we have infinitely greater reason to love God than to love our earthly friends; we receive more from him than from any other friend, and it should be the most natural thing in the world to make God first in all our thoughts, to talk of his goodness and tell of his power, and to respond to his love by our free-will gifts and offerings for his cause. All things belong to God; and the rich gifts he has bestowed upon us, the glories of the heavens, the beauties of nature, the bounties of his providence, are not for us to worship; they were not given to absorb our thoughts and love so that we should have naught to give to God; they are to constantly remind us of him, and to bind us in bonds of love and gratitude to our gracious Benefactor. Oh! I entreat you who profess to love God to be less self-caring. Center your affections upon Jesus, your Redeemer. Give up all for him, be willing to make any and every sacrifice to save souls for whom he died. Give him your loving homage, your willing service, and he will bestow upon you the priceless gift of everlasting life.”

The Review & Herald – December 26, 1882