The Sabbath Day Restored

It is the strength of the entire being that God requires. He requires of you a separation from the world and the things of the world. “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” It is separation from the love of the world that is required, and what is given you in its place? “I will be a father unto you.” Do you have to separate in your affections from friends? Does the truth require you to stand alone in your position to serve God because others around you are not willing to yield to the claims that Christ has upon them? Does it require a separation in feeling from them? Yes, and this is the cross which you must bear, which leads many to say, I cannot yield to the claims of the truth. But says Christ, If anyone love father, or mother, or brother, or sister, more than Me, he is not worthy of Me. Whosoever will come after Me and will be My disciple, let him take up his cross and follow Me. Here is the cross of self-denial and sacrifice, to separate in your affections here from those who will not yield to the claims of truth. Is this too great a sacrifice to make for Him who sacrificed all for you?—The Review and Herald, April 19, 1870. FH 136.4