The Sermon on the Mount, August 21

And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him. Matthew 5:1. Christ's sermon on the mount was designed to enter into our everyday life. The commandments are so broad that they take hold of even our thoughts. But how few take heed to the words of our Saviour! Consequently we shall have objections to meet. Some will claim that they are wholly led by the Spirit, and consequently they have not much use for the law of God or any portion of God's Word. Those who claim great light and are not sanctified through the truth are dangerous people, but they can be easily tested. “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Isaiah 8:20.... We must expect to be assailed by the powers of darkness, but if we successfully resist, then there will be rejoicing in heaven. The souls of human beings are valued by the heavenly host.... We must not be under anyone's banner but Christ's.—Manuscript 45, 1886. Christ spake as never man spake. To the multitude that listened to His sermon on the mount—His lessons illustrated by things with which they were familiar—the law of God, with its living, matchless principles, was brought home to their minds and consciences. Among the thousands who were converted in a day, after Christ had risen from the tomb and ascended to the Father, were the very ones who had heard and believed the words spoken on that occasion. As Jesus stood among the people, clothed with the garb of humanity, He longed to unfold to His disciples the deep mysteries of the plan of redemption; but with sadness He was forced to say, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.” The temporal, the earthly, was so mingled in their minds with the spiritual and the eternal that the sacred and heavenly were eclipsed.... The soul must be infused with the Spirit of the great Teacher if the mind would penetrate into the deep things of God. The truth will enlarge and enrich the mind. Its beauty, its purity, its holiness, [and] its invigorating power, will inspire the receivers, and they will not be content to be circumscribed in their work. The yearning soul will cry out after the living God, Show me Thy glory.—Manuscript 104, 1898.