“Two Principles”

The Present Truth,

 February 9, 1893.

E. J. Waggoner

All action is based on two fundamental principles. These principles are love and selfishness. Everyone good action is an expression of the principle of love; every evil action is an expression of some form of selfishness.

The principle of love leads the actor to forget self and labour for others. All the great work of creation is an expression of this principle. When God created the world, it was not for Himself, but for man. Every step in this creation is an expression of the same principle. The strength of the animal kingdom is devoted to nourish the vegetables; and, in turn, the vegetable kingdom does not toil for itself. The little seed cast into the earth expends all its energy to produce a beautiful foliage-covered tree, to be enjoyed by others; after years of patient toil, it is covered with blossoms of fragrance, which shed forth their sweet perfume to delight others; and finally its luscious fruit is produced, not for the tree itself to devour, but for the nourishment of others. In like manner, all the works of God in the earth are living illustrations of the principle of love. The apostle expressed a great truth when he said, “God is love.” All His acts are acts of love.

The second principle is just the opposite of this. In the works of love another than the actor is always the object of the action; in the second principle, self is the great centre and ultimate object of every act. God is the personification of the first; Satan of the second. While all the works of God are an expression of love, all the acts of Satan are acts of selfishness. The cause of his fall was the desire to have self exalted,-to become “like the Most High.” In leading man into sin, Satan use the same principle,-a desire on the part of man to be elevated, and become as gods.

The kingdom of God is the kingdom of love; that of Satan is the kingdom of selfishness. Man is born in the kingdom of the latter. By nature his heart is sinful and selfish. Originally he was greeted pure, and had he lived according to the plan of God, his life would have been a continual expression of love, and the result would have been perfect bliss. But in the fall man lost his innocence; he received in exchange selfishness. There is scarce a trace of the original purity in his nature. We say of some people that by nature they are unselfish; but this is true only when we compare them with man; compared with the standard of perfect love which we have in God, all are selfish. Man may have what we term human love, but if he has the perfect love of God, it is only because it has been shed abroad in his heart by the Spirit of God.

The plan of salvation was devised to redeem man from the state of selfishness. It has provisions for taking him wholly out of the kingdom of selfishness and transplanting him into the kingdom of love. This work is expressed in the term “conversion.” It is a turning about from following the natural, selfish tendencies of the heart, to follow the principle of love; from calling the principle that leads down to sorrow and death, to the principle that leads to happiness and life.

The nature of a being is expressed by his works. The principles of the heart work themselves out through actions. When a man is converted, he adopts as his standard of action the principle of love. Before, he followed the impulses of the natural heart, which are only selfish. The adoption of this new standard simply as a resolution of the mind is not sufficient; that can only lead to failure; the principle of love must be planted in the heart; for nothing can come out in the actions but what is in the heart.

The love of God cannot be planted in the heart once for always. The doctrine of “once in grace, always in grace,” is a fatal delusion. When God’s love is received in the heart, it must be held there by faith; the moment faith lets go, it is gone; and without it, only the selfish, sinful elements of our nature can be manifested in our lives. We are now in the school of Christ. The great lesson to be learned is to keep in subjection the evil of our natures, and manifest only the Spirit of Christ. This can be done only with the help of God. His strength delegated to us in the Gospel is sufficient to bring us to the point where our acts will be an unadulterated expression of the principle of love. This is the work of sanctification; it is the state of perfection which all should reach and occupy. Left to himself, man could never reach this condition; but through Christ strengthening him, it is possible; and being possible for all, everyone that has not reached this state will be inexcusable.