The Inner Life

We have quoted all this in order to impress upon you one thing—that we are unquestionably close to the end of an age, when the nations are being called before their spiritual judges, under the direction of the Son of Man, and their people are being tested and proven to determine who are of the sheep and who of the goats, at the same time giving them the opportunity of repenting before the day of the Lord’s coming.

To put it in another way, we have come to the end of another term in Life’s school, and all men are now being examined to learn who are the real followers of Christ, those who are to be advanced to the next grade; and they are now being separated from the others, who will simply remain where they are, or stay in their present condition or state of consciousness. Which will be to them like an “everlasting punishment” before it is over; for they will have had a glimpse of what they have missed in witnessing the coming of the Son of Man in all His Glory surrounded by His Angels.

In what way are all men now being examined, and how are they being tested, and what will determine their worthiness?

Every word that Jesus spoke in his ministry on earth was to point the way and to tell what must be done by those who call themselves Christians and who believe in and would follow him. It is not enough just to know his words, or to go to church regularly, or even to teach or preach his truths; all must do the will of their Father in Heaven. Jesus said,

“He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me; and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.”