Christian Character MUST Be Manifested - 1832

The Christian should manifest his character, because he lives for nothing else. When a man is converted to God, he is prepared that moment for heaven;—that is, he has passed through the great revolution of moral feeling which will henceforward distinguish him from the wicked ; and if he then dies, God will receive him to rest. It becomes then a most interesting question, why does God continue his stay on the earth ? Why does he ordain that he shall still be doomed to live in a world of sin—to encounter contempt, and persecution, and poverty, and temptation, and lingering disease 1 Were an angel of bliss arrested in heaven, and commanded to descend to our scenes of calamity and want and wo—to be the tenant of a human body, and the object of the ribaldry and scorn of
the world, it would be a case for which he would expect that some reason could be rendered.