If you are trying to find an easy way to go through this world that you shall not suffer any cross, any temptation, any loss, just think of Jesus. He left the glory that He had with the Father before the world was and came to our world to walk among the children of men. He was the only one that could save us. He was the only one that could work out for us the glorious deliverance from the power and thraldom of Satan. He was the only one that could place us on vantage ground. How? Through any goodness of our own? No. Through His own merits; through His own righteousness. He has bought us. He has ransomed us. He bought our reason. He purchased our intellect; He purchased our souls; He purchased every power, every ability that God has given to man, that we should use that ability to the glory of the Master that has bought us, that we might engage in His work with all the powers of our being. He stands first. I stand less, in a subordinate position. Self cannot be regarded as supreme.
– Manuscript 9, 1891