Amen, Richard! The statements that you quoted shared how liable we are as erring human beings to slip into a Laodicean condition, in which Christ is not in the heart. Thankfully, there is a divine remedy, and it is in harmony with the message to the Laodicean church in Revelation 3:
14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;
15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.
22 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
Now compare the promise given when we behold the loveliness of Jesus:
It would be well for us to spend a thoughtful hour each day in contemplation of the life of Christ. We should take it point by point, and let the imagination grasp each scene, especially the closing ones. As we thus dwell upon His great sacrifice for us, our confidence in Him will be more constant, our love will be quickened, and we shall be more deeply imbued with His spirit. If we would be saved at last, we must learn the lesson of penitence and humiliation at the foot of the cross. {DA 83.4}
It is striking that the need and the remedy is the same. Apart from beholding Christ and having Him in the soul, we are destitute of spiritual life. There is nothing good in us by nature. We need Jesus constantly.
In Revelation 3:18, we are promised that Christ will give us "gold tried in the fire"--another way to say that is faith which works by love. Faith is confidence in God because we behold His grace (for we are saved by grace through faith!). So by beholding Christ we are given stronger confidence in Him--we have the gold tried in the fire! That is what is promised in Desire of Ages page 83, paragraph 4: "our confidence in Him will be more constant"! That is the first remedy for a Laodicean condition. But He promises more!
There is also "white raiment"--that is the righteousness of Christ. His righteousness is imputed (covers our past confessed sins, as though we have never sinned), and imparted (wrought in the soul by the impartation of the Holy Spirit). We are MADE RIGHTEOUS by His abiding presence! When we have Christ's righteousness, all of the fruits of the Spirit will be seen in our lives--not one will be missing! That corresponds in the promise of Desire of Ages page 83, paragraph 4, with "our love will be quickened"--when we truly have the love of God in the soul, all of the fruits of the Spirit come with His unselfish love! We need a deeper filling of His love daily--and that comes by beholding the loveliness of Jesus!
But then there is EVEN MORE! Christ promises in Revelation 3:18 to give us "eyesalve"--only when Christ is abiding in the heart do we fully see how sinful and needy we really are. It is the Holy Spirit who not only reveals to us our sinfulness, but the power of our Savior! So when the promise in Desire of Ages says "we shall be more deeply imbued with His spirit," we can see that this is the offer of eyesalve. Only when we behold Jesus do we see how unlike Him we are by nature, and that WE NEED HIM CONSTANTLY to do ANY GOOD THING! When we are aware of our need, Jesus is MORE THAN ABLE to keep us from falling into sin or yielding to the clamors of our fallen nature! I am SO SO SO SO THANKFUL for Jesus and for the remedy to the Laodicean condition that we find in our reading today! Hallelujah! Let us continually abide in Him, that we may be enabled to help others experience the transforming power of the three-fold remedy!