"You are selfish, exacting, and overbearing. This ought not to be. Your salvation depends on your acting from principle—serving God from principle, not from feeling, not from impulse. God will help you when you feel your need of help and set about the work with resolution, trusting in Him with all your heart. You are often discouraged without sufficient reason. You indulge feelings akin to hatred. Your likes and dislikes are strong. These you must restrain. Control the tongue. “If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.” Help has been laid upon One that is mighty. He will be your strength and support, your front guard and rearward. 1T 698.1"
"For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body."
EGW directly quotes James 3:2, making this an explicit allusion.
What preparation are you making for the better life? It is Satan who makes you think that all your powers must be exercised to get along in this world. You are fearing and trembling for the future of this life, while you are neglecting the future, eternal life. Where is the anxiety, the earnestness, the zeal, lest you make a failure there and sustain an immense loss? To lose a little of this world seems to you a terrible calamity which would cost your life. But the thought of losing heaven does not cause half the fears to be manifested. Through your careful efforts to save this life, you are in danger of losing eternal life. You cannot afford to lose heaven, lose eternal life, lose the eternal weight of glory. You cannot afford to lose all these riches, this exceedingly precious, immeasurable happiness. Why do you not act like a sane man, and be as earnest, as zealous, and as persevering in your efforts for the better life, the immortal crown, the eternal, imperishable treasure, as you…
"But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:"
Both passages contrast earthly and heavenly treasures, urging focus on the latter. EGW's passage amplifies the idea of laying up treasures in heaven by detailing the dangers of prioritizing earthly concerns.
"Your heart is on your earthly treasures, therefore you have no heart for the heavenly. These poor things which are seen—the earthly—eclipse the glory of the heavenly. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Your words will declare, your acts will show, where your treasure is. If it is in this world, the little gain of earth, your anxieties will be manifested in that direction. If you are striving for the immortal inheritance with an earnestness, energy, and zeal proportionate to its value, then can you be a fair candidate for everlasting life, and heir of glory. You need a fresh conversion every day. Die daily to self, keep your tongue as with a bridle, control your words, cease your murmurings and complaints, let not one word of censure escape your lips. If this requires a great effort, make it; you will be repaid in so doing. 1T 698.3"
"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
The EGW passage directly quotes and expands upon Matthew 6:21.
"While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."
Both passages contrast earthly and heavenly things, with the EGW passage elaborating on the implications of focusing on the temporal versus the eternal.
"But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city."
Both passages discuss desiring a heavenly inheritance. The EGW passage speaks of striving for an 'immortal inheritance' and being an 'heir of glory,' which aligns with the theme of desiring a 'better country, that is, an heavenly' in Hebrews 11:16.