Chapter 30—Daydreaming
Dear Sister E,
I have been shown that you need a thorough conversion. You
have accepted the truth, but have not received the blessings that the
truth brings, because you have not experienced its transforming power.
You are in danger of losing both worlds unless you have a more
thorough work of grace in your heart and unless your will is brought
into conformity to the mind and will of Christ.
You are not now on the right track to obtain that peace and happi-
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ness which the true, humble, cross-bearing believer is sure to receive.
You have the stamp of your father’s character. You have a selfish dis-
position; you do not realize this, but it is true. Your principal thoughts
are for yourself, to please yourself, to do those things which will be
most agreeable to yourself, without reference to the happiness of those
around you. You are making a mistake in searching for happiness. If
you find it, it will be in the performance of duty and the forgetfulness
of self. While your thoughts are so much upon yourself, you cannot
be happy.
You neglect to cheerfully engage in the work which God has left
you to do. You overlook the common, simple duties lying directly
in your pathway, and your mind wanders off to some greater work,
which you imagine will be more congenial to your taste, and which
will supply the lack in your life, the barrenness in your soul. You will
surely be disappointed here. The work which God has left you to do is
to take up the common, everyday duties which are right around you
and do the plain, homely duties of life cheerfully, not mechanically,
but having your heart in what you do, performing with your heart, as
well as with your hands, the simple duties which lie before you.
You do not study to make others happy; your eyes are not open,
trying to discern what little things you can do, what little attentions
in the daily courtesies of life you can show to your parents and the
members of the household. You have felt too much that it was a
virtue to shut yourself away from the family, and brood over your
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