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Messages to Young People
against temptation, and determined to do their duty at all hazards. They
are like one who in a perilous journey refuses any guide or instruction
whereby he may escape accident and ruin, and goes on in a certain
course of destruction.
Choosing Your Destiny
O that every one might realize that he is the arbiter of his own
destiny! Your happiness for this life, and for the future, immortal
life lies with yourself. If you choose, you may have associates who,
by their influence, will cheapen your thoughts, your words, and your
morals. You can give loose rein to appetite and passion, despise
authority, use coarse language, and degrade yourself to the lowest
level. Your influence may be such as to contaminate others, and you
may be the cause of ruining those whom you might have brought to
Christ. You may lead from Christ, from right, from holiness, and from
heaven. In the judgment the lost may point to you and say, “If it had not
been for his influence, I would not have stumbled and made a mock of
religion. He had light, he knew the way to heaven. I was ignorant, and
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went blindfolded on my way to destruction.” O, what answer can we
give to such a charge? How important it is that every one shall consider
where he is leading souls. We are in view of the eternal world, and
how diligently we should count the cost of our influence. We should
not drop eternity out of our reckoning, but accustom ourselves to ask
continually, Will this course be pleasing to God? What will be the
influence of my action upon the minds of those who have had much
less light and evidence as to what is right?
Heart-Searching Questions
O, that the youth would search the Scriptures, and do as they think
Christ would have done under similar circumstances! Our oppor-
tunities to gain knowledge from heaven have placed upon us large
responsibilities, and with intense solicitude, we should inquire, Am
I walking in the light? Am I, according to the great light given me,
leading in the right way, or making such crooked paths that the lame
shall be turned out of the way? ...