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Beautiful Garments, January 9
Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful
garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city.
Isaiah 52:1
.
During the night I ...passed through an experience similar to that which I
had at Salamanca, New York, two years ago. When I awoke from my first
short sleep, light seemed to be all around me, the room seemed to be full of
heavenly angels. The Spirit of God was upon me, and my heart was full to
overflowing. O what love was burning in my heart! I was exclaiming aloud,
“Lord Jesus, I love Thee; Thou knowest that I love Thee. My heavenly Father,
I praise Thee with my whole heart. ‘For God so loved the world, that he gave
his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life’ (
John 3:16
). ‘The path of the just is as the shining light,
that shineth more and more unto the perfect day’ (
Proverbs 4:18
). Jesus, my
Redeemer, the Representative of the Father, I put my trust in Thee.”
My peace was like a river, I seemed to be shut in with God, in sweet
communion with Him through my waking and sleeping hours. What high
and holy privileges seemed to be mine in the love of Jesus, His life and His
guardianship....
Oh, why does not the church of Christ arise, and put on her beautiful gar-
ments! Why does she not shine? The great reason of such feeble Christianity
is that those who claim to believe the truth have so little knowledge of Christ,
and so low an estimate of what He will be to them, and what they may be to
Him. We have the most solemn, weighty truths ever committed to mortals.
Were our words, our thoughts, our actions, more pure and elevated, more
in accordance with the holy faith we profess, we should view our responsibil-
ities in a far different light. How solemn, how sacred, they would appear! We
would have a deeper sense of our obligations, and should make it our constant
aim to perfect holiness in the fear of God. Earthly, temporal things would be
subordinate to the heavenly and eternal....
I am so grateful for the privilege of being connected with God in any
way. I feel highly honored. All I ask is that the Lord in His great mercy
and lovingkindness will give me strength to use in His service.—
Letter 20a,
January 9, 1893
, to Capt. C. Eldridge.
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