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Selected Messages Book 2
lesson of trust in God to learn anew in the hard school of suffering.
Let D.M. Canright be swallowed up in Jesus....
Our names may be called in a little while, and there will be none
to answer. Let that life be hid in God, and that name be registered in
heaven, and it is immortalized. Follow on wherever Christ leads the
way, and let the footprints which you leave behind you on the sands of
time be such that others may safely follow in the path of holiness.
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All along the path that leads to death there are pains and penalties,
there are sorrows and disappointments, there are warnings from God’s
messengers not to go on, and God will make it hard for the heedless
and the headstrong to destroy themselves. All the way up the steep
path leading to eternal life are wellsprings of joy to refresh the weary.
The true, strong joy of the soul begins when Christ is formed within,
the hope of glory. If you now choose the path where God leads, and
go forward where the voice of duty calls, the difficulties which Satan
has magnified before you will disappear.
No path is safe, save that which grows clearer and firmer the farther
it is pursued. The foot may sometimes slip upon the safest path. In
order to walk without fear, you must know that your hand is firmly
held by the hand of Christ. You must not for a moment think there is no
danger for you. The wisest make mistakes. The strongest sometimes
falter. The foolish, self-confident, heady, and high-minded, who press
heedlessly on upon forbidden paths, flattering themselves that they
can change their course when they please, are walking upon a path of
pitfalls. They may recover a fall, a mistake they make, but how many
make one misstep which will prove their eternal ruin.
If you play the policy of noncommittal in order to gain objects
you would otherwise fail to obtain, if you secure by art and cunning
what should be won by perseverance, toil, and conflict, you will be
entangled in a net of your own weaving, and will be ruined, not only
for this world, but for the future life.
God forbid that you should make shipwreck of faith here. Look at
Paul; listen to his words sounding along the line to our time: “I have
fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the
Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me
only, but unto all them also that love His appearing” (
2 Timothy 4:7,
8
). Here is the battle shout of victory from Paul. What will be yours?
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