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Chapter 38—A Birthday Letter
My Dear Son,
I write this for your nineteenth birthday. It has been a pleasure
to have you with us a few weeks in the past. You are about to leave
us, yet our prayers shall follow you.
Another year of your life closes today. How can you look back
upon it? Have you made advancement in the divine life? Have you
increased in spirituality? Have you crucified self, with the affections
and lusts? Have you an increased interest in the study of God’s
word? Have you gained decided victories over your own failings
and waywardness? Oh, what has been the record of your life for the
year which has now passed into eternity, never to be recalled?
As you enter upon a new year, let it be with an earnest resolve
to have your course onward and upward. Let your life be more
elevated and exalted than it has hitherto been. Make it your aim not
to seek your own interest and pleasure, but to advance the cause
of your Redeemer. Remain not in a position where you ever need
help yourself, and where others have to guard you to keep you in the
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narrow way. You may be strong to exert a sanctifying influence upon
others. You may be where your soul’s interest will be awakened to
do good to others, to comfort the sorrowful, strengthen the weak,
and to bear your testimony for Christ whenever opportunity offers.
Aim to honor God in everything, always and everywhere. Carry your
religion into everything. Be thorough in whatever you undertake.
You have not experienced the saving power of God as it is your
privilege, because you have not made it the great aim of your life
to glorify Christ. Let every purpose you form, every work in which
you engage, and every pleasure you enjoy, be to the glory of God.
Let this be the language of your heart: I am thine, O God, to live for
Thee, to work for Thee, and to suffer for Thee.
Many profess to be on the Lord’s side, but they are not; the
weight of all their actions is on Satan’s side. By what means shall
we determine whose side we are on? Who has the heart? With whom
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