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Birthday Letter
237
are our thoughts? Upon whom do we love to converse? Who has our
warmest affections and our best energies? If we are on the Lord’s
side, our thoughts are with Him, and our sweetest thoughts are of
Him. We have no friendship with the world; we have consecrated
all that we have and are to Him. We long to bear His image, breathe
His Spirit, do His will, and please Him in all things.
You should pursue so decided a course that none need to be
mistaken in you. You cannot exert an influence upon the world
without decision. Your resolutions may be good and sincere, but
they will prove a failure unless you make God your strength and
move forward with a firm determination of purpose. You should
throw your whole heart into the cause and work of God. You should
be in earnest to obtain an experience in the Christian life. You should
exemplify Christ in your life.
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You cannot serve God and mammon. You are either wholly on
the Lord’s side or on the side of the enemy. “He that is not with Me
is against Me; and he that gathereth not with Me scattereth abroad.”
Some persons make their religious life a failure because they are
always wavering and do not have determination. They are frequently
convicted and come almost up to the point of surrendering all for
God; but, failing to meet the point, they fall back again. While in
this state the conscience is hardening and becoming less and less
susceptible to the impressions of the Spirit of God. His Spirit has
warned, has convicted, and has been disregarded, until it is nearly
grieved away. God will not be trifled with. He shows duty clearly,
and if there is a neglect to follow the light, it becomes darkness.
God bids you become a worker with Him in His vineyard. Com-
mence just where you are. Come to the cross and there renounce
self, the world, and every idol. Take Jesus into your heart fully. You
are in a hard place to preserve consecration and to exert an influence
which shall lead others from sin and pleasure and folly to the narrow
way, cast up for the ransomed of the Lord to walk in.
Make an entire surrender to God; yield up everything unre-
servedly, and thus seek for that peace which passes understanding.
You cannot draw nourishment from Christ unless you are in Him. If
not in Him, you are a branch that is withered. You do not feel your
want of purity and true holiness. You should feel an earnest desire
for the Holy Spirit and should pray earnestly to obtain it. You cannot