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Birthday Letter
241
a preparation for heaven? What have they to do to prepare you to
stand before the tribunal of God?
Be not deceived. God is not mocked. Nothing but holiness will
prepare you for heaven. It is sincere, experimental piety alone that
can give you a pure, elevated character and enable you to enter into
the presence of God, who dwelleth in light unapproachable. The
heavenly character must be acquired on earth, or it can never be
acquired at all. Then begin at once. Flatter not yourself that a time
will come when you can make an earnest effort easier than now.
Every day increases your distance from God. Prepare for eternity
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with such zeal as you have not yet manifested. Educate your mind
to love the Bible, to love the prayer meeting, to love the hour of
meditation, and, above all, the hour when the soul communes with
God. Become heavenly-minded if you would unite with the heavenly
choir in the mansions above.
A new year of your life now commences. A new page is turned
in the book of the recording angel. What will be the record upon
its pages? Shall it be blotted with neglect of God, with unfulfilled
duties? God forbid. Let a record be stamped there which you will
not be ashamed to have revealed to the gaze of men and angels.
Greenville, Michigan,
July 27, 1868.
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