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Testimonies for the Church Volume 2
you cannot do them. The will is at fault; you have the power, but not
the will.
You are pining for love. Jesus calls for your affections; if you will
devote them to Him, He will rid you of all this sickly, sentimental,
impure love, found in the pages of a novel. In Jesus you may love
with fervor, with earnestness. This love may increase in depth and
expand without limit, and not endanger health of body or strength of
mind. You need love to God and to your neighbor. You must awake,
you must shake off this deception which is upon you, and seek pure
love.
Your only hope of this life and the better life is to seek earnestly
for the true religion of Jesus. You have not a religious experience.
You need to be converted. Your listless, indolent, selfish sadness
will then give place to cheerfulness, which will be beneficial to body
and mind. Love to God will ensure love to your neighbor, and you
will engage in the duties of life with a deep, unselfish interest. Pure
principles should underlie your actions. Inward peace will bring
even your thoughts into a healthful channel. Devote yourself to God,
or you will never gain the better life.
You have duties to perform to your parents. You should not be
discouraged if you become weary at first. It will not prove a lasting
injury. Your parents frequently become exceedingly weary. It will
not be half so injurious to you to become very weary in useful labor
as for your mind to be dwelling upon yourself, fostering ailments
and yielding to despondency. A faithful fulfillment of home duties,
filling the position you can occupy to the best advantage, be it ever
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so simple and humble, is truly elevating. This divine influence is
needed. In this there is peace and sacred joy. It possesses healing
power. It will secretly and insensibly soothe the wounds of the soul,
and even the sufferings of the body. Peace of mind, which comes
from pure and holy motives and actions, will give free and vigorous
spring to all the organs of the body.
Inward peace and a conscience void of offense toward God will
quicken and invigorate the intellect like dew distilled upon the tender
plants. The will is then rightly directed and controlled, and is more
decided, and yet free from perverseness. The meditations are pleas-
ing because they are sanctified. The serenity of mind which you
may possess will bless all with whom you associate. This peace and