Self-Caring Ministers
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depravity, may be overcome. Every Christian must learn of Christ,
“who, when He was reviled, reviled not again.”
The work before you is no light task, no child’s play. You have
failed to go forward to perfection, but now you may begin anew. You
may show by your life what the power and grace of God can do in
transforming the natural man into a spiritual man in Christ Jesus. You
may be overcomers if you will, in the name of Christ, take hold of the
work decidedly.
There is one solemn statement that I wish you to write upon your
hearts: When persons have yielded to Satan’s devices, and have thus
placed themselves upon his ground, if they would then recover them-
selves from his snares through the mercy of God, they must come into
close connection with Him, daily crucify self, and be thoroughly trans-
formed, in order to gain the victory and win eternal life. You both went
a long distance from God. You have brought great reproach upon His
cause. Now you must be most zealously in earnest to overcome every
defect in your characters and lead a life of humiliation and trusting,
pleading prayer; in faith ask God for Christ’s sake to cancel the past,
so that the seeds of evil that you have sown may not be extended and
be treasured up as wrath against the day of wrath.
Now to go on in the same course, fractious in spirit, petting your-
selves, babyishly talking of your infirmities, expatiating upon your
feelings, and dwelling upon the dark side, will make you weak and
spiritless. It was these things that made you easy subjects to Satan’s de-
vices. If you begin the same course you were pursuing when your feet
began to slip, your cases will be hopeless. If you break off your sins
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by repentance, and avoid the fearful consequences by taking refuge
in a Saviour’s intercession, pleading with God earnestly for His Spirit
that you may be led and taught and quickened, you may reap life
everlasting. Do not fail to unitedly, humbly, cast your helpless souls in
faith upon the merits of Christ.
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