Chapter 158—Agonizing Prayer
Who in the days of his flesh ... offered up prayers and supplications
with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from
death.
Hebrews 5:7
.
While you pray, dear youth, that you may not be led into temptation,
remember that your work does not end with the prayer. You must then answer
your own prayer as far as possible by resisting temptation, and leave that
which you cannot do for yourselves for Jesus to do for you....
I would remind the youth who ornament their persons ... that, because of
their sins, the Saviour’s head wore the shameful crown of thorns. When you
devote precious time to trimming your apparel, remember that the King of
glory wore a plain, seamless coat. You who weary yourselves in decorating
your persons, please bear in mind that Jesus was often weary from incessant
toil and self-denial and self-sacrifice to bless the suffering and needy. He
spent whole nights in prayer upon the lonely mountains, not because of His
weakness and His necessities, but because He saw, He felt, the weakness
of your natures to resist the temptations of the enemy upon the very points
where you are now overcome. He knew that you would be indifferent in
regard to your dangers and would not feel your need of prayer. It was on our
account that He poured out His prayers to His Father with strong cries and
tears. It was to save us from the very pride and love of vanity and pleasure
which we now indulge, and which crowds out the love of Jesus, that those
tears were shed....
Will you, young friends, arise and shake off this dreadful indifference
and stupor which has conformed you to the world? Will you heed the voice
of warning which tells you that destruction lies in the path of those who are
at ease in this hour of danger?
Many of our youth, by their careless disregard of the warnings and
reproofs given them, open the door wide for Satan to enter. With God’s word
for our guide and Jesus as our heavenly Teacher we need not be ignorant of
His requirements or of Satan’s devices.... It will be no unpleasant task to be
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