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Daughters of God
holier attractions engage the affections. Christians will show that they
are the friends of God by their obedience....
Our prayers for conformity to the image of Christ may not be
answered exactly as we desire. We may be tested and proved, for God
sees it [is] best to put us under a course of discipline which is essential
for us before we are fit subjects for the blessing we crave. We should
not become discouraged and give way to doubt, and think that our
prayers are not noticed. We should rely more securely upon Christ
and leave our case with God to answer our prayers in His own way.
God has not promised to bestow His blessings through the channels
we have marked out. God is too wise to err and too regardful of our
good to allow us to choose for ourselves.
The plans of God are always the best, although we may not always
discern them. Perfection of Christian character can be obtained only
through labor, conflict, and self-denial. We do not always count upon
this, and do not consider the painful and often protracted process of
purifying necessary for us in order that we may be conformed to the
image of Christ. God frequently answers our prayers in a way we
least expect. He brings us into positions which are the most trying to
reveal what is in our hearts. To further the development of Christian
graces He will place us in circumstances which will demand increased
exertion on our part to keep our faith in lively exercise.
Let us bear in mind, dear sister, how inestimably precious are the
gifts of God—the graces of His Spirit—and we shall not shrink from
the trying, testing process, be it ever so painful or humiliating to us.
How easy would be the way to heaven if there were no self-denial
or cross! How worldlings would rush in the way, and hypocrites
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would travel in it without number! Thank God for the cross, the self-
denial. The ignominy and shame our Saviour endured for us is none
too humiliating for those saved by the purchase of His blood. Heaven
will indeed be cheap enough.
Dear sister, it is for us to be patient, to choose the suffering part
of religion. Your own precious child may not discern the mystery of
godliness and may think you stubborn and foolish, that you will be odd
and singular from the world. But faint not. If [you are] faithful to duty,
God may touch the heart of your child and she may see the matchless
charms of a Saviour’s love. To the unbeliever whose happiness is in
the things of the world, its pleasures and its vanities, the conscientious