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Invite the Youth to your Homes, August 21
Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye
have done it unto me.
Matthew 25:40
.
We are in a world of sin and temptation, and youth are perishing out of Christ
all around us, and He wants you to labor for the youth in every conceivable way
that you can. If you have a house, and a pleasant home, then invite the youth
that have no homes, invite the youth that are in need of help, that are in need of
sympathy and kind words, courtesy, and respect. They want all this. If you want
to bring them to Christ, you must show your love and respect for the purchase
of His blood, the souls whom He has ransomed by the infinite cost of His own
precious life, and is not that enough to lead us, as soon as we are a branch in the
vine, to bear fruit? ...
In heaven we shall see those youth that we helped, those youth that we invited
to our house, those youth that we led from temptation, those youth that we tried to
win away from being drunkards and tobacco users and wine drinkers and all these
habits which are taking the underpinning out of the house, befogging the brain,
and taking away the reason, and leaving men without a sound mind, and a sound
body.... What do we want? A face that will reflect the sunshine of the glory of
God, we want a face that reflects the likeness of the divine. We want a character
reshaped. We want that the image of Christ should be restored to us. May God
help us that we may ... do our best in our lifetime.
You have no time to devote to the theater or the dance hall. You have no
time to grumble. It is lost, lost. You have no time to play cards. You have no
time to attend horse races. You have no time to attend shows. How is it with my
soul? ... Have I a living connection with God? If I have, I must seek to win these
souls that are attracted with these outward pleasures. Satan has managed it. Satan
has devised it that one pleasure should crowd on the heels of another, a feverish
excitement. No time to contemplate God, no time to think of heaven or heavenly
things, no time to study the Bible, no time to put forth interested efforts for those
that are out of Christ.
But those that ... are giving themselves to Jesus ... can hear that voice that
shall pronounce the benediction, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” There, you see, that
is election.... It was prepared for every soul that would be obedient to God and
that would work in Christ’s lines, because that when they obtain the treasure of
heavenly reward, they enter into the joy of their Lord, because their joy was full
of Christ’s joy which was to win souls to the Saviour.—
Manuscript 43, 1894
.
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