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Seek the Lord, November 27
Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth.
Ecclesiastes 12:1
.
My Dear Young Friend: I have felt an interest in you similar to the yearning
desire a mother feels for her child. Will you let me be your friend? Gladly would
I help you to help yourself to become an honorable, trustworthy man. You need
a Friend that will help you at all times, and I point you to Jesus as your Friend
and Helper. I do not ask how far you separated your soul from God in the days of
your temptation. I do not seek to draw aside the curtain that conceals the past. But
some things which have been opened before me in your past history have made
me feel an intense desire to preserve you from companionship that would not be a
help to you, that would not lift you up, but would drag you down....
Your only safety is in making a decided movement in the right direction. I
cannot choose for you. If I could, gladly would I do it.... You have kept yourself
aloof from Christ for a long time, and yet probation has been granted you—you
have had light and opportunities to know what is truth. It rests with you to decide
whether you will choose the service of Satan or the service of Him who gave His
life for you....
In your younger days you had conscientious convictions, but your associations
were not properly chosen, and in following your own lead, you have brought
danger and suffering upon yourself. You will carry the marks as long as life shall
last. If an angel of God had not, in answer to the many prayers sent up to heaven
in your behalf, stood by your side at the time of the accident, your life would have
ended then and there.... But the Lord said, “I will spare him for another trial.”...
We sometimes blunder, but if we see and confess our errors, God is just to
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Our failures should
not discourage us, but should be turned into victories. It is your privilege to choose
this day whom you will serve....
You have within your reach more than finite possibilities. If you link yourself
with God, turning to Him with full decision of soul, He will accept the prodigal....
Make your decision for time and for eternity. Let not any human agent cheat
you out of your soul. No one can pay a ransom for your soul. Jesus has done that.
Will you be indifferent to such love? ... Again I say, “Come.” Jesus invites [you];
all heaven says, “Come.”—
Letter 33, November 27, 1896
, to a young Adventist
in Australia.
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