A new year of your life now commences. A new page is turned in the book of the recording angel. What will be the record upon its pages? Shall it be blotted with neglect of God, with unfulfilled duties? God forbid. Let a record be stamped there which you will not be ashamed to have revealed to the gaze of men and angels.
(2T 268.1)
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Greenville, Michigan,July 27, 1868.
(2T 268)
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When the Lord showed me your case, I was pointed back many years in the past, when you became a believer in the near coming of Christ. You looked for, and loved, His appearing.
(2T 268.2)
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Your husband was naturally an affectionate, noble-minded man; but he relied upon his own strength, which was weakness. He did not feel the need of making God his strength. Intoxicating drink benumbed his brain and finally paralyzed the higher powers of his mind. His godlike manhood was sacrificed to gratify his thirst for strong drink.
(2T 268.3)
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You suffered opposition and abuse, yet God was your source of strength. While you trusted in Him, He sustained you. In all your trials you were not permitted to be overwhelmed. How often have the heavenly angels strengthened you when desponding, by presenting vividly to your mind passages of Scripture expressing the never-failing love of God, and giving evidence that His loving-kindness changeth not! Your soul trusted in God. It was your meat and drink to do the will of your heavenly Father. At times you had a firm trust in the promises of God, and then, again, your faith would be tried to the utmost. God’s dealings seemed mysterious, yet most of the time you had the evidence that He looked upon your affliction and would not cause your burdens to be greater than you could bear.
(2T 268.4)
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Very many who profess to be servants of Christ are none of His. They are deceiving their souls to their own destruction. While they profess to be servants of Christ, they are not living in obedience to His will. “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?”Romans 6:16. Many, while professing to be servants of Christ, are obeying another master, working daily against the Master whom they profess to serve. “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”Matthew 6:24.
(2T 442.1)
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Earthly and selfish interests engage the soul, mind, and strength of God’s professed followers. To all intents and purposes they are servants of mammon. They have not experienced a crucifixion to the world, with its affections and lusts. But few among the many who profess to be Christ’s followers can say in the language of the apostle: “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”(Galatians 6:14) “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.”Galatians 2:20. If willing obedience and true love characterize the lives of the people of God, their light will shine with a holy brightness to the world.
(2T 442.2)
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