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Closing
Suggestions
We must
bring this writing to a close. We loathe to say the last
word. Oh God, is there not one word more we can say that
may help some one to a holier life? The writer of these
lines is nearing his three score years and ten, and being
frail in body has written this little booklet as though it
may be his last. For two score years the ambition of his
life has been to walk close with God and to help others to
this blessed life. He has made some mistakes, but even
these have been turned to account in helping him to turn
with greater eagerness to ascend higher in the Divine
life. He has attained a fuller love for all men and for
things holy. He hates sin with a perfect hatred. He has
attained to a deeper insight into holiness of life. He
sees more clearly how the love of God and true holiness
can be brought into all the details of every day life; how
every thought and word and act can be stamped all over
with the beauty of holiness; how that an act can be done
to any creature in the tenderness of love. Before saying
the last word he wishes to impress upon all the vast
importance of being holy in the performance of the
smallest duty of life. It may be needful to reprove or
rebuke some one for stepping aside from the holy way of
Christ, but do it in the tenderness of heaven's love. You
must not assent to that which is evil though it be in your
dearest friend. You must not smile or nod the head at any
remark that is light or jesty, or contains any strife,
malice, or ill-will toward another. Let everything be done
in the sobriety, the gravity, the holiness, the joyfulness
and the love of Christ. We shall give you a few parting
counsels.
1. Be prayerful. Take time to bow in the secret place and
commune heart to heart with God at least twice every day.
See to it that in your prayers your soul is lifted up into
the presence of God and that it receives the stamp of His
holiness upon it. Guard against lukewarmness in prayer. Be
fervent, touch heaven and be touched by heaven.
2. Guard against being burdened with the cares of this
life. Keep your life free from fret, worry, and anxiety.
Rest calmly, tranquilly in the helpfulness of an ever
present heavenly Father. Guard against indifference and
slothfulness in the spiritual life. Attend vigorously to
all the spiritual duties. Come to your prayers with
reverence and holy awe. Enter the place of public worship
with reverence and a feeling of devotion. Do not engage in
a conversation in the house of God that would interfere
with or diminish the profoundness of that feeling of
reverence in your soul. The house of God is not the place
for conversing upon earthly themes. It is a place
appointed for the worship of God, not only during the
actual service, but before and after. The good effect
produced upon the soul by the sermon can be destroyed
before you quit the house by a turning of the mind to
earthly things.
3. See to it every day that you are wholly detached from
earthly things. Examine the heart often and closely lest
there get to be some affection for things on the earth.
See that your love for Christ grows warmer and your
interest in heaven grows keener. See to it that you are
perfectly contented with your lot in life. Be pleased with
all God is doing for you, and that you are pleasing Him in
all you do. Keep such a realization of God's presence that
it enters into and makes holy and heavenly your thoughts,
feelings, words, and deeds.
4. Allow nothing to disquiet you nor disturb your peace of
soul. Give no place to restlessness or impatience. Keep
heaven and eternity in full view. Live under the
consciousness that God has set His love upon you and that
the least fret, restlessness, anxiety, or impatience
grieves Him. Lean upon Him, hard upon Him and be at rest.
Keep the line of communication with heaven constantly
intact.
5. Be careful to turn every temptation, trial, and trouble
to good account. Have them work growth in grace in you,
for that is what they have been allowed to come to you
for. Trials are the things God works with to fashion more
perfectly His image in you. Never chafe under a trial.
Count them joy. Thank God for them.
6. Do not be half-hearted in your service to God. Be
intense, be earnest, be fervent; keep consecrated to God's
will. Live under the control of the Holy Spirit. Put first
things first. Keep a deep and sublime devotion to God in
your soul. Be saintly, be saintly, BE SAINTLY. Do not be
content with being just a little better, but be your best.
7. Let your mind dwell much on heaven. It will do you good
to think of death if you think of it as you should, if you
look upon it as the open door to the glories of heaven.
Remember that it is sure to come. Learn to look upon it as
you do a messenger you are expecting to come with glad
tidings to you. Do not wait for Death in fear, but wait as
you would for a loving friend. It has lost its sting.
Jesus removed the sting and placed a blessing in its
stead. Be busy while you are waiting. Guard against
idleness even in your old days. Keep busy to the last. Let
no moments go by unemployed. Do not give place to that
inclination to slow down and take life easy because you
are growing old. Do not entertain the thought that there
is no more now for you to do but to fold your hands and
wait the coming of the angels. Let us pray that in our
dying hour we may magnify Christ. Always be of good cheer.
Never let your heart be troubled. Live holy, live
prayerfully, trust God in all things and for all things.
I
am thinking of heaven tonight,
Of the beautiful place it must be,
Of the glories I there shall behold
When the pearly gates open to me.
Heaven,
sweet heaven, home of my soul,
How blessed to be there it will be;
I'll walk streets of gold, and never grow old
When the pearly gates open to me.
My
mind and heart are in heaven tonight,
From all things of the world I am free:
That mansion I see where I shall e'er be
When the pearly gates open to me.
Farewell,
dear reader, a loving farewell;
On thee I pray heaven's blessings to be:
When you come to go, may you have lived so
That heaven's gates will open to thee.
C.
E. Orr
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