INSPIRED BY GRATITUDE

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · January 15, 1880

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 55, No. 3

INSPIRED BY GRATITUDE.

In a communication for the REVIEW, a brother who signs himself “Backslider,” after confessing and bemoaning his shortcomings and his consequent lack of the presence of the Lord, and his barrenness of soul, at length turns to the gracious offers of mercy, and speaks in the following words of the good resolutions and determinations it prompts him to form. It will do many others good to take the same view of the subject, and adopt the same cheerful determinations.

“Praise the Lord, O my soul! probation is not yet ended; the ledger book of Heaven is not yet closed! Yet there is an opportunity for sinners and backsliders to come and wash away their sins in the fountain of God’s infinite mercy. ‘Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.’ ‘To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.’”

“Merciful Father, full of love, pity, and compassion, help me humbly and earnestly to seek the throne of thy grace; help me to return to thy extended arms. Let me hear thy pleading voice: ‘Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ Help me to feel as Jonah felt when he said: ‘I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness.’ How great is thy longsuffering.”

“Thou hast spared my unprofitable life, in order that I might be converted, and perfect a character worthy of a place in thy kingdom. Help me now to refrain from evil, and to do good, to redeem the time which I have lost by my indifference and negligence.

“I feel that I will return again unto the Lord, who will abundantly pardon. I will take the cup of salvation, and sing of his majesty and his boundless love. I will again put on the whole armor of God, and engage in the Christian warfare. I will be a soldier of the cross, and fight nobly on the battle field till I win the everlasting crown. I will arise in the name of God, and bid defiance to every allurement and temptation, to Satan and his angels.

“I will consecrate myself anew to the service of God, and engage with renewed vigor and earnestness in the glorious work of spreading the light of truth to those who yet grope in darkness. I will endeavor to put my whole soul and my best energies into this glorious cause. To this end may God give me strength; and when Jesus appears in the clouds of glory to gather his faithful, ransomed ones home, may I be so happy as to be one of their number. Give me then, O Lord, a humble place in thine everlasting kingdom!”