Closing Suggestions

We must bring this writing to a close. We loathe to say the last word. O 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 someone 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 frivolous or gibing, 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.

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.
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.
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 presense that it enters into and makes holy and heavenly your thoughts, feelings, words, and deeds.
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.
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.
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.
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 ever 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.