::R0437 : page 8::

SOME OF YOUR DIFFICULTY

It may be that you do not have advantage of attending meetings where special and definite instruction is given upon holiness, it may be there is no one near you to whom you can open your heart fully and freely as to your religious experience, and thus your heart-longings and spiritual problems are kept in your own heart and closet. When you read or hear of the clear instruction and victorious experience that others have you feel like pining. Remember that this very solitude of soul may in the end work out for you a deeper and stronger experience in Divine things.

::R0437 : page 8::

You are shut away from human help, God compels you to draw very near the original fountain of light; His loving voice penetrates your heart, calling you to be holy; the luke-warm souls about you have little or no interest in that which engrosses your thoughts; yet God’s providence has put you in your present locality and sphere; He has His finger upon all your circumstances, and in answer to your tears and prayers He is making your deprivations and perplexities work out for your good.

::R0437 : page 8::

Do not try to run away from your circumstances; some other place or surroundings may seem enchanting to your mind, and you fancy you could be holy much easier were your lot cast there or yonder. You forget that wherever you fly you must carry your poor self along with you, and those fancied circumstances of easy piety might prove your utter ruin. In your solitariness of soul you are drawn away from human aid that you may more truly be as a little babe with God and learn directly from His Spirit. Oh, lonely seeker after holiness, let nothing deter you; give yourself and your present surroundings utterly into God’s hand; spend every hour in doing His will as it is revealed to you, and He can turn your apparent disadvantages into a throne of triumph.

—GEO. D. WATSON.

====================

— January, 1883 —