Rules for Daily Practice.
By H. I. Farnum
WHEN you awake in the morning, remember that it is God who has watched over you while slumbering, and do not forget to kneel down and thank him, that you have been refreshed by “tired nature’s sweet restorer, balmy sleep.” Do not forget to thank him that you are not languishing upon a bed of suffering as in months past. Remember that he was mindful of you in those dreadful hours, and has brought you from the brink of the grave, and now you should fill up the remainder of your life with doing good. You should also remember that you may be called at any moment to leave the friends and scenes that now surround you, and pass “death’s chilling billows.” Therefore you should consider the moments that are given you as very precious. You should take them, as they are given, one by one, and fill them up with usefulness, taking care that none are wasted. “Do the duties of to-day,
The duties, plainest, nearest,
Duties done will clear the way,
And chase the clouds thou fearest.
“Do not linger with regretting,
Or for passing hours despond,
Or the daily toil forgetting,
Look too eagerly beyond.” As each new morning comes, remember that, “every day of thy life, is a leaf in thy history, a leaf that shall once be turned back to again, that it may be seen what was written there; and that whatever was written may be read out in the hearing of all.” Remember that it is not the work of your life to follow your natural inclinations, and gratify your carnal appetites; no, no. Our race was at first created only a little lower than the angels, and crowned with glory and honor; but, alas! how low we have fallen! How degraded we have become. But even the Son of God has given his life a ransom for you, and through his mediation you can regain your first estate. But your carnal nature is at enmity with God. You must fight against, and subdue, it. Do not neglect to study the sacred Scriptures, and instructions given through the gifts of the church. The great God of the universe, the Creator of countless worlds, has so loved us, while we were yet sinners, that he has not only given his own Son to die for our transgressions, but has stooped so low as to give us written rules and minute directions, which if followed, will lead us from sin, misery, and death, up to the city of gold. What folly, then to attend to lesser matters, and neglect that which is able to make us wise unto salvation. Do not neglect secret prayer. It is accounted a great honor to converse with an earthly king, but how much greater the honor, to be permitted to address with familiarity the King of kings and Lord of lords! And this is not all, you may become his child, and call him your Father, and Jesus Christ your elder Brother. You may become an heir to enduring riches, and receive an immortal inheritance. But you must be refined and made better, before you will be fit to enter the society of angels and dwell in the presence of God. You are too weak, too ignorant, too vain and vile, to fit yourself, without aid. But angels are ready to help you. Christ is waiting to hear and give you strength. Why then, will you neglect to call? Vainly you may strive to make yourself better. The adversary of your soul is strong. Your own natural inclinations are tending downward. You cannot successfully combat these, your foes, without a higher strength than your own. This strength you must draw from the fountain head. You cannot live a Christian life, without frequent converse, alone with God; for “Prayer is the Christian’s vital breath, the Christian’s native air.” You must remember that your earthly friends are, like yourself, frail as the morning flower, and liable to disappear at any moment like a vapor and be seen no more. Therefore you should ever be kind and forbearing, remembering that it is often necessary to extend forbearance to you, and you must not take up the bridge over which you yourself must needs pass. “Judge not another’s sin,
Till you have scanned your own,
Not till your heart is pure within.
Cast thou at him a stone.
“Some mote may dim your sight,
Or intercept your view,
Till what appears to him but right,
Seems only wrong to you.
“Perhaps your reckless course,
Did his frail feet misguide,
Then if you disapprove his acts,
Look at the brightest side.” Ever be kind, lenient, and forgiving. “If for good you’ve taken ill,
Let it pass!
Oh! be kind and gentle still,
Let it pass!
Any vulgar souls that live,
May condemn without reprieve,
’Tis the noble who forgive,
Let it pass!
Let it pass!” Do not forget that life is probation. Do not forget that the character which you are now forming, will pass with you into the eternal state. Remember also that you have only one life, in which to prepare for that which is beyond, and that, at longest is very brief. What consummate folly, then to trifle it away! “’Tis not for man to trifle, Life is brief,
And sin is here;
Our age is but the falling of a leaf,
A dropping tear.
We have no time to sport away the hours,
All must be earnest in a world like ours.
Not many lives, but only one have we,
One, only one,
How sacred should that one life ever be,
That narrow span!
Day after day filled up with blessed toil,
Hour after hour still bringing in new spoil.” “Be earnest! though thy labor seem,
To thee, to come to naught,
Toil on, ere long a heavenly gleam,
Will show what thou hast wrought.” Ever be mindful of your own weakness. The “true Witness” describes you as being poor, and wretched, and miserable, and blind, and naked. Therefore never for a moment, think to “sound the vain trumpet of self-commendation or forget to remember your own imperfections.” Seek wisdom that comes from above! Seek meekness and righteousness, that it may be you may be hid in the day of his fierce anger. Endeavor to do all the good you can. This is an evil and degenerate age. Pride, folly, strife and crime are rampant. The greater part of the human race are lovers of pleasures, more than lovers of God. They are rushing on in the broad road. The gay worldling and he who wears the form of godliness, side by side, all unconscious, apparently, of the dreadful goal to which they are most surely tending. Those who know not God, revel in their wickedness; and alas! it is a painful fact that thousands, who confidently believe themselves walking in the narrow path, tread beneath their feet the holy law of God, and think it a very little thing to despise his authority, forgetting that love to God is manifested in the observance of his commandments, and that even the prayer of him, who turneth away his ear from hearing the law, is to the Lord an abomination. Moral darkness covers the earth, and the great mass of its inhabitants are ripening for destruction. And yet there are thousands, with honest hearts, upon whom the glorious light of present truth has never shone. In view of these things, endeavor to do all the good you can; but do not aspire to great things; for “small occasions in the path of life, lie thickly strewn while great are rarely scattered.” With earnestness seek heavenly wisdom to assist you at all times. “If you cannot, in the harvest,
Garner up the richest sheaves,
Many a grain both ripe and golden,
Which the careless reaper leaves;
You can glean among the briers,
Growing rank against the wall,
For it may be that their shadow,
Hides the heaviest wheat of all.
Do not then stand idly waiting,
For some greater work to do,
Fortune is a lazy goddess,
And will never come to you.
Go and toil in any vineyard.
Do not fear to do or dare,
If you want a field of labor,
You can find it any where.” In whatever you engage, ask yourself this question, Am I doing right? Am I doing what God would have me do? If your conscience says, Yes; and the answer does not conflict with the word of God, then persevere, go right ahead, and do the very best you can, asking God for aid. But if you are conscious that you are pursuing a wrong course, stop immediately, retrace your steps as rapidly as possible, resting not till you have found the right way and can invoke the blessing of God in all that you do. “Call the good seed for the coming hours,
That all thy days may be calm and free,
Evermore plucking the planted flowers,
Binding rich sheaves for eternity.” Do not become discouraged. If, in your endeavors to do right, you often fail; if betimes darkness gathers o’er thy way, or adverse winds blow coldly round thee, do not become disheartened. You are indeed weak, but Christ is strong. You are indeed sinful, but you have an advocate with the Father even Jesus Christ the righteous. You must persevere in your efforts to overcome sin, and he will make you conqueror. Do not lean upon an arm of flesh. Look for strength and help to the only infallible source. Nothing of an earthly nature is reliable; but God and his words are the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. “Man and his earth
Are changing day by day;
Truth cannot change, lest ever grow
Feeble, and old, and grey.” When those whom you have loved, as fellow-travelers to a better country, as children of your heavenly Father, turn coldly from you; when, perhaps, envy, jealousy and hatred usurp the throne where love, and Christian communion once reigned; remember that perhaps you have changed too. Scan narrowly your own heart and see. But oh! remember that your heavenly Father never changes. “When winter fortunes cloud the brows
Of summer friends; when eyes grow strange;
When plighted faith forgets its vows;
When earth and all things in it change;
O Lord thy mercies fail me never,
Thy boundless love is mine forever.” Deerfield, Steele Co., Minn.