Your ShelfYour Projects

Am I Alive?

33%

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 15, 1882

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 8, No. 23.

Read the full edition

Am I Alive?

By T. L. Cuyler

It is not a sufficient answer to this question to say, “I was once converted.” Thousands were born ten years ago that are now in their coffins. Granting you were once made alive, are you alive to-day? If so, how shall you keep alive? First of all comes prayer, the daily and hourly intercourse of the soul with God. Prayer is just as vital to my spiritual life as water is to the “monthly rose.” Prayer is the conduit pipe between my soul and Heaven. It is the outlet upward for gratitude and yearning desires for blessings; it is the inlet through which the supplies of grace pour downward into the heart. When the channel is allowed to freeze up, I am in the same condition with the house-keeper who inquires, “I wonder why the water does not run to-day? The plumber is sent for and he soon explains the difficulty: “Your pipes are frozen up; the connection with the reservoir is stopped.” Alas for the Christian who has broken his connection with Christ!
But with prayer the Master also coupled watchfulness: “I say unto all, watch.” The oversight must be close, constant, and wakeful. If you were set to keep a canary bird on the open palm of your hand, you would understand what is meant by “keeping the heart with all diligence.” You must not take off the spiritual eye for one instant. Watch the stealthy approaches of the tempter. Watch for the old habits of sin that will steal back again though they have been driven off a hundred times “from the premises.” Watch for opportunities to do good. Let the Mary side of your religion be ever at the feet of Jesus in humble devotion; let the Martha side of your piety be ever abounding in the work of the Lord. Let us use our knees for prayer, our eyes for watchfulness, our purses for liberal giving, our tongues for confessing Jesus, and both our hands in hard work to do Christ’s will, and to pull sinners out of the everlasting fires.—T. L. Cuyler.