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Turning a New Leaf

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 19, 1911

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 88, No. 3.

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Turning a New Leaf

By C. M. S.

IN many things we are all prodigals. We have taken that with which our Father has endowed us, and have used it for our own purposes. Then, when failure comes, when the frosts of adversity sear and burn the tender shoots of our selfish hopes, we “come to ourselves;” we resolve to “turn over a new leaf.”
That is what the prodigal did, when he “came to himself.” He acknowledged his wrong; and, as soon as he did, he began to yearn for the better way. But, in turning over that new leaf, he did not stay where he was. He said, “I will arise, and go to my father.” It was the doing of that that made his turning a success; that brought joy to his father’s heart; that brought him back again into the estate of manhood.
It is right there that so many fail in their good resolutions. They stay right where they were; they forget to go to Father’s house, where there is “bread enough and to spare” to keep their souls from famishing. They depend upon their own efforts right in the enemy’s country, where they met all their disaster. The enemy surrounds them on every side, and soon they are his again. In fact, they remained his so long as they remained away from Father’s house, and they had no strength to resist the powers of his chosen minions.
It does no good to turn over a new leaf unless you go to the Source of power and wisdom for that which will enable you to write on that new page a record that will not shame you at the year’s end and at your life’s end. Feeding husks to swine is no business for the Christian to be engaged in. It is better to be in that place where you can draw from Father’s house that bread of life which is designed to feed the hungry souls of men and women, and will feed your own soul, also.
No matter in what thing we have shown ourselves prodigals in the past, and let us arise and go to our Father’s house. He is waiting for us with a heart filled with the most loving tenderness; he will give us glad welcome; he will own us as his; he will keep us from falling, not only through the year, but through all the time, and make us children of his household forever.
C. M. S.