Are You Sure?

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · May 31, 1877

Are you sure that you will live another day?

Are you sure that you are, by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, taking the road which leads to present and future happiness, the way of faith in Christ your Saviour, a faith which works by love? Are you sure you are not deceived by a name to live while you are spiritually dead?

Are you sure you are not injuring the cause of God in your family and in public, by an inconsistent walk? Are you sure you are training up your children in the way they should go, and by your example recommending religion to them?

Are you sure your temper is mild and affectionate, that you are of a forgiving spirit and heavenly in conversation, so that others may take knowledge of you that you have been with Jesus? Are you sure you never speak unnecessarily of the faults of others when absent? and if you reprove for faults, are you sure that it is in meekness and love?

Are you sure you read the Holy Scriptures daily, and search them, and try to retain and practice what you read?

Are you sure when you pray, that you are earnest, fervent, believing, and importunate? or are you cold, lifeless and formal?

Are you sure you make no vain excuses for not attending the house of God on the Lord's day? Will the excuses you make be accepted at the Judgment day?

Are you sure that you spend nothing in gaudy dress, unnecessary ornaments, expensive food, or vain amusements which might be spent in a better purpose.

Are you sure that you are not putting off repentance? Beware, for you may die suddenly, be deprived of reason, or given up to hardness of heart.

Friend, ponder these questions, and answer them as in the presence of God; and may the Lord bless them to your soul.