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Birthday Musings

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 30, 1873

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 43, No. 3.

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Birthday Musings.

By S. O. James

How few seem the days since I was a little child! The good old patriarch’s answer to Pharaoh, when asked his age, comes to mind. It seems true in my case. How little I have accomplished! God has been near me all the days of these years to bless me, and, by his Spirit, has sought to wean my heart from this world, that I might place my affections upon him; and yet how slow I have been to heed the kindly admonitions.
I have felt to-day that he is worthy of my best affections and efforts to advance his cause. I will no longer withhold them from him. I will not serve self as I have done at times in the past. In his strength, I will live a new life. I must realize a nearness to him daily. I must feel his sweet smile in my soul as in days that are past, when I sought him constantly with all my heart.
My hope is that I may be saved, and live so faithful that I may be the means of saving other precious souls. Some there are who are very near and dear to me. How can I bear to see them living away from Christ? and should they stay away and be lost, what would be my soul anguish to feel that I might have been instrumental in leading them to Jesus? Dear Saviour, nerve me afresh for the conflict. Let me enjoy a full salvation. Give me complete victory over self, that I may win precious souls to thee, and at last hear the blessed words from thy lips, “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”
S. O. JAMES.
Warren Co., Iowa, Dec. 5, 1873.