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CHRISTIAN ASPIRATIONS

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Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 21, 1861

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 18, No. 1.

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CHRISTIAN ASPIRATIONS.

By Jemima Catlin

MAY I always present myself before God with a firm faith and hope in his promises and mercy; with great reverence to his infinite majesty; with the humility of an offender, and with a full purpose of keeping all God's commandments. May the thoughts of eternity quicken my devotions; my wants make me earnest; my backslidings make me persevere, and may I never wilfully give way to any distracting thoughts.
May I wait with patience and leave it to my God and Father how and when to grant my petitions. He that has learned to pray as he ought, has got the secret of a holy life. It is a greater advantage to us than we imagine that God does not grant our petitions immediately. We learn by that, that whereunto we have already attained, it was the gift of God.
That man or woman leads a sincere Christian life who endeavors to serve and obey God to the best of his understanding and power; who strives to please his neighbor to edification; who endeavors to do his duty in that state of life into which it has pleased God to call him. Whoever would continue in the practice of these things unto his life's end, must call himself often to an account whether he does so or not; constantly pray for grace to know and to do his duty; and preserve himself in such a teachable temper as to be always ready to receive the truth when it is fairly proposed to him. It is a rudeness among men to ask a favor and not stay for an answer; and do we count it no fault to pray for blessings and never to think of them afterwards? never to wait for them? never to give God thanks for them? Let us make prayer familiar to us; for without the help of God we are every hour in danger. Let us not run over our prayers with an insensible and distracted mind. God grant that I may never seek his face in vain. God will deny us nothing that we ask in the name of his Son.
Yours hoping for eternal life.
JEMIMA CATLIN.
Buchanan, Mich.