HOW desirable it is that we should deal faithfully with ourselves, judging everything before God that is of self. And, withal, seeing that the truth, as it is in Jesus, pervades the whole heart and forms and fashions the life; that the affections are governed and the character formed by the hope of His coming. Cherish a tender conscience. Remember this―whatever unfits for Christian duties, whatever cools the fervor of devotion, whatever indisposes us to read the Scriptures or engage in prayer, whatever we could not engage in with a perfectly clear conscience in the presence of a rejected and suffering Saviour, are not for us. The pleasures, amusements, recreations, which we cannot thank God for should be avoided. When the thought of God, of Christ, of His coming, of the judgment seat, falls like a cold shadow on what we call enjoyment, we are out of our right place. Let us flee from it.
Let us never go where we cannot ask God to go with us. Let us never be found where we cannot act as Christ would have us. Let us pass each day as pilgrims consciously on the way to their heavenly inheritance. Let us press after closer communion with Jesus. Let the love of God reign in our hearts; and thus shall we be kept from a thousand snares, exhibit a holy consistency, and become possessed of a peace and a joy which passeth knowledge.
From the writings of C. H. M.