CLOSING EXHORTATION.

God has forgiven you all your sins; he has sanctified you wholly.  You stand to-day in the way of life; you are fully out upon the Christian way.  You have on the whole armor of God.  You possess the power of God’s Spirit in your soul, the love of God is in your heart as a burning flame.  You are tasting the sweet joys that flow from heaven’s throne.  In your soul is imprinted the image of Jesus.  Your heart is a garden of opening buds, which emit the sweet fragrance of heaven.  But, notwithstanding all this blessedness of experience, I want you to remember you are just starting on the pilgrim’s way.

I thought of bringing this little work to a close with the preceding letter, but it seems that I am loath to say the last word.  I wonder if there is one word more I can say to help you in your Christian race.  It is impossible for me to express how my heart yearns in love and tenderness for you.

God wants to use your life on earth to his glory.  He wants you so to shine in the glory and splendor of his grace that you may light others in the way.  He wants the opening buds of grace in your soul to burst into full bloom.  He wants to lead you higher up the mountain of joy, to the very fount of blessings.  He wants to lead you down into the lowly vale where there are greater riches than gold.  He wants his image in your heart to stand out in greater beauty and perfection; the features are yet too dim.

While in this life your immortal soul is wrapped about with a veil of mortality; but God wants to shine such a radiant light and amaranthine glory into your soul that the veil of mortality will not be able wholly to obscure it.  It will shine out through the material part and glow in transparent beauty upon the surface.

If you will follow where he leads, he will lead you on from virtue to deeper, truer virtue; he will lead you on to fountains of sweeter joy.  It may be through the vale of sorrow; but never fear nor distrust, and you will find your joy rising higher in the cup.  If you will follow, he will lead you from peace on to broader, deeper rivers of peace.  It may be through angry billows and past rough rocks; but if you trust him and follow on, he will bring you to yet calmer and more peaceful waters.  If you will stay in his presence, he will impart unto you his own lovely character, and you will grow up into a holier life, into sweeter fellowship with God, into richer beauty and greater usefulness.

He will sometimes call you where the flowers are blooming and sweet fragrance fills the air, where the birds sing sweetly and the zephyrs blow gently; he will lead you along the rippling streams, and delight your soul with the music of the wave; he will lead you through the shady glens and leafy bowers,—­until your soul will sing, “Is not this the land of Beulah?” But he may sometimes lead you through the desert, or over the rugged mountain, or across