Resolves.
“(1.) I will read the Bible as often as I can, and stay my lonely heart on God by faith, prayer, and trust in Jesus Christ.
“(2.) I will daily pray the Lord’s Prayer, and rest all my anxieties on ‘Give us THIS DAY our daily bread,’ and on ‘Thy will, not mine, BE DONE.’
“(3.) I will try to read the Bible through, from Genesis to Revelation, on this voyage, and will make a record, if possible, of the best thoughts as they suggest themselves to me.
“(4.) In the Bible I shall look for my comfort; in the history and devout trust of the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, from Abraham (Genesis, 12th chapter),—‘The Lord said to Abraham, Get thee out of thy country, from thy kindred and from thy father’s house, and thou shalt be a blessing,’—through the Psalms of David, not forgetting the 25th and 26th. ‘The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want,’ and ‘They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed (i. e. of faith, hope, and holy purposes), shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves (fruits of his toil) with him.’ God grant it may be so with you, Philip, my son, my firstborn in India. God help you! Do you struggle, with God’s help, to be an honor and praise to your family, your city, your country, and your friends, both in India and America, more and more as long as you live, and when called to depart out of this world, may it be to dwell with pure-minded spirits,—with the holy angels, and with the just made perfect in heaven. Read the Old Testament, but make the New your refuge and your rest. Trust in Jesus’s call, ‘Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest;’ ‘Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls.’ Matt. x. 29. And again, I will have perfect faith in Jesus’s saying (as in Matt. x. 29), ‘Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or lands for my sake and the Gospel’s, but he shall receive a hundred fold now in this present time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and lands, with persecution, and in the world to come eternal life. But many that are first shall be last and the last first.’
“Often say,—
“‘Jesus, I my cross have taken,
All to leave and follow thee;
Naked, poor, despised, forsaken,
Thou from hence, my all shalt be.