The student who has mastered the rudiments of a science does not sit down contented with the little he knows. He looks to the highest level of knowledge which has been attained by those who have gone before him, and says to himself, “If hard work, earnest, painstaking study and perseverance will do it, I will go a step beyond.”
Many years ago I stood by the death-bed of one who had long passed the fourscore years whose strength is described in God’s word as “labour and sorrow.” She did not talk of what she had done for Christ; but in a few words expressed her sense of what He had done for her.
“All in Christ—nothing in me.”
A volume could not have expressed more than did these half-dozen words; but the light in those aged eyes, and the expression on the face were pledges of the sincerity of the dying speaker.
May you go on and on until, losing sight of self and its poverty of service and of love, you can say, “I have fought the good fight, looking to the Captain of my salvation for courage, and strength, and grace; and now the battle is drawing to a close I can only say, Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” “All in Christ—nothing in me.”
A correspondent who signs herself “One of your grateful, loving girls,” sends a most interesting letter, of which I give an extract.
“I ought to write and tell you how much I have been helped by your talks with us in the ‘G. O. P.’ It is nice to read about other girls’ lives, and I hope we shall be able to help each other. I was at a meeting one afternoon, and, before singing a certain hymn, we were told not to join if we did not really understand it. It was one only a Christian should sing. I felt able to say the words. I am very thankful to God for many blessings and for strength to overcome temptation; above all, for the love that He has put into my heart. Will you please join with me in the prayer that I may grow rich in grace?”
Yes, dear girl; and I trust that every member of our “Twilight Circle” will join in the petition that, not you only, but all of us may “grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” With such growth ever widening and spreading throughout the great human family, what a happy world would this become!
So many correspondents allude to their beloved mothers whom “God has called home.” It is a joy that our talks have been especially helpful to several of them. It is sweet to be claimed as “deputy mother,” and to read such words as these—“I always turn to the ‘Twilight Talk’ first, and read it out so that another as well as myself can enjoy it. We girls all make a confidant of you, our real, true friend.” “I address you not merely as a friend, but as a dear, kind mother.”
“I love you just as if I had known you all my life,” writes another; and then she gives me a sketch of the school life she had enjoyed so much, and of the trial it had been for her to turn her back upon it. The leaving school was unavoidable, and I honoured the writer for her brave efforts “to pretend not to feel it too much” for the sake of the parents who were as sorry as herself. “But that is all over now, and I long to do my very best in whatever place God may put me. I have made many mistakes, failures, and slips, but I do feel Christ more precious than ever before. Our ‘talks’ do help me. I hope you will never give them up before you are positively unable to write. Tired of them! No, indeed! I have a Christian home, for which I cannot thank God enough, and I have a Sunday School class of children between seven and nine. Oh, I do want to teach them to love my Lord, and I tremble lest my life should contradict my words! It is so nice to think you pray for us all. I like to think the ‘all’ includes me.”