Walking With Jesus
Mary Winslow

God is love! Nothing but love to His beloved ones! One ocean of love! Love in all His varied dealings and dispensations of His all wise providence. Dark clouds may hover over us, but love is embosomed in them all. The atmosphere of heaven, too, is love. And before long our bark will float in that infinite sea! What a prospect lies before us!

Oh, He is a jealous God, and will have us lean, not upon the creature, but upon Himself.

These very trials, which now seem ready to crush you, are among the all things that are working for your best and eternal interests. The Lord your God is at this moment watching over you for good. From everlasting He has loved us, and will love us through all the varying, shifting scenes and dispensations of His loving providence.

It is sweet to traverse this wilderness with our hand in His, safely led along each narrow path we tread. None but Jesus can make us happy here or hereafter.

Look often at your eternal inheritance. Take your walks by faith in the garden of love above. See Jesus there no longer wearing the crown of thorns but the diadem of glory! Let us give to Him an undivided heart.

What distinguishing grace to us, which has opened our eyes to see our danger and our Refuge; which has led to God's well beloved Son, to be saved in Him with a present, sure, and everlasting salvation!

Let us think more of what awaits us. This will sweeten present trial, and subdue a repining and complaining spirit. We must converse less with the conflicts and trials of the way, however painful, and more with the glory that is to be revealed. Let us draw near to Him, and He will draw near to us.

The formalist and the Pharisee! There is, perhaps, nothing more difficult than to bring a poor formalist out of his religious formality; or a poor Pharisee to drop his filthy rags, and come to Jesus just as he is: blind, naked, wretched. An 'empty sinner' and a 'full Savior' can alone walk together!

Dear friend, when He raises His chastening hand, run at once into His bosom! You cannot lie long there without feeling the throbbings of His loving heart; and this will heal the sorrow, quell the fear, disarm the rebellion, and peace and rich consolation will be the blessed result.

I not only love Him for what He has done for me, but for what He is in Himself; the chief among ten thousand, the altogether lovely One!

Why should Christ care for us, vile creatures? Oh, what a Savior is ours!

Whenever any cross of whatever kind comes in my way. I take it at once to the Lord. It is, thenceforth, no more a trouble to me. He makes the rough places smooth and the crooked paths straight.

The more I read the Bible, and the closer my communion with Jesus, the more persuaded I am, that so matchless and wondrous is the efficacy of that atonement He has made to Divine Justice, the vilest sinner that breathes the faintest, believing cry to Him for mercy; even at a dying moment- He will hear and save. The thief on the cross found it so!

The broken and the contrite heart God will not despise. There are few who view sin as it really is: a rebellion against the best of beings, the holy Lord God. And many such, without any true self knowledge, take up a profession of religion, float but upon the surface, and imagine they are in reality what they are not.

The life of God in the renewed soul is an astonishing thing. How this great and mysterious work is carried on must be a study and a wonder to the angelic world, and a wonder often to the Christian himself. We do well to watch the dealings of God with us, tracing His love and power in counteracting and overruling, subduing and sanctifying, thus fitting us for the kingdom of glory. May the Lord keep us, and cause us to see that we have but one thing to do, which is, to aim in all things to glorify and honestly to walk with Him.

A constant resort to the Fountain open for sin and uncleanness keeps the conscience undefiled and the heart tender, humble, and loving.

We live in such poor, frail bodies, it is all of mercy that we do not suffer more than we do. Sin, sin has done it all, and sorrow follows close upon its steps. Every pang should remind us of this, and remind us, too, that God has something better in reserve for us who love Him.

How condescending is Christ to one unworthy of a single crumb of mercy from His hands! But so it is! He will, in the exercise of His own sovereignty, have mercy upon whom He will have mercy, and He has had mercy upon me!

We have to contend with a host of enemies, all opposed to the progress of Christ's kingdom. What are we to do? Carry them to Jesus to subdue them for us, for we have no power in ourselves. If we attempt to subdue even one small corruption in our own wisdom and strength, we fail at once, for the smallest will be more than our match. Christ has reminded us, "Without Me, you can do nothing."

We must have more to do with eternal realities. Let us relinquish the poor trifles of earth, and fix our thoughts, and affections, and hopes more on the future.

Our precious Jesus, who deserves ten thousand hearts, if we had them, receives, alas! but half a heart, while the world would retain the other half.

The morning is to me the sweetest and most important time of the day; and I then enjoy much of the presence of Him whom my soul loves; and without these sweet visits from Him, what a wretched void would this world be to the Christian! Oh for closer communion, holier intimacy, with the Father and His Son Christ Jesus. This is what we need to raise us above earth, and inspire our soul to depart and to be with Christ. We too much cling to earth and its trifles, forgetting that glory awaits us, and that an instant may put us into its full possession. How much we need to be constantly reminded of this!

It is a mercy to know that the bounds of our habitation are fixed; that is, appointed; by Him who cannot err, and who sees the end from the beginning.

We live in a mournful and dying world. What a poor world, if this were to be our all! But to God's children it is but the passage across the desert, in which we are schooled and prepared for the Canaan Jesus has gone to prepare for us! But how do we murmur, often, at the training we have to go through; at the hard lessons we have to learn!

What a hospital is this world! There is but one remedy for all it's evils; the precious blood of Jesus, God's dear Son.

How mysterious are the ways of God! They are often to us a great enigma. But what we don't know now, we shall fully and eternally know hereafter. By all the varying dispensations of His infinitely wise providence, we are being disciplined for the glory that shall be revealed in us.

Afflictions, trials, and cares are the medicine of the soul, bitter for the present, but most salutary and healthful in their hallowed result. How little do we know, or still less can we judge, of Jesus' love to us while passing through a dark cloud. This is the time for faith to repose sweetly on the faithfulness of our unchanging God and Father. Let us then wait, and watch, and pray, looking unto the Lord, whose love never varies. He is doing all things well. Only trust Him, and never doubt, though you cannot discern a ray of light. Place your hand in His, and, He will gently and skillfully lead you through every dark providence. Beloved, what an ocean of consolation is this!

I shall not be long here. Heaven looks very attractive. No more tears, no more parting, no more sin there. Who would not live for this glorious eternity!

Oh, how faintly do we realize the wondrous blessings that await us- the fulness of joy, and the pleasures that are at God's right hand! Oh, that we would lived up to them! This passing world engrosses too much our thoughts and time, that we forget the Lord is caring for us, ordering all our concerns in such a way as that we need be anxious for nothing. And all we have to do is to rest upon Him as little helpless children would do upon the tenderest mother. A mother may forget, yet will not He forget us!

Oh what love, that He should ever have descended from His exalted habitation in glory for the express purpose of suffering in our stead, fulfilling the law, atoning for our sins, leaving not one unpardoned thought, word, or deed; then rising from the grave, proving thereby that He had conquered all our enemies, and ascending up on high as our Redeemer, taking possession of heaven for us until He shall have brought home the last elect vessel of mercy!

Do not be satisfied with a little when there is such a rich abundance treasured up in Christ Jesus for us.

Why does the Lord employ the chastening of trial? Is it not with the view to draw us closer to Himself! Is it not to weaken the world's attractions, teaching us that this is not our rest, for it is polluted?

Ten minutes at the feet of Jesus, in a full view of His love, while confessing sins and shortcomings; sins we know already pardoned; yet sorrowing that we should ever grieve One who so tenderly loves us, is a happiness I would not exchange for millions of worlds!

Oh, what a poor wretched exchange professors make when they barter the blessings of a close walk with God, for the beggarly enjoyments of an empty, disappointing world!

If we would keep under control the old nature within us (which can never be mended); and the world outside us (which will ever be what it is); it must be by the increase of every grace of the Spirit within us. Faith in Christ will overcome the cunning world outside us, and the more subtle world within us.

It is no common journey we are upon. Every step of the way is important, and fraught with the deepest interest. God the Father is watching every trembling step we take. God the Son tenderly and graciously enters into all our difficulties, discouragements, and conflicts. God the Holy Spirit instructs and leads us onward, whispering words of comfort, and imparting new life and energy to our minds, by leading us constantly to the Fountain of living waters.

It is a melancholy spectacle to see many who seemed to run well for a season, slacken in the race, and afterwards grow weary, and turn back, and walk no more with Jesus. It is to the flesh so self denying a way; and its pleasures and joys so entirely internal, apart from anything external and visible; that the mere nominal Christian, the religious formalist, soon wearies, turns back, and finds that he was not a true pilgrim.

You and I have but a little while to honor God. Eternity, with all its solemn realities, is before us. Let us not lose a moment of the little space that is left us. Every thought, every word, every step is all important. We must live for God, and for God only. To Him we belong. He has redeemed us at a vast price, and we are His and His alone. Living for Him here, is a pledge of our being with Him throughout an endless and ever increasingly glorious eternity. God be praised for such a hope beaming with immortality beyond the grave!

We were traveling the broad road to eternal woe when Jesus met us and turned our feet into the narrow road that leads to eternal life. What could move His heart towards us? It was love; love from everlasting, and love to everlasting. And it is that same love that still watches over us day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment. And although we often loath ourselves, His love never varies. Is it not surprising that He can love us while we hate ourselves? But such is our Jesus. He is ours, and we are His.

The Lord is good, but how little we understand of His goodness! But a blessed eternity will be ever unfolding it to our hearts. The marvel is, that we are so well satisfied to remain where we are, and are not longing more to depart and be where we shall behold Him as He is in all His unveiled beauty and excellence. If the 'drops' we get here are so sweet and refreshing, what must the 'ocean fulness' be!

Is it not marvellous that after all our ungrateful returns and sad departures, He should yet stand with open arms to receive and welcome us back when a fresh trouble brings us to His feet? None but Christ could or would do this!

Nothing in the Christian's life happens in this valley of tears but what God overrules for our best interests. Every event in God's loving dealings is designed to draw us sensibly nearer to Himself.

Let us apply continually to Jesus, and not fail to take our little matters as well as our greater ones. I often find that it requires stronger faith to carry minor concerns to Him than weightier ones. Our lives are made up of little things, like small links in a great chain, forming a complete whole.

We should see His loving hand in all the varying dispensations of His righteous providence. Let us aim to walk by faith in this poor world, through which we are traveling home to a better world. Our ever vigilant foe, the devil, seeks to entrap and wound us; while we have a yet greater enemy within, ever ready to listen to his subtle reasoning. How much need have we to cry to the Lord, "Hold me up, and I shall be safe!"

I can seldom feel the love of Christ without a sensibility that moves me to tears. To think He should ever set His heart upon such sinners as we are; so love us as to lay down His life for us; and still love us in spite of all our wanderings and shortcomings, coldness, barrenness, and forgetfulness of Him; to love us notwithstanding all! Is it not enough to cause us to weep, and to lay ourselves in the dust at His feet, that, in return, we love Him so little?

In all the difficulties we meet in our pilgrim way, let us not sit down and brood over them lest our heart deceive us; but go at once with them to the Lord, making Him, with an open heart, our Confidant.

Let us view the world as passing away, and we ourselves passing away with it. It matters but little whether we are rich or poor, learned or unlearned, for soon we shall be with the Lord, who will come and receive us to Himself. Let us be watchful against the world's entanglements, gathering up our garments that they trail not upon the earth.

What a mercy to know that I am in the hands of One who loves me better than any earthly being can, and better than I can love myself. I feel so sweetly to rely upon the tender care and watchful providence of God, that my heart often overflows with a sense of His goodness and my own unworthiness; and that He should condescend to look upon such a one, and above all to love so worthless a sinner as myself.

We shall have to praise and bless His holy name throughout eternity, for every trial He has been pleased to give us. God is love; and all His purposes towards us are unchanging love, eternal as His being.

May the Lord keep us humble, meekly sitting at His feet, feeling our own wretched weakness and liability to fall, and enable us to look to Him for strength, wisdom, and grace, and above all for precious faith that we might hold fast our confidence to the end!

I firmly believe that when my eyes close on earth, they will instantly open upon Jesus, the first precious object I shall see!

What a God is our God! Who would not love Him! So good, sympathizing, and full of love! Oh for a tongue to praise Him here! We shall be fully able when we reach 'home'.

Little faith can get to heaven, though strong faith will bring us greater comfort, and the vessel will hold more of the coming glory.

We do not expect to travel through this wilderness exempt from its thorns and briers; but it is well when we feel Jesus is with us, and we can lean upon His arm, and often repose our weary heads upon His loving bosom, while He speaks to us and says, "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid." You need have no troubles- take all to Him, who will arrange them better for you than you can for yourself. Only beware of sitting down first to consult your own heart, and then, when this is done, to think of going to Jesus for help and counsel. Go at once to Christ! Whatever happens, go and tell Jesus, making Him your Confidant, your Friend, your All.

It is sweet to feel Jesus' love kindling in our hearts, enabling us to draw sensibly near, telling Him every need, and wish, and fear. This is your Friend and mine.

Cheer up! We are now nearer glory than when we first believed. There sits Jesus, once crowned with thorns, bruised and crucified for your sins and mine, in all His ineffable beauty and glory waiting to bid us welcome home. "Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world." Heaven is not so far off as we think. It invites us; and it is but a step and we are there! This world is not our rest! Heaven is our home, and we but sojourners here in this wilderness for a while, soon to be away! Cheer up!

Holy counsels to a young clergyman- The Holy Spirit must be your teacher. He alone can accompany His own Word spoken to the soul. He it is who gives life. He it is that convinces of sin, strips the sinner of his filthy rags, and applies the blood of Christ to the guilty conscience and speaks peace. Do not give the promises to the goats, which are intended only for the sheep! Here, my friend, make a distinction, lest any take the children's bread and are self deceived. I have seen a whole congregation addressed as believers, while fully two thirds or more were unconverted! Oh, how awful is such a deception! Oh, preach with your eye upon eternity! Preach the gospel as though Jesus were at your side! Think of the never dying souls around you, unawakened, insensible, led captive by Satan at his will. Work for Christ. Be much in prayer. Go to Jesus for all your supplies. "Without me you can do nothing." Get your message from Him. Great is your work! Vast is your responsibility! You are in yourself powerless, but He is all power, and is ready to give you all you need. Carry your empty vessel to His overflowing fountain of living grace!

Pray in prayer. Oh, how many unmeaning, heartless prayers are offered up that never reach the ear or heart of God!

Praise and laud His holy name for all His mighty goodness and rich display of love to us, poor lost sinners! It was love that carried Him through His deep degradation and sorrow, and that transfixed Him to the cross! It was boundless, matchless love from first to last! Oh, should we not live for Him! I think if I had ten thousand hearts, I would give them all to Him! May the Lord bless you with much of His presence, and shed abroad His own precious love in your heart!

Dear friend, do you feel Jesus precious to your soul? Is He not the fountain, yes, the ocean of love? Oh, get much of His love into your heart! Aim to live on high! The soul naturally, through the weakness of the flesh, cleaves to the dust; and Satan is ever busy in encumbering our minds with the poor world we are rapidly passing through. Well may he be called the "god of this world." Do not be ignorant of his devices.

While passing through all the daily changes of life, we should call to mind that, either sooner or later, we are hastening to the great and most eventful change that will take place. The world, with Satan at its head, will be incessantly calling off our attention to the poor trifles of time, making every effort to occupy our thoughts, and so leave very few, if any, for the glory that awaits us above. Do we not daily see the extreme folly of taking up our rest here on earth?

On looking back upon the past of my eventful life, I can trace God's fatherly hand in all His correctings and disappointings, the crosses and losses by the way, and how needful they all were to bring me to seek all my good in Jesus; for in Him I find all my soul needs.

Oh, to have such a Friend to go to, who has all things at His command; the gold and the silver are His, and the cattle upon a thousand hills, and all hearts are His. Let there be no distance between you and Jesus. Live upon Him. Live for Him. Yes, live with Him even here. Cling to Him, for He is your life. Carry all your cares, little or great, to Him. He will listen to all. It is written, "Casting all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you." Do not let the poor trifles, the gewgaws of this trifling world entangle your heart's best affections. Look at this world as "passing away," and not worthy of a thought. Keep close to Jesus. He loves you. Oh, repay Him by giving Him your whole, your undivided heart! He will accept it just as it is, and make it all you may wish to have it.

Oh, this is a world full of snares, and our sinful hearts are so deceitful, they are ever ready to fall into them.

Dear child of God, Jesus' loving eye is ever upon you, and His loving heart is ever towards you.

Jesus is now, though in heaven, what He was when on earth. He is just as ready to bow down His loving ear, and listen to our faintest whisper, as He was when here in this world of sin and sorrow. He was never known to turn one away that came to Him for help. He is the same now; full of the tenderest sympathy; and He needs us to deal with Him as helpless children, who can do nothing of ourselves that is good, and need to be led and upheld every step we take in this sinful and treacherous world.

The purity of heaven is sweetly attractive, and, next to being with Jesus, will make heaven what it is, a place of perfect happiness. It is sin that creates all our sorrow here on earth.

Truly, all whose eyes the Lord has opened must say this is a world of sorrow. Trials, in endless forms- crosses, sickness, temptations; assail us at every step we take through this wilderness. But we look for better things to come. The Lord is too good to put us off, even with the best of this poor world. For what is the best of it? If we had health, riches, and all the honor of a princely throne, what would they avail us? We are appointed to die, and a better world, or a worse world, is prepared for us.

I am unworthy of the least crumb of mercy that falls from His own dear, loving hand.

Remember, all the way you are led is chalked out for you by infinite wisdom; and in that covenant that is ordered in all things and sure. Not a step we take but is ordered by infinite love. All our chastenings and rebukes are so many precious tokens of our adoption into the family of God. Unbelief would often suggest hard thoughts of Him whose heart is always love towards us; but He, seeing the best way for each to attain to that blessed preparation for the full enjoyment of what He has gone to prepare for us, deals with us as seems in His infinite wisdom to be the best. Then, let us hush every murmur, or desire to have our own way, seeing that the Lord's way must be the best way. When we get above, we shall then study all the way He has led us, and admire and adore the wisdom that condescended to take such care of us, and at last to make all our trials, crosses, and losses, to work together for our good and His glory.

May we never forget that God's glory is connected with every step a saint of God takes through the wilderness.

How sweet it is to look above and beyond this transient valley of tears! This is not our rest, because it is polluted. There is no sickness in heaven; no desponding feelings there; all love, enjoyment, and blessedness.

How is our loving, gracious God dealing with you? In all His dealings, whatever they may be, there is nothing but the tenderest love towards you, all designed to draw you nearer and nearer to Himself. We are tried in order to bring us to a better acquaintance with His tenderness, sympathy, and unchanging love. He cares for you. You need not trouble yourself about, or load yourself with, earthly cares. Carry them, as they arise, to Him. Do not fret yourself about managing matters, when He, who has sent the cares, will manage better for you than you can for yourself. Come with an open heart, and pour all into His own loving heart. This is the confidence He loves. What a mercy to have such a God and Father to deal with us, who pities and loves us too! Oh, let us rejoice together, and cast all our cares upon Him, and be anxious for nothing.

Do not be concerned with all the tinsel glory of this empty, unsatisfying world. It is not worth a straw when compared with what awaits us! What an unsatisfying world this is, to have our all in! How trifling does everything appear which is not in some way connected with God's glory. Look upon all you now see or admire as passing away, yourself passing away with it. This world is a waste land, a howling desert! Oh, that we did but consider it as such, and expect nothing in it but thorns and thistles; looking unceasingly, with the anticipation of holy joy, to the period when He shall say to us, "Come away, my love, my fair one, enter into the joy of your Lord!"

Go to Jesus when you will, you will be always welcome, and never more so than when you come full of needs. You may tire a fellow creature out with your often coming, but you will never weary Jesus, your own Jesus, that Brother born for your adversity. Recollect you can, at all times, and under all circumstances, in the streets, in company, abroad, or at home, have the loving, listening ear of Jesus! What an honor is this put upon a poor worm! Whatever concerns you, equally concerns Christ.

What poor creatures we are if left to ourselves! What a mercy there is One that loves us better than we love ourselves, and will watch over us all our journey here, and who has engaged (by all the varying dispensations of His providence) to prepare us for that blessed place He has gone to prepare for us. And oh, what a place will that be! Love Him supremely! Live for eternity! Live for Jesus! Have much to do with Him!

Live for eternity! This world is not worth living for. Its honors, its riches, its glories are things ever passing away; but the love of Jesus is eternal as Himself. Oh, live for eternity! The glory of this world is fading, and is soon gone, and gone forever! Again I say, live for a glorious eternity! If you could have the glory, the wealth, and the honors of this world laid at your feet, short would be the empty enjoyment of them. Then, live and act with reference to eternity! And oh, the glory that awaits the true follower of Christ, who has cast overboard all that the world calls good and grand, and taking the Bible as his directory, walks as Jesus did.

Let us keep very near to Jesus. Be much in close communion with Him. While we tell Him all that is in our hearts, He will unfold His own tender loving heart to us. How He loves us! It is His glory and delight to do us good. We must die before we can know how much He loves. He is watching over us moment by moment; and there is not a pain or a trial but by its discipline He is preparing us for that dwelling above, which His infinite love has prepared for us, and which He will have us in the full enjoyment of.

We need not fear the prospect of changing worlds- earth for heaven; sin for holiness; and the disappointing creature for the overflowing fountain of all goodness and love. That world we hope to go to is worthy of all our thoughts and best affections.

I can truly say I love the Lord. But oh, how little in proportion to His love to me!

Who could or would have borne with us as Jesus has done? He has led and kept us, loving us in spite of all that was so unlovely in us.

What a change from a bed of suffering at once into the presence of Christ! Oh, let us make and sustain a close acquaintance with Christ here, that we may not feel we are going to a stranger when we depart, but to be with one with whom we have had close communion and heavenly communion here below.

Truly we live in a dying world! We see one another pass away out of sight, and yet how little impression it makes upon the survivors!

What a mercy to know that all these events which seem confusion to us are, even now, accomplishing His own eternal plans and purposes of love. Oh to trust Him fully, and watch His providence in all that is transpiring.

Is it not a blessed thing to know that God has to do with us, and that we have to do with God, every moment of our fleeting existence? How precious is the thought! I would not desire it otherwise for millions of worlds! It is the joy of my heart by night and by day. How sweetly and securely can I travel through all the intricate mazes of this wilderness state, while I feel that God is with me, that His eye is upon me, and His heart toward me.

Oh, to be more alive to eternal things, and to sit loose to the things that are passing away daily. We too much magnify present trifles, and dwell too little upon the glory that awaits us above. And yet, in one moment, we may be put into possession of our glorious inheritance. What a heaven awaits us! What glory is before us! Jesus standing ready to receive us! Let us encourage each other in the way. We shall soon be at home; our happy home; no home like it here. It is sweet in prospect! Absent from the body, present with the Lord!

Blessed be God for all the rich supplies afforded us in this wilderness.

Such a Friend is Christ to us- always ready to help us, to strengthen us, to comfort us when we are cast down, and to lift us above the base cares of time, and to speak sweet peace to our too often failing and doubting hearts. Unbelief, cruel unbelief, destroys more than half our comforts while on our short passage to glory.

A little while and we shall be put into possession of our glorious inheritance; and all our poor, short lived trials, crosses, and disappointments are so many rich blessings in disguise to prepare us for it. What a hope we have of being shortly with Jesus! Oh that we might be kept disentangled from the rubbish of this fallen world! In a fallen house we must expect a deal of rubbish; such are the poor trifles of this contaminating world by which we are so often engrossed, and through which we are so rapidly passing.

Oh, to look forward more! Are we not too much like children playing with toys, and when they are broken, sitting down and mourning over them? Let us keep our hearts near to Jesus, so as to be quite willing to depart and be with Him.

We trifle too much with our God!

God will not put us off with the worldling's trash. He has higher enjoyments for His children.

What a poor, unsatisfying world is this! While we have cause to be grateful; oh, how grateful; for the accommodation afforded us while here, yet what a mercy of mercies we are not to live here always! Oh, the goodness of God, to prepare us for, and point us to, a better world! My soul is often overwhelmed at the thought of it, and how very soon I shall be there in its full enjoyment.

Dear friend, think more of that eternity to which day by day we are hastening, and less of that world we are so soon to leave.

Jesus is watching over us with an ever watchful eye. Oh, to know that He loves us, that His love never changes, that He is causing all things to work together for our best interests, and in due time will come and receive us unto Himself, and that when we see Him we shall be like Him! What a thought is that for a poor sinner; to be like the Son of God; the Son of the Highest; the Great Jehovah! Oh, if I had a thousand hearts I would give them all to Jesus!

What a mercy that Jesus is ever with us, by day, by night, in sickness, in health, in time, and through eternity! "I will never leave you nor forsake you." But we live in a changing world. The creature changes, we change, but, "I the Lord, do not change." Ever the same loving, faithful friend is Jesus. Bless the Lord for this, O my soul! I live in Him, and I desire to live for Him, and with Him, even here, as far as I can, in the body. But oh, the joy of knowing and feeling, that before long I shall be with and like Him forever! How great the bliss, even in anticipation, of beholding Him face to face!

Often my aged heart seems to spring into youth again at the prospect of being with Jesus; seeing Him face to face; sitting at His feet; beholding Him as He is. I am favored sometimes with glimpses of the coming glory, a look into heaven now and then, a little anticipative realization of the presence of Him who will make heaven what it will be to us.

Dear friends, live above a dying world and all its fading things. It is not worth a thought. Live independently of the creature, and walk hand in hand with Jesus. Keep an open heart with Him, confiding to His love all you feel or fear. He will not betray your confidence, but will lead you safely along the right road to glory; glory begun here, and increasing through the countless ages of eternity.

Some dying sayings of Mary Winslow

"I am so happy! I cannot tell you how happy I am! Not a ruffle, not a cloud."

"I shall enter heaven a poor sinner saved by grace. I seem to have done nothing for the Lord, who has done so much for me."

"Shall soon be with Jesus! I shall see Him face to face. Oh, glorious prospect!"

"Oh, how full His heart is of love I cannot express to you! And if I had millions of tongues, I could not tell you how precious He is at this moment to my soul. I feel His sensible presence. He is near to me; so near, that I feel as if I could embrace Him."

"What a glorious prospect I have in view! Who can picture it? No tongue can tell how I love Jesus; not because it is my duty to love Him, but because I cannot help loving Him. He is the chief among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely One."

"I am the chief of sinners, but am dear, very dear, to the heart of Jesus, who shed His blood to save me, even me, as if there were not another soul to be saved."

"It is one thing to talk of death: it is quite another thing, when it becomes a reality, to grapple with it."

"How long, Lord, will You keep me in the valley of the shadow of death? Why are His chariot wheels so long in coming?"

"The gloom has all passed, and I have a full view of the glory that awaits me."

"Lord, I weary, I weary, I weary to be gone. Keep me patient, waiting Your will. I must be perfected through suffering; not one pang too severe, nor one sorrow too much."

"Read to me the precious words of Jesus. Endeavor to keep my mind upon His truth. Christ is the Rock upon which my feet are placed."

"Keep close intimacies with Jesus. We must live upon Christ, and we must die upon Christ."

"Oh, live for eternity! This poor world is passing away; the reality is to come, and a glorious reality it is. How important it is to walk so as to please God in all things!"

"Little faith will bring the soul to heaven; great faith will bring heaven into the soul."

'My first joy in heaven will be to see Jesus!"

"I am passing away, but not a single cloud veils Christ from my view. Language cannot express how happy, happy I am. Words fail to describe the preciousness of Jesus to my soul."

"I am going home! going home! A welcome home. I have not a need, nor care, nor trouble."

"I never so much felt my dependence upon the Holy Spirit as I do now. My first prayer in the morning when I awake is addressed to the Holy Spirit, that He would take possession of my thoughts, my imagination, my heart, my words, throughout the day, directing, controlling, and sanctifying them all."

"If there is a spot upon earth more blessed than another, it is the mercy seat. None can tell the joy that springs from it."

"He would not have me a spoilt child, therefore He has employed the rod; but all His corrections and rebukes have been in love."

"The Holy Spirit ministers to me like a little child. My loving Shepherd cherishes the lambs as well as the sheep; and He will come and take me to Himself. I shall not go alone. I want to go. I want to go."
"Oh, why are His chariot wheels so long in coming? Why does He delay? I am longing to depart, to be with Christ. All is ready."

"Soon I shall be singing His high praises in heaven. Oh, how great His love! How can He love so vile a sinner as I? Yet He loves me. I have nothing of my own goodness to bring in my hand; all, all I cast away."

"What will the music of heaven be!"

Gazing one evening from her bed upon a magnificent sunset, she remarked, "Oh, if the outside of heaven is so beautiful, what must it be within!"

"I long, I weary to be gone; but I would not be impatient."

After a day of extreme languor, she said, "The Lord has fed me today with drops of honey."

"There is a buoyancy, a vitality in the principle of the renewed soul, which, in dying, cannot be depressed. The more the body decays and sinks, the higher it rises to its native heaven."

"I would not be impatient, but I long to end the conflict, and be with Jesus. Oh, how precious He is to my soul!"

"The glory of heaven is Christ."

"Meet me in heaven!" was her dying charge. And then, when her lips were thought forever sealed; lips that had testified so long and so faithfully of Jesus; she exclaimed, with a voice of wondrous energy and power, "A cloudless death! A cloudless death! A cloudless death!" So resplendent was the glory now surrounding her; so sacred and awe struck the feelings of all who gazed upon the scene the spot where the last conflict was waging seemed more like the vestibule of heaven than the chamber of death.

While her gathered children were surrounding her dying bed, watching the closing scene, expecting each moment to catch her last sigh, her eyes partly opened, her lips moved, and with a low yet distinct voice she rapidly repeated the words, "I see You! I see You! I see You! I see You!" The unearthly grandeur of the scene transcends all description. We felt that heaven was opened; that Christ was there; that the eternal world enclosed us. And as her voice grew fainter and fainter, and the words died softly upon her lips, she ceased to move; a holy quiet reigned; a solemn calm ensued; her sanctified spirit was in the bosom of her Lord. From the mental emotion, the soul ecstasy through which she had but just passed; rapt in the vision of her living Lord; there still lingered a luster in the eye, a smile upon the parted lips, and a glow, like that of sunset, upon the countenance, which formed a picture of inimitable beauty and grandeur.

I have fought a good fight, I have finished [my] course, I have kept the faith: 4:8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.- 2 Timothy 4:7-8

Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!- Numbers 23:10