Treatise Thoughts On A Single Life
| Author | John Wesley |
|---|---|
| Type | treatise |
| Year | None |
| Passage ID | jw-treatise-thoughts-on-a-single-life-004 |
| Words | 384 |
You may “make yourself friends of” all
“the mammon of unrighteousness” which God entrusts you
with; having none that has any right to complain, or to
charge you with unkindness for so doing. You may lay out
all your talents of every kind entirely for the glory of God;
as you have none else to please, none to regard, but Him
that lived and died for you. 9. I say, Secondly, prize the advantages you enjoy; know
the value of them. Esteem them as highly while you have
them, as others do after they have lost them. Pray constantly
and fervently for this very thing, that God would teach you
to set a due value upon them. And let it be matter of daily
thanksgiving to God, that he has made you a partaker of
these benefits. Indeed, the more full and explicit you are
herein, the more sensible you will be of the cause you have
to be thankful; the more lively conviction you will have of
the greatness of the blessing. 10. If you know and duly prize the advantages you enjoy,
then, (3) Be careful to keep them. But this (as easy as
it may seem) it is impossible you should do by your own
strength; so various, so frequent, and so strong, are the
temptations which you will meet with to cast them away. Not only the children of the world, but the children of God,
will undoubtedly tempt you thereto; and that partly by the
most plausible reasons, partly by the most artful persuasions. Meantime, the old deceiver will not be wanting to give an
edge to as those reasons and persuasions, and to recal the
temptation again and again, and press it close upon your
heart. You have need, therefore, to use every help: And
the First of these is earnest prayer. Let no day pass without
this, without praying for this very thing,--that God would
work what with men is impossible; that he would vouchsafe
to preserve his own gift, and that you may not suffer any loss
this day, either by the subtlety or power of devils or men, or
the deceitfulness of your own heart. 11. A Second help may be, the conversing frequently and
freely with those of your own sex who are like-minded.