The Retirement Years

Place Affections on the Better Land

Our aged father T has his affections upon the things of this earth when they should be removed and he be ripening up for heaven. The life that he now lives he should live by faith in the Son of God; his affections should be on the better land. He should have less and less interest in the perishable treasures of earth, while eternal things, which are of the greatest consequence, should engage his whole interest. The days of his probation are nearly ended. Oh, how little time remains to devote to God! His energies are worn, his mind broken, and at best his services must be weak; yet if given heartily and fully, they are wholly acceptable. With your age, Brother T, has come an increase of selfishness and a more firm, earnest love for the treasures of this poor world. RY 81.3

Sister T loves this world. She is naturally selfish. She has suffered much with bodily infirmities. God permitted this affliction to come upon her, and yet would not permit Satan to take her life. God designed through the furnace of affliction to loosen her grasp upon earthly treasures. Through suffering alone could this be done. She is one of those whose systems have been poisoned by drugs. By taking these she has ignorantly made herself what she is; yet God did not suffer her life to be taken, but lengthened her years of probation and suffering that she might become sanctified through the truth, be purified, made white and tried, and, through the furnace of affliction, lose her dross, and become more precious than fine gold, even than the golden wedge of Ophir.—Testimonies for the Church 2:184. RY 82.1