Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 11 (1896)

Lt 33, 1896

Hawkins, Harry

“Sunnyside,” Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia

November 27, 1896

Portions of this letter are published in UL 345.

My dear young friend:

I have felt an interest in you similar to the yearning desire a mother feels for her child. Will you let me be your friend? Gladly would I help you to help yourself to become an honorable, trustworthy man. You need a friend that will help you at all times, and I point you to Jesus as your Friend and Helper. I do not ask how far you separated your soul from God in the days of your temptation. I do not seek to draw aside the curtain that conceals the past; but some things which have been opened before me in your past history have made me feel an intense desire to preserve you from companionship that would not be a help to you, that would not lift you up, but would drag you down. 11LtMs, Lt 33, 1896, par. 1

Will you please to open your Bible and read the one hundred and nineteenth Psalm? Read especially the ninth, fifteenth, and sixteenth verses. Here is your sure remedy for wrong doing. You want to possess an individuality of your own. If you succeed in anything that is elevating and ennobling, you must cultivate firmness for the right. You have most excellent qualities, and you can, if you will, become just such a man as you would trust and respect. Then you will make your mark in the world for good. 11LtMs, Lt 33, 1896, par. 2

When you shall come to Jesus just as you are, and acknowledge Him as your Saviour, you will be acknowledged by Jesus as His son. “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” [John 1:12.] Your only safety is in making a decided movement in the right direction. 11LtMs, Lt 33, 1896, par. 3

I cannot choose for you. If I could, gladly would I do it; but every soul must have moral courage to choose for himself. None of us can be carried to heaven by proxy. I have hoped that ere this you would decide to be a follower of Christ. When you take your position, the Lord can use you as his agent to do good to the souls of many. When you give yourself to Christ, your character will grow into positiveness. You have kept yourself aloof from Christ for a long time, and yet probation has been granted you. You have had light, and opportunities to know what is truth. It rests with you to decide whether you will choose the service of Satan, or the service of Him who gave His life for you. 11LtMs, Lt 33, 1896, par. 4

Jesus has revealed to you your own value by the price He has paid for you. May the Lord quicken your perceptive powers, that you may look upon Him who has ransomed you. Look to Calvary, and measure the degradation He submitted to endure, that He might take away your sins. He, the guiltless, has borne your guilt, that you may stand without fault before His Father; that though undeserving you may be treated as deserving of the reward of eternal life. When you look to Jesus, you will no longer be uncertain, but positive, saying under all temptation, “He gave His life for me.” Your life has been purchased with agony and blood. You have everything in your favor, to help you now to be a Christian. You can be resolute if you will. It will require higher help than any of us can give you, but that help is promised you. 11LtMs, Lt 33, 1896, par. 5

Everything has been done that God could do. In giving Jesus to become a propitiation for our sins, God gave us power to resist and overcome evil. You have every encouragement, if you yourself will consent to yield and form new habits. This requires effort on your part, persistent effort, for if Satan sees you taking a step decidedly for Christ, he will employ every ingenious method to attract, to deceive, and ruin you. But the Lord Jesus has provided a refuge for poor, tempted souls. He has His angels that will help, shield, and guide every soul. 11LtMs, Lt 33, 1896, par. 6

I do not want to deal in generalities, but to bring this matter home to one individual case. One soul saved is of more value than a world. That one soul has refused to stand longer under the black banner of the power of darkness. He has changed captains. Instead of grieving longer the heart of Christ, he has given himself into His army, joined the ranks of those who are fighting to win a crown of life. 11LtMs, Lt 33, 1896, par. 7

In your younger days you had conscientious convictions, but your associations were not properly chosen; and in following your own lead, you have brought danger and suffering upon yourself. You will carry the marks as long as life shall last. If an angel of God had not, in answer to the many prayers sent up to heaven in your behalf, stood by your side at the time of the accident, your life would have ended then and there. Had not angels ministered unto you, the fever would have drank up your life. But the Lord said, “I will spare him for another trial.” 11LtMs, Lt 33, 1896, par. 8

The Lord treats you with respect. He does not drive you. He says, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” [Revelation 3:20.] The religious work which God gives to young men, and to men of all ages, shows His respect for them as His children. He gives them the work of self-government in His service. He calls upon them to be sharers with Him in the great work of redemption and uplifting. As a father takes his son into partnership in his business, so the Lord takes His servants into partnership with Him. We are laborers together with God. Jesus says, “As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.” [John 17:18.] 11LtMs, Lt 33, 1896, par. 9

The preparation for Christ’s coming is a preparation made through Christ for the exercise of our very highest qualities by thought, faith, and love. We sometimes blunder, but if we see and confess our errors, God is just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Our failures should not discourage us, but should be turned into victories. It is your privilege to choose this day whom you will serve. If you believe in Jesus Christ, you can bring solid timbers into your character-building, discarding every worthless rotten timber. Your character may be a beautiful structure, a temple for God. 11LtMs, Lt 33, 1896, par. 10

But what kind of company will you choose, the weakest characters, the uneducated, undisciplined, or will you choose to rank in Christ’s army? Would you not rather choose to be a child of God than a servant of Satan and sin, having your name registered as the enemy of God? “Now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is, and every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” [1 John 3:2, 3.] 11LtMs, Lt 33, 1896, par. 11

You have within your reach more than finite possibilities. If you link yourself with God, turning to Him with full decision of soul, He will accept the prodigal. If you give your heart and soul to God, He will bless you, and work with you to help other youth to give their hearts to Him and be converted. You are accountable for all the good you might have done, and which Jesus died that you might do. He still invites you to wear His yoke, to lift His burden, and to learn His meekness and lowliness of heart, and as your reward, you shall find rest unto your soul. 11LtMs, Lt 33, 1896, par. 12

You have the God-given ability to become a man; through Jesus Christ you may stand registered in the books of heaven as a man. And a man, as God applies the term, is a son of God. I want you to consent to be molded and worked by the Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus Christ is sitting for His portrait, His likeness, in us. Shall I reflect it? Will you reflect it? Will you continue to refuse light and evidence, and despise the great salvation proffered you? 11LtMs, Lt 33, 1896, par. 13

Are you willing that God and the Saviour who died for you shall say, “Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at naught all my counsel, and would none of my reproof. I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early but they shall not find me; for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord; they would none of my counsel; they despise all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.” [Proverbs 1:24-31.] 11LtMs, Lt 33, 1896, par. 14

Jesus loves you; He wants you to become a sharer of His glory. He wants you to link up with Him, be one with Him, true as steel to His service. You can turn away from that which is cheap and inferior, and rise to a high standard; you can be respected by men, and beloved of God. Jesus came to our world to show you how to live, and form a character which God shall approve. It seems so wonderful, the love of God to fallen man! 11LtMs, Lt 33, 1896, par. 15

When I was stricken so suddenly last Tuesday afternoon, I was so violently ill for a time that I became unconscious. That night I was in a raging fever, but the next morning I thought of you. I had not spoken to you personally. I decided that as soon as I had sufficient strength, I would write to you. Today, November 27, I lie in bed and trace these lines. I pray the Lord to touch your heart by His Holy Spirit, that you may have the moral courage to decide to be a Christian. 11LtMs, Lt 33, 1896, par. 16

You have been led away from truth, from light, from faith and obedience, by young companions who have done you only harm. Now will you be led by one who loves your soul? Make your decision for time and for eternity. Let not any human agent cheat you out of your soul. No one can pay a ransom for your soul. Jesus has done that. Will you be indifferent to such love? Shall the weak, silly remarks of those whom Satan has bound fast to his chariot influence you to discard God, to be at enmity with Him? Christ must judge the living and the dead at His appearing and kingdom. He is soon coming in the clouds <of heaven> with power and great glory. Will you, my dear friend, brave the matter through, and determine to be on Satan’s side of the question? Jesus has given His life for you; what have you given to Jesus? What response have you made? 11LtMs, Lt 33, 1896, par. 17

“Ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” [1 Corinthians 6:19, 20.] What excuse can you make, when every case shall be tried in the Judgment, that you should show such disrespect and dishonor to His only begotten Son? Will you let Satan have all your powers, to do with you as he pleases? Again I say, Come; Jesus invites, all heaven says, Come. Will you come? 11LtMs, Lt 33, 1896, par. 18