Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 11 (1896)

Lt 135, 1896

Colcord, Charlie

1896

Previously unpublished.

The Lord is calling for Charlie Colcord. He wants you to leave the black banner of Satan and to take your position under the bloodstained banner of Prince Immanuel. I am instructed to say to you, “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” Isaiah 55:6, 7. 11LtMs, Lt 135, 1896, par. 1

You must know He is a kind God, a merciful God, else He would not have borne with your indifference and impenitence so long. The Lord knows the history of your life as it has been. Your parents do not understand you and you do not mean that they shall, if you can possibly keep up the deception you have practiced. Your father’s great love for you has led him to think little of the things that he does know, because you are his son. But the Lord does not want you to suffer the penalty of your transgressions. God is certainly dealing with your life and the lives of every one of us, and every one of the human family will receive his reward according to his own doings. 11LtMs, Lt 135, 1896, par. 2

Your influence is not what it ought to be in the school. You know this is so. Every student has a soul to save or to lose, and the Lord wants every soul that He has given His life to redeem to have that future eternal life which He has purchased for him. If your influence is not fully on the Lord’s side, you are subject every day to Satan’s temptations and Satan will use you as his agent to lead the students with whom you associate to sin. It is not any mercy to you to pass over the influence you exert in various ways to imbue others with your spirit of careless indifference and let you feel that this kind of influence is brave and sharp and cunning. We should do you and other precious souls a great harm to suppose you are doing good to your associates when you are doing evil and working on the enemy’s side. You will always act out the spirit within you. 11LtMs, Lt 135, 1896, par. 3

The Lord is dishonored by the course you are pursuing. The Lord does not let human beings come into the world inheriting weakness in moral power and then leave these souls alone with their inherited and cultivated tendencies to manage as they please. The Lord Jesus has had an interest in you every moment of your life, from your infancy to your present age. The Lord takes no pleasure in any human being’s sins. You are the Lord’s property. You are not your own; you are bought with a price. 11LtMs, Lt 135, 1896, par. 4

I might trace back from cause to effect, and state some things, but these would have no weight with you. You have not had an appetite for the good, but a relish for the tricks and the deceptions that would hide your real influence. The Lord has spared your life. That is the Lord’s gift. This you have wasted as a common thing on nothingness. You must render an account for this misappropriation of the Lord’s entrusted capital of talents that are untrained, undisciplined, to do Him the service He requires. 11LtMs, Lt 135, 1896, par. 5

You are under obligation to God who has created you and Christ who has redeemed you by giving His own life. God has waited for you to give back the goods He has lent you in service to Him. His hand will help you if you will grasp it and acknowledge it and hold it fast. You might now know that He is ready to pardon your transgressions and sins. He is waiting to guide you in the path of virtue and righteousness. “My son,” He says, “give Me thine heart.” Proverbs 23:26. Repent of your sins and surrender to God your mind, your heart. 11LtMs, Lt 135, 1896, par. 6

You have lost years when you might have been learning of the Great Teacher if you had given your heart to God, turning to the Lord Jesus for counsel, supplicating the Lord for help and guidance. You could have saved the many heartaches your parents have had on your account and made their hearts glad in the Lord in the place of your standing as you have done representing their management of you as a mistake and thus injuring their influence. Nothing can be so great an honor to parents as a child who is seeking to do the will and ways of God. 11LtMs, Lt 135, 1896, par. 7

There is not any excuse for your present course of action. If you only knew and understood that which the Lord holds out to you! If you will come to Him and seek His grace, you will receive the strength and wisdom which He alone can bestow on you. If you will yield up your will and your way to the Lord, you will find an uplifting, an increasing strength, by looking unto Jesus, and fleeing from Satan’s temptations, resisting the devil, and following after righteousness and truth. What a care and load you would remove from your parents! 11LtMs, Lt 135, 1896, par. 8