Devotionals - Leaves of Life - December 18

DECEMBER EIGHTEENTH
• Charles Wesley born 1708.
• Lyman Abbott born 1835.
• Samuel Rogers died 1855.
• Sir Joseph John Thomson born 1845.
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And let this feeble body fail,
And let it faint or die;
My soul shall quit this mournful vale,
And soar to worlds on high.
—Charles Wesley.
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It were better to live an immortal life and be robbed of immortality hereafter by some supernal power, than to live the mortal, fleshly animal life, and live it endlessly. Who would not rather have a right to immortality than to be immortal without a right to be?
—Lyman Abbott.
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So when a great man dies,
For years beyond our ken,
The light he leaves behind him lies
Upon the paths of men.
—Henry W. Longfellow.
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But he that soweth unto the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap eternal life.
—Galatians 6. 8.
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My Father, I pray that I may be spared the deprivations that may come from years spent in selfishness. Help me to realize before it is too late how little self can hold and how much remorse may accumulate. Help me to aspire to ideals that compel me to live an immortal life. Amen.