The only way to be kept from falling is to grow. If you stand still you will fall. Read Prov. 11:28, “the righteous shall flourish as a branch.” Remember you are not a tree, that can stand alone; you are only “a branch,” and it is only while you abide in Him, as a branch, that you will flourish. Keep clear your sense of justification; remember it is not your own natural goodness, nor your tears, nor your sanctification, that will justify you before God. It is Christ’s sufferings and obedience alone. Seek to be made holier every day—pray, strive, wrestle, for the Spirit, to make you like God. Be as much as you can with God. I declare to you that I had rather be one hour with God, than a thousand with the sweetest society on earth or in heaven. All other joys are but streams; God is the fountain—“all my springs are in thee.” Now, may the blessings that are on the head of the just be on your head. Be faithful unto death, and Christ will give you a crown of life; and if I never meet you again in this world, may I meet you as “pillars in the house of my God,” where “you shall go no more out.” Pray for me when you have access to the Throne—when you have a heart for it. I will try and pray for you, that ye may endure to the end. I have a word more for those of you that are still unconverted, whom I may never see again in the flesh. My heart bleeds to think of parting with you; but I must defer this to my next letter, for I expect to write you again before I go. Farewell for the present, and may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirits. Amen.

McCheyne, R. M. (1848). The Works of the Late Rev. Robert Murray McCheyne (Vol. 1, p. 179). New York: Robert Carter.