Consecration for All Time and Eternity

The consecration of ourselves to God must be made for ALL COMING TIME. It is true, that there may be specific consecrations of a modified character, restricted to particular objects and occasions, and limited also to definite periods. A person, for instance, may devote himself exclusively, for a limited time, to the one important object of erecting a place of public worship. And regarding him as giving to this one object all his powers of body and of mind, we may properly speak of him, in an imperfect or modified sense of the term, as CONSECRATED to this particular work. But it is quite obvious, that such instances of consecration are exceedingly different from the one under consideration; which is fundamental and universal in its character, and which would be inconsistent with itself, if it were applied to one ob­ject to the exclusion of others; which takes into view the very being and nature of the soul; which considers the principles of man's departure from God and also the principles involved in his restoration; which recognizes the full amount of God's immutable and infinite claims; and which, therefore, on the grounds of truth and rectitude, as well as of safety and of happiness, cannot be made for a less period than all time and eternity.

—edited from The Interior of Hidden Life (2nd edition 1844) Part 1, Chapter 4.