SUNDAY COLUMN

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 295, 24 September 1938, Page 3

SUNDAY COLUMN

I NEWS OF THE CHURCHES. (Conducted by the Ashburton Ministers’ Association). —A PRAYER— Dear Lord and Father of Mankind, Forgive our foolish ways; Reclothe ns in our rightful mind, In purer lives Thy service find, In deeper reverence, praise. 'Drop Thy still dews of quietness, Till all our strivings cease; Take from our souls the stress ancl strain And let our ordered lives confess The beauty of Thy peace. —Amen. COSTLY PRAYING. “I want you to spend fifteen minutes every day praying for foreign missions,” said a leader of God’s people to his young folk. “But beware how you pray, for I warn you that it is a very costly experiment.” “Costly?” they asked in surprise. “Aye, costly,” lie cried. “When Carey began to pray for the conversion of the world, it cost him himself, and it cost those who prayed with him very much. Brainerd prayed for the darkskinned savages, and after two years of blessed work it cost him his life. Be sure it is a- dangerous thing to pray in earnest for this work: you will find that you cannot pray and withhold labour, or pray and withhold your money; nay, that your very life will no longer be your own when our prayers begin to be answered.”

IN THE MORNING WATCH. By Rev. Andrew jVlurray, D.'D 1 . How wonderful and blessed is the divine appointment of the first day of the week as. a holy day of rest. Not (as some think), that we might have at least one day of rest and spiritual refreshment amid the weariness of life, but that that one day, at the opening of the week, might sanctify the whole, might help and fit us to carry God’s holy presence into all the week and its work. With the firstfruit holy, the whole lump is holy; with the a-oot holy all the branches are holy too. How gracious, too, the provision suggested by so many types and examples of the Old Testament, by which a morning hour at the opening of the day can enablfi us to secure a blessing for all its work and give the assurance of Power for Victory. over every temptation. How unspeakably gracious, that in the morning hour the bond that unites us with God can be so firmly tied that during the hours when we have to move amid the rush of men or duties, and can scarcely think of God, the soul can be kept safe and pure; that the soul can so give itself away, in the time of secret worship, into His keeping, that temptation shall only help us to unite it closer with Him. What cause for praise and joy, that the morning watch can so each day renew and strengthen the surrender to Jesus and the faith in Him, that the life of obedience can not only be maintained in fresh vigour, blit can indeed go on from strength to strength. . . The Motive Principle. Think first of the motive principle that will make us love and faithfully keep the morning watch. If we take it upon us simply as a duty, and a necessary part of our religious life it will very soon become a burden. Or, if the chief thought be our own happiness and safety, that will not supply the power to make it truly attractive. There is only one thing will suffice—the desire for fellowship with God. It is for that we were created in God’s likeness It is that in which we hope to spend eternity. It is that alone can fit us for a true and blessed life, either here or hereafter. To have more of God, to know Him better, to receive from Him the communication of His love arid strength, to have our life filled with His,—it is for this He invites us to enter the inner euamber and shut the door.

It is in the closet, in the morning watch, that our spiritual life is both tested and strengthened- There is the battlefield where it is to he decided every day whether God is to have all, whether our life is to be absolute obedience. If we truly conquer there, getting rid of ourselves into the hands of our Almighty Lord, the victory during the day is sure. It is there, in the inner chamber, proof is to be given whether we really delight in God, and make it ouv aim to love Him with our whole heart. The Presence of God. Let this, then be our first lesson: the presence of God is the chief thing in our devotions. To meet God, to give ourselves into His holy will, to know that we are pleasing to Him, to have Him give us our orders, and lay His hand upon us, and bless us, and say to us, “Go in this thy strength”—it is when the soul learns that this is what is to be found in the morning watch, day by day, that we shall learn to long for it and delight in it.