SUNDAY COLUMN

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 249, 2 August 1941, Page 3

SUNDAY COLUMN

DEVOTIONAL READING. (Conducted by the Ashburton Ministers’ Association). - RECOLLECTION Return unto thy rest, O my soul. Psalm cxbi 7.) “Return home to within, to the true Light of Jesus; you shall have true rest and peace.” (Francis Howgill.) “My feeble mind sustain. By worldly thoughts oppressed; Appeal, and bid me turn again To my eternal rest. Swift to my rescue come, Thy own this moment seize; Gather my wandering spirit home, And keep in perfect peace.” (Charles Wesley).

Now more than ever is it plain; that God and God alone, is the rest of the soul.’ Amid the baffling problems of such a world as this, and its fierce questionings, there is no rest for the mind except in'the certainty that God is and that God loves. Wearied with the swift changes of this passing world it is only on God’s changelessness that man’s heart can find repose. Beset on every side with danger, fretted continually with new anxieties, there is only one place of safety and peace, and that is the secret place, of the Most High where the soul can abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Happy am I. in such a time,, if I have already found the way to that place of rest; good is it for mo if even the stress and sorrow of these days should teach me how possible it* is to be at rest in God. So i would say within myself, in every time of danger, every hour of perplexity and anxious fear, “Return unto thy rest, O my soul.” In my ■ time of prayer I would be consciously returning to my rest in God. Now more than ever I need these times of deliberate recollection when, by an act of will, I break away from the bondage of visible thingv Or rather, since 1 cannot do even; that of myself, when I call cm God to set me free: — “The praying Spirit breathe, The watching power impart, From all entanglements beneath Call off my anxious heart.”

I would enter through the gate of prayer into the presence of God who is my home. I would give myself to rest heart and mind in Him, to bathe my tired soul, as it were, in the sense* of His love*, it is only: in such frequent returning and 'rest that I can he saved from, the spiritual perils of a time like this. But from such a* season of recollection at the beginning of each day I .shall bring a, peace and inward rest that not all the day’s distractions will altogether destroy. In such a time again at the end of the day the wounds of the day will find healing and its bitter memories will b% cleansed away. I shall find myself more and more prizing these times of quiet communion, remembering them in, the busy hours, as a man in the noisy street may keep in his heart the silence of the hills of home and live by the knowledge that presently lie will return to them and receive again their gift of peace. But not alone in times of prayer do I need this spirit of recollection. There can be many moments in' the busiest day when it' is possible for to bid my. soul return to its rest. Even a single thought* of God has power in it to refresh and renew. It is as when a diver comes for a moment to the surface to breathe, then plunges down again into the depths where* his work must be done. And from such frequent recollection there will grow in my heart a habit by which, ever and anon, and throughout the crowded day, my thoughts turn, toward God. I shall find that in every moment of need my first impulse is to look to Him, for strength and help, that in every new distress His peace comes flooding swiftly into my mind. I shall find that in every unoccupied moment of the day my heart seems naturally to turn in His direction, as the heart of a* lover turns continually to the beloved. And by such a* habit of recollection 1 shall gain a mind that is always resting in God. It is possible for the children of God who have found it; so in every generation, to keep a quiet heart even in the midst of distraction, to possess an inward joy that no sorrow can destroy, and to dwell in .a secret security that no alarm can disturb. As Molinos says in. “The Spiritual Guide,” “Such a soul is free from the outward man ,and easily enters into Soiitude where she sees none but God. There in that secret Centre God is tenderly speaking to her, teaching her a new Kingdom, true Peace and Joy. This soul hath her Peace no more broken, though outwardly she may meet with Combat's; tempests do never leach to that serenest Heaven within, where abideth pure and perfect love.” Wherefor let me give diligence to enter into that rest. A PRAYER. Holy - ' Father, let me not pass through these days without learning the lesson Thou would,st* teach me or receiving the gift Thou, hast in Thy heart to give* me. Forgive me for my faithless fears that forget Thee, for my troubled, mind that has so little learned to rest in Thee. Forgive me that I have not persevered along the inward way that would have led me to peace and to Thee. Do for me now what I cannot do; gather home my wayward thoughts and turn them towfcffd Thyself. Bring me into the place of Thy presence and transform my poor distracted prayers into a steadfast waiting upon Thee, a* joyful resting in Thy love. Help me so to find Thee in the secret place that Thou shalt be with me in the throng. Amen.