SUNDAY AFTERNOON READING.

Evening Star, Issue 12883, 4 August 1906, Page 4

SUNDAY AFTERNOON READING.

A COLUMN FOR THE QUIET HOUR.

tCondncted by the Rev. C. Botam..]

lam not skilled to understand What God hrtth willed, what God hath planned : I only know at His right band Stands One Who is my Saviour. And had there in all this wide, \\ ide world no other soul beside. But only mine, then H> hath died That He might be its Saviour.

One wounded spirit, sore opprest. One wearied soul that found no rest Until it found it on the breast Of Him who was its Saviour.

Yea, living, dying, lot me bring .My strength, my solace from this spring. That He who lives to be inv King Once died to be mv Saviour.

Dora Green-well.

A PRAYER,

[By C. H. Sptogeon.]

Saviour, we have to cry ever, "Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief"; but, oh, woulcst help us to be rid of it! We would, not wish to nurse it. Oh that we could turn it out of doors, and never have a suspicion of Tin- sweet love again. Thou hast taught us "to walk bv faith, but it is so hard to our poor nature. Mature wanteth something it can feel and see- Oh, give us. Lord, to realise the invisible so completely that we may see Him, "whom, having not seen, we' love; in whom, though now we see Him not, vet, believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." TEXTS. His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord: His heart is ; established, ho shall not be ifraid. I long to see you that I impart unto you lome spiritual gift to the end ye may be established. It fe a good thing that the heart bo established with grace.

ESTABLISHED IN HEART.

(Romans i., 11-12; Psalm cxii.. 1-10.)

Mr Stead published some vears ago an interesting little book, ' Hymn's That Have Helj>cd Me.' in which many distinguished persons na.ned the hymns which had most atrongly influenced their spiritual life. If I were n.-ked to name one hymn powerful above the rest, it would be one which I learned as a child from Richard Weaver's hymn book. It began: "My heart is fixed. Eternal God, Fixed or Thee, fixed on Thee; And my eternal choice is made, Christ for me, Christ for me."

Tbere was another hymn which was a great favorite in those days: " Ob ! happy day that fixed my choice On Thee, my Saviour and my God; Well may this glowing heart rejoice, And spread its raptures all abroad." Our passages to-day tell us ot the steadfast, the established heart, the heart that is fixed, that has made its choice once and for all. 1. There is nothing so good as to be established in a true faith and a true love. Consistency merely as consistency is no virtue at all. H we all had been consistent ! we should all have been damned, fnr we •were dead in trespasses and in sins. Despise the mere obstinacy that makes a man keep saying a thing over and over again, just because he has said it once. Always and at all costs keep your minds open to receive the light, for truly the light is sweet. But remember at the same time that there are some things which should : now be settled with you for ever, some decisions that you do not mean to recall. 2. For us Christians some battlf6 have .been fought.and won. As St. John says. ..we know that in Christ we have found renewal, that in Christ we have received pardon, that in Clirist we are aware of .QoAl' We know that if we love Christ we •j are to "keep His commandments. To be i moved away from such thoughts would be | to make shipwreck of our lives. We ought '? to be Christians with strong roots going i far into the ground if we are to live ; through the blasts of time and circum- { stance and temptation. We are not to take np things enthusiastically and drop them It is establishment that most Christiana in these days specially require. 3. How is this establishment to come? Will God take care of ua whatever we do? There is an old doctrine, the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, in which I, for one, believe, but which may be greatly misused. It does not mean : Do what you please after your conversion, and Christ will save you. This is a doctrine of devils. What it means is: Run the race with patience, looking unto Jesus, and you will not miss the prize. 4. Even the young among us have seen shipwrecks, and the older men tell you that the chief shipwrecks they have witnessed have been of those who were most confident m their strength, who thought they stood and nevertheless fell. We are strong only as we are rooted in Christ, as we are succored by Christ, These succors come to us by the use of means that come to us in the sanctuary. There is a fine old word, edifying, once used about preaching. It means preaching that builds up. It was that he might give his converts something of this kind that St. Paul longed to go to Rome. Then it is by prayer—fervent, earnest, wTestling prayer—that our life is ■hielded and made strong and established past the fear of darknesb and evil tidings, and the world, the flesh, and the devil.—' W. Robertson Nicoll.

"UPSETTTN' SINS."

[By the Rev. Dr Ctttle&.3

My friend, if you really long for a genuine growth in grace, in vigor, and in effective usefulness, then be done with vague aspiration, and lay hold of what the negro preacher called his " upsettin' sins'' Put the knife to that bad habit before it becomes an ulcer. Take hold of that neglected duty and perform it. One step on the ladder was taken by my neighbor A ■when he gave up his inordinate appetite for novels (some of them very poisonous) and determined to feed on solid food, and to go back to his* Bible. Deacon B—— pitched out of doors his Sunday morning newspaper; he found it woa killing his Sabbath spirit. Brother C had stopped putting his club in the place of his prayei meeting. Brother D , who said thai after a hard week's work he needed s\ Sunday afternoon nap on his sofa, has be come a different man since he enlkited for his Master in our mission chapel. Mrs E was sorely tempted to ouy that seal skin sacque, but she said: " No, no, not that luxury while that missionary is freezing for want of an overcoat out in Dakota." Don't be all the time feeling your pulse, in order to grow better. Don't relv on attending meetings for the " promotion of holiness.' The higher liie is reached by steady climbing—mu£ng Christ your spiritual ladder—smd by one step at a time.