THE QUIET HOUR.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 14 June 1924, Page 10

THE QUIET HOUR.

(Published by arrangement with the Hawera Ministers’ Association.) A PRAYER..

O', Lord, our God, grant us grace to desire Thee- with our whole heart; that so desiring we may seek and find Thee; and so finding Thee may love Thee; and loving Thee, may hate those sins from which Thou hast redeemed us. Amen. —Anselm. JUST RECOMPENSE,

“According to thy faith be it done unto thee. ’ Measure for measure! The nieasure of our faith is the measure of the power we receive from our Lord. Little faith,- little power, little daring, little enterprise! Great faith, great power, great daring, great enterprise! Faith is power; and the measure of the one is the measure of the other. Faith is buoyancy: lose your faith, you begin to sink. What is faith? “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for.” Faith acts on the assurance that the thing hoped for is. You hope that- there is a hereafter, where your broken family circle may be again complete. Act on the assurance that the thing is hoped for is. Arrange your life and affairs on the assurance' that you are to live again. That is faith. Take the matter of forgiveness. You have penitently sought the Lord’s mercy-seat, and hum/bly appealed for forgiveness. You hope that the gracious Father will forgive you. That is the thing hoped for. Now act on the assurance that the thing hoped for is, that you are forgiven. “Believe that ye have received them, and ye shall have them.” That is faith. Such faith is power; and the more our faith increases the greater will be our power to pursue a quieF, faithful, and confident life. “According to your faith be it unto you.” “With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to. vou ’’ — J. H. Jowett. ’ THE LONELY 7 LIFE. The continual craving of man for companionship in the lonely life, even in the valley of the shadow, is surely not disregarded. It is there that God meets him, there in that holy of holies of the heart, shut to every other visitant. Life in. its ultimate issue is lonely, because we were' made for a higher companionship. Our Lord felt this solitude of human life, and looked forward at the last calmly to the time when He should be left alone, and could add, “And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.” This, too, is the solution for us, and in the

loneliest places of life we may find the heart’s Bitterness and joy, which brought the pain or solitude, turned into holy and blessed sacraments. There is divine comfort for human; sorrow, Divine healing for human wounds, Divine forgiveness for human sin, Divine help for human loneliness. This is the message of religion, This is Christ's offer, to satisfy the ultimate needs of our nature. In His love bitterness is lost and joy is shared;' In His .service the lire.' is' stripped of its; selfishness - . He may have to lead us out of ourselves through sorrow, and if we follow He will lead us out of our sorrow through sympathy. In Him we reach out into a truer arid fuller life. Through Christ we reach Christ’s brethren. He himself graduated in the school of pain, and trained Himself for His office, and can he touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Communion with Him satisfies our deepest needs and prepares us for the highest service. The lonely life is lost in the Christ life.— Hugh Bla^k. I walk down the valley of silence, Down the dim voiceless valley alone, And I hear riot the fall of a footstep Around me, save God’s and my own; And the hush of my heart is as holy As hovers where angels have Sown. Do you ask me the place of that valley, Ye souls that are harrowed with care? It lieth far between mountains.

And God and His Angels are there; One is the dark mountain, of sorrow, And one the bright mountain of prayer. THE SIN OF INGRATITUDE. Whatever we may say about man’s ingratitude to his fellow-men, there is no question about man’s lack of gratitude to God. We are continually receiving ; mercies and favours from .Him, and yet, are there riot days and;.flays with most pf us ; iri which -yre lift no heart arid speakyrio word iri praise? Our prayers are largely requests- and. supplications for help and favour, with but little adoration and worship. We continue asking and asking, and; God continues giving arid giving; but how, many of us-remember always or often to' give thanks for answered prayer? The angel of requests— <so the legend runs—goes . back from earth heavily laden every dime he comes to gather up the prayers of' men. But the angel of thanksgiving, of gratitude, has almost empty hands as he returns from his errands to-this world. Yet ought we not to give thanks for all that we receive arid'fori every answered request? If: We', were todotliis, our hearts would always be' lifted up toward God in praise.

Thefe is a story of some great conductor of a. musical festival suddenly throwing up his baton, and stopping

the performance, crying “Flageolet.” The flageolet was not doing its part, and the conductor’s trained .ear missed its one note in the large orchestra, T>oes not God miss any voice that is silent in the music of earth that rises up to Him ? And are there not many voices that are silent, taking no part in the song, giving forth no praise? Shall we not quickly start our hearlsong of gratitude, calling upon every power of our being to praise God?— J. R. Miller.