THE QUIET HOUR.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 19 July 1924, Page 13

THE QUIET HOUR.

(Published "by arrangement with the Hawera Ministers’ Association.) A PRAYER. Give ear, 0 Lord, unto our prayer, and attend to the voice of our supplications; we humbly plead our Redeemer’s name; for His sake be gracious to us. Another week has passed, and each day has- brought us fresh blessings from Thee, and now again we look forward to the day of rest. 0 Thou, who hast blest us every day, give us Thy special blessing on Thine Own holy day. Prepare us for it by Thy grace. Help us to desire it and to love it, because it is Thine. May the blessing of those who call the Lord’s Day a delight be ours. Incline us to honour Thee; not doing our own ways, nor finding our own pleasure, nor speaking our own words, on Thy holy day. Whatever of sin Thou has seen in us, may all be blotted out in our Saviour’s blood. If we have offended against Thee this day in thought or word or.deed, if we have spoken harsh words, or had unkind thoughts, or shown any unchristian temper, O God of mercy and grace, forgive us for His sake. Thus may we lie down at peace with Thee. Take us into Thy care; w’atch over us this night; send us quiet sleep; and grant us to awake in the morning with glad and thankful hearts. Be gracious to all dear to us, and to all among whom we live. Look in mercy upon • the sick, comfort the sorrowful, visit the sleepless with trustful and peaceful thoughts, and help them to know that Thou art near. Hear us, O Lord our God, for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen.—Rev. F. BourdiUon. THE BURDEN BEARER, Over the narrow pathway That led from my lonely door, I went with a thought of the Master As oft I had-walked before; But my heart was heavily laden, And with tears my eyes were dim, But I knew I should lose the burden Could I get a glimpse of him. Q, friend! if the greater burden His love can make so light, Why should His wonderful goodness Our halting credence slight? The little, sharp vexations, . The briars that catch and fret— Shall we not take them to the Helper Who never failed us yet? Tell Him about the heartache, And toll Him the longings, too; Tel] Him the baffled purpose, When we scarce know what to do; Then, leaving all our weakness With the One divinely strong, Forget that we bore the burden, And carry away the song. —Margaret E. Sangster. THE CHURCH WE NEED. What we need to-day is a joyful church. It is this carrying a sad countenance, with so many wrinkles on our brows, that retards Christianity. Oh, may there come great joy upon believers everywhere, that we may shout for joy and rejoice in God day and night! Let us pray that the Lord may make us joyful, and when we have joy then we will have success.

—D. L. Moody. THE VALUE OF THE INSIGNIFICANT. Dr. Maclaren says: “Ninety-nine and a half per cent of every man’s life consists of trifles.” Life resembles the clock which' ticks every second ' and strikes each hour. Were it not for the 3600 insignificant ticks there would not he the ringing stroke. Were the sun to reserve itself for the pyrotechnics it would be of little value.' The plain civilities of life make it a blessing or a curse. Fuller says that William, Earl of. Nassau, .won a subject from the King of Spain every time he lefted his hat. A kind word may save a life that is ready to give up. A glance may make a heart drop blood. A word may plant a sting in memory which years cannot remove or the grave bury. “Few of us can do great things, but all can obey the Apostle’s command: ‘As we have opportunity let us do good unto all men.’ ” The sweetest commendation the Master ever uttered was on a woman who gave two mites to the temple service. No ministry is more pleasing to Him than the performance of a lowly duty when there is no pen to write its history, and. no voice to proclaim its praise. We may not be able to build the Brooklyn Bridge over which thousands pass each day, but we can swing a board over a narrow stream and so shorten the road for some weary traveller. We may not be able to write a proclamation of emancipation, but we can helo one soul to break the chains of sin that enslave it. “Better lie small and shine than be big and cast a shadow.” We live strongly when wo live steadily. There are many lives, not one deed of which counts for much, yet as a whole they are an irresistible force, for good. Thev do not write one conspicuous sentence," but the value of their lives is an unanswerable argument for God.—Sel. THE SUFFERING OF' GOD.

When we .speak of God as Father, " hen we say that ■ God loves beings who are false, lustful, malicious, who are stubborn and impenitent, who in their blindness and perverse wilfulness rush upon self-destruction, what immeasurable sorrows do we imply in the depths of the Divine love! And it is out of. these depths that the Cross of Christ emerges. He who bled on Calvary was first in the bosom of the Father; and what is the gospel of n crucified Christ but the proclamation of the infinitely awful, blessed truth that God Himself is the greatest sufferer for our sin; that- the Righteous Father drinks the hitter cup His children’s unrighteousness has filled? As in all things Christ is in this the word of the invisible God. He bore our sins in His sufferings and death, 7iot by any external infliction, but by the inward necessity of holy love—because He would , live out the life of God in this hostile world. In this there is nothing “transactional,” “official,” “forensic,” nothing but inevitable spiritual reality. Holy love cannot but bear sin, sorrow over it, suffer for it, and thereby, according to the redemptive law, become sin’s propitiation.—Rev. Robt. Law, D.D., Toronto. SUPREME TASK OF THE CHURCH. With the following insistent passage Professor D. S. Gage, Professor of Bible and Philosophy in Westminster College. Mo., concludes a singularly thoughtful article in the Princeton Theological Review: supremd task of the church is the fulfilment of her goal, the conquest of the world for Christ. Nor can the task delay. The needs of the world, the menacing problem at hand and imminent, the swiftly increasing discovery of means of destruction, swiftly decaying religions and loosening moral bonds, upsurging class and race hatreds, loss of old means of protection, huge masses of desperate races ready to roll in devastating flood, loss of faith to steady the souls of men, forgetfulness of God in scorning His Word —these are a dark, cyclonic, portentous, sky-covering cloud. At home and abroad the church needs rally her forces, for the hour is at hand. She must hid defiance to all .who challenge her faith, and boldly re-

assert her ancient doctrines. She must proclaim tjie necessity for her task and its need for haste. She must summon men to her standards by virtue of warfare which tries men’s souls and inner courage, more than the trenches of France, which tests their manhood more than the submarine, .which has as its consequence the downfall of Humanity if she fail, or the glorious establishment of the kingdom of God. on earth, if she succeed. She has no lesser aim than the enthronement of the Prince of Peace.