THE QUIET HOUR.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 26 July 1924, Page 14

THE QUIET HOUR.

(Published by arrangement with the Hawera. Ministers’ Association.) FRAGMENTS OF THOUGHT. The other summer, while sailing along the shores of the sound, I landed at a little cove; there was a lighthouse tower and a fog-bell, and the keeper showed Us the fog-bell, and how the mechanism made it strike every few minutes in the darkness and in the night when the fog hung over the coast; and I said, That is the preacher; there lie stands ringing out the message of warning, ringing out the message of' cheer; it is a great thing to be a preacher. And we went up into the lighthouse tower; there was a tower that never said anything, and never did anything—it just stood still and shone; and I said, That is the Christian ; he may not have any word to utter, he may not be a prophet, he mav not be a worker, he may achieve nothing, but he stands still and shines, in the darkness and in the storm, always, and every night. The fog-bell strikes only on occasion, but all the time and every night the light flashes out from the lighthouse; all the time and every night this light is flashing out from you if you are God’s children. Let your light so shine. Do not flash it—let it shine; just have it, and then let it shine. You cannot let it shine unless you have it, and if you have it you cannot keep it from shining.—Lvman Abbott, D.D. If we would diminish selfishness in the world, let us cultivate generosity in our own nature; if we would promote charity and good feeling, let us cherish them in our own breasts; if we would banish gloom from another’s heart, let our spirit be cheerful. Thus we shall be a continual influence for good, not only by our example, though that is much, but by the subtle force of contact, which operates silently and unconsciously, but continuously and most efficiently.— Ledger. Cultivate a loving manner. How much harm is done by a disagreeable Christian! It is a sad thing to fold up in a napkin the talent of manner, ’to lose the key of the casket, to forget the sesame to the hearts of men! Every kindness done to others is a step nearer to the life of Christ.—-Dean Stanley. God does not give grace until the hour of trial comes. But when it does come, the amount of grace and the nature of the special grace required is vouchsafed. Do not perplex thyself with what is needed for future emergencies; to-morrow will bring its promised grace along with to-morrow’s trials. —J. R. Macduff.

Only they whose faces shine with the glory of some inspirationwhich lifts them out of themselves shall ever do abiding work in this earnest world, and themselves shine in the memory of those who come after. “To press toward the mark of the high calling” is the secret of all true success.—Rev. H. W. Foote in Insight of Faith. He who persists in genuineness will increase in adequacy.—T. T. Lynch. Every action, every word, every meal rru a Pf man s trial and discipline. Character is assuredly ripening or else blighting.—Robertson. No man is bom into this world whose work is not horn with him; there is always wcirk, and tools to work withal, tor those who will.—James Russell Lowell.

Death is the justification of all the ways of the Christian, the last end of all his sacrifices, the touch of the Great Master which completes the picture.— Mme. Swetehine.

I'or myself lam certain that the good of human life cannot lie in the possession of things which for one man to possess is for the rest to lose, but ®at her in things which all can oossess alike, and where one man’s wealth promotes his neighbour’s.—Spinojm. Never lose a chance of saving a kind word. As Collingwood never saw a vacant place in his estate hut he took an acorn out of his pocket and popped in ’ with your compliments through life. An acorn costs nothing, pkd ma y sprout into a prodigious Hit of timber.—W. M. Thackeray. I have sometimes wished that I had nothing else to do hut to dwell with t»od in prayer, praise, and preaching Alas! one has to come down from the Mount of Transfiguration and meet the lunatic ehrld and the quarrelsome sen lies at the bottom of the hill Spurgeon.

You may say what you please about the inspiration of the Scriptures: as long as there are tears in the world and sorrows that make them, so lona the books of' the New Testament wifi be considered authoritative; and for this simple reason/that they bring balm to the wants of men where men’s wants are most immedicable with anv ordinary dealing.

Ohi afflictions are like weights, and have a tendency to bow us to the dust; but there is a wav of arranging weights, by means of wheels and pub joys, so that they will even lift us up 'trace, by its matchless art, has often turned the heaviest of our trials into occasions for heavenlv jov. ‘We glorv m tribulations also.’ s '>

I here is a great deal of difference between mv covering up my sin and God putting it away.—Moody. upon the bright side of your condition; then your discontents "will disperse. Pore not upon vour losses but recount your mercies.—Watson. ’ We need to get the matter of consecration down out of cloud-land into the region of actual, common, daily living. A\ e slug about it and pray for it, and * n , oul ’ r eHgious meetings, otttimes in glowing mood, as if it were some exalted state with which earth’s lire of toil, struggle, and care had nothing whatever to do. But the consecration suggested bv the living sacrifice is one that walks‘on the earth, that meets life’s actual duties, struggles temptations and sorrow's, and that falters not in obedience, fidelity, or submission, but follows Christ with love and joy wherever He leads. No other consecration pleases God.—J. R. Miller. D.D., in “Making the Most of Life.” Observe what direction your thoughts and feelings most readily take when%ou are alone, and you wiii then form a tolerably correct opinion of yourself Bengel.