THE QUIET HOUR.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 1 November 1924, Page 16

THE QUIET HOUR.

(Published by arrangement with the Hawera Ministers’ Association.) WHAT CONVERSION MEANS i* • \ • Salvation implies conversation, which means r. change of heart. When men nrst discover their • real condition before God, they find out that they want help in two directions. _ (?) 'They have broken the law of God. and need forgiveness. (o) Their evil habits have got such a mastery over them that they cannot hslp but sin; they are really slaves, and want deliverance from their bondage. r k , To meet the first need there is the blessing of pardon ; and foi. the: second —that is. the bondage of sin—there is 'he destruction of the power of evil by the Holy Ghost. God impltants in. the soul of those whom He forgives a new hearty/which loves Him, hates sin, and delights in holiness, so that it: becomes afterwards as easy , and natural to do right as before it was easy and natural to ao evil. This we speak of as-. ; conversion, which means a . change from wicked--ess Ko. holiness, from selfishness to love, from being ■ under the . power of to being under the power of God. PRAYERS UNUTTERED ARE HEARD. ‘Jlut suppose I only whispered my prayer,’ someone asks. ‘Can God hear?’ Science has already demonstrated that one’s voice can be amplified to a cannon’s roar. But God’s ‘ear is not heavy, that it cannot hear,’ (Isa. lix., 1). In fact, . the mystery of prayer goes beyond science, for one can speak within his heart, and God hears. Of Hannah We read: ‘She spake in her heart . . . but her voice was not heard’ (Sam. i, 13). God heard it, however. Then again intercessory prayer is broadcasted prayer.' Wheii David Lloyd George spoke in Dexter Park Pavilion, Chicago, the' mammoth building was crowded, ant) thousands •stood on the -outside. When the distinguished Welshman was introduced, he said: Tt fills me with despair when I see such a gigantic gathering and when T. realise that it is quite impossible that mv feeble voice should extend over such a vast gathering.’ ‘We* hear you fine,’ responded a voice far bank in the. audience. There were radio transmitters inside and outside and everybody heard, while in the home of an editor of one of th«l dailies the l nee sage was being recorded word for word. So God ‘broadcasts’ our prayers, and missionaries in foreign lands are encouraged, provisions .are provided for institutes where live the helpless; sad hearts are comforted, tempted ones delivered, and souls over whom some one has agonized are saved. HOW TO BE SAVED. In the beginning God made man pure and holy, and they had such fellowship with one .another that they walke-l and talked with never a barrier between. But man sinned, and sin did two things. It offended God toward man, and alienated man from God. And thus sin reared a great , ba~rier between them. But the Lord Jesus Christ came in tbe likeness of sinful flesh and for ein, ••opdemned sin in the flesh. He perfeefy kept the law in all points, yet naid the extreme penalty of the broken lo w. Hb death did two marvellous things. \ He propitiated- an; offended God, and bv His wondrous love He to man and bring him ba°k to God. Wh°t nmrt do, then, is to turn from th sin which offends God, and the pardon and restoration He f”ee!v offo-cj von . through Hie blessed Som ‘Ho that hath the Son hath life. 07171 berth o * bath rrt the Son Qf God hath not life’ (I. John v. 12).