THE QUIET HOUR.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 13 December 1924, Page 13

THE QUIET HOUR.

(Published by arrangement Avith the JiaAvera Ministers’ Association.)

BROKEN PURPOSES. ‘My purposes are broken off.’ —Job xvii., 11.

How many can join in this lament? Nor is it always their fault. It is not only those who have failed because of their low- ideals or vices, but some who have striven rightly to make their lives tell for a worthy end, feel that their ‘purposes are broken off,’ that they have done no visible work for God or humanity. All feel that life lias a higher meaning than simply to live, to labour for the passing day, to eat, drink, sleep and enjoy. as the brutes that perish. But to how large a number the opportunity to- do any notable or lasting deed never seems to come!

Yet seeming failures are often large and wondrous successes. It is the purpose that. God notes, and not its broken outcome. ITe loves to confound thereat and exalt the humble. f-Ie can overrule the lowliest life, so that from the invisible seed will issue the greatest tree. No life ever seemed to end more tragically and unpromisingly than that of Christ, and yet He had the prescience to say of it: ‘I have finished the work Thou gavest me to do.’ The greatest surprises of the future a,wait many a downcast soul, when he sees the results of bis seemingly futile efforts. Then again, there broken purposes, these incomplete lives, look to another life, where thev can he finished and completed. The failing need immortality for success, the wronged for vindication, the shadowed for light, +he. defeated' for victory. Ours then, it is to resolve, to aim. to .struggle; results we must he content to leave with a. loving Heavenly Father THE GREATEST MEDICINE. (By William S. Sadler, M.D., in The American Magazine.) Prayer is a- wonderful mental medicine. I have seen nervous people quieted by prayer when drugs would have bad little or no effect. Prayer is a safety valve for the rnind and the soul. If Christianity were practically applied to our everyday life, it would so purify and vitalise the race that at least one-half of our sickness . and sorrow would disappear.

But I must warn .you against morbid methods in prayer. A meaningless recital ol one's difficulties is simply a. source of adverse autosuggestion to the mind. The highest conception of prayer is that of silent spiritual communion between man and his Maker. Merely to kneel silent! v. in a room with closed doors ami drawn blinds, possesses great therapeutic power. Worship is getting out of fashion. Yet it renews the spirit as sleep renews the bodv. Faith is an actual remedy for those physical ills which result from doubt, depression, and discouragement. ■ 1 make this state-

men l as a physician and surgeon. Fear is the cause of worry ana nervousness Avhicii are responsible for most of the functional diseases. Faith —courage, confidence, optimism—is the only known cure lor fear. It is back of every kind of mind cure. Wh at I have said in these articles lias been based on clinical facts taken from my own medical experience. But I beg noAV to be excused from speaking as a physician, and 1 ask the privilege of saying a feAV things for which 1 have no- scientific evidence, but Avhicii I belieA r e to be true, and which I recommend to your consideration.

I have explained here that a nervous patient can be cured by'faith in anything which his mind accepts as having power to cure him. I could fill a book with cases I have cured with sugar pills—plus faith. But what 1 want to say, not as a physician but as a. human. being, is this: Let us call a halt on the custom of starting new religions. Let u,s go back to our neglected Bibles, with their exceeding great and precious promises—to our Bibles, wherein it is witten. ‘Casting all your c-are upon Him. for He careth for you, . . . . ‘Come unto Me, all ye ‘that labour and are heavy laden, and T will •jive you rest.’ .... ‘Who healeth all thv diseases.’

1 ask von to get a. new vision of Son of Man, going about, healing the sick and comforting the afflicted. If von are looking for a religious mind cure—.and it is the only short cut to health that T know of—get a religion that will not only heal N your body, but that promises to do something for vour soul. And it is tuv norsniml belief that the religion which this most effectively is the simnle. old-fashioned Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

TRANQUILLITY. Tranquillity amid world-rush, How sweet the Spirit’s gift! How calm, how beautiful the hush That doth my soul uplift! Kept tranquil by the Spirit’s power, In peace ’mid battle-shock, My feet are planted hour by hour, Fearless, on Christ my Rock. His banner over me is love, He watches me, His sheep. He leads me to the Fold above. My soul dotli feed and keep. He dwells within, He knocks no more. Christ doth in me abide ; When He came in T shut my door To all the world outside. Oh, who my Lord from me can part? Shall life, or death, or Hell ? . He renms supreme within my heart, in Him I safely dwell. IvEFjF on. To talk with God no breath is lost; Talk on. Talk on. To walk with God no strength is lost; Walk on. Walk on. To wait on God no time is lost; Wait on. Wait on. To grind the axe no work is lost; Grind on. Grind on.

The work is quicker,: better done. Nor needing half the strength laid on; i .Grind on. Grind on. Martha stood, but Mary sat; Martha murmured much at that; Martha cared, but Mary heard, Listening to the Master’s word, And- the Lord her choice preterred; Sit on. Hear on. Work without God is labour lost; Work on. Work oh. Full soon you’ll learn it to your cost. .Toil on. Toil on. Little is much when God is in it; Much is little €A r eryAvhere. Mail’s busiest day is not Ai'orth God's minute If God the labour do not share; Go, work for God, and nothing’s lost Who works with Him does best and most; Wo-rk on. Work on.