QUIET HOUR

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 21 August 1926, Page 7

QUIET HOUR

THE SERVICE OF CONSECRATION

(Selected.) Abou Boil Adhem awoke one night from a dream of peace —so runs the Eastern story —and saw within the moonlight in his room, making it rich, and like a lily in bloom, an angel writiii<»• in a book oi yokl. Ho askot , “Wlmt writest thou?’’ 'The angel answered, “The names of those who love the Lord.’’ ‘ls mine there? ho asked. “Nav,” replied the angel, then Abou softly and cheerily said, “I pray thee, then, write me as one who loves his fellow-men.’’ Next night the vision came again, disclosing those whom love of God had blessed, and 10, Bon Adhem’s name led all the rest. Tin* more deeply we read into the teaching of the Lord and his apostles the more clearly floes it appear that the golden thought of this old legend comes out of the very heart, of the gospel. It lies embedded, not only in John s Epistles, but in the teachings of the Master Himself. Love for God is only •I vaporous sentiment, a misty emotion, unless it manifest itself in love for men. The Lord gave us a picture of the last judgment which at first almost startles us; for, instead of making faith in himself or love for God the test of men’s lives, He makes all turn, in that great (Inal day, upon the way they have treated others in the world. Those who have used their gifts to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to relieve the distress of the poor, the prisoner, the sick, are welcomed into eternal joy. 'I hose who have shut up their hands and hearts, allowing human need and suffering to go unrelieved, are themselves shut away from blessedness.

Arc men then, after all, saved by good works? No; the meaning of the picture lies deeper than that. True love for Christ always opens men’s hearts towards their fellows. There is another feature of the picture that presents this truth in stiil clearer light. Christ appears accepting everything done to the needy as done to Himself in person: “I was an hungered and ye gave me meat. I was sick and ye visited me.” Then when the righteous say in amazement, “Why. we never saw thee, hungry and fed thee, or found thee sick and ministered unto thee.” He explains by .-.iiving. ‘Ah, you didn't know it, hut every time you fed a hungry neighbour, or gave it cup of water to a thirsty pilgrim, or visited a sick man, or clothed an orphan child, or wrought, any ministry of kindness to one in need, you did' it to me”—that is, the way he wants' us to serve him, is by serving those who need our ministry. The intense He loves is that which is burned, not in a golden censor to waste its perfume on' the air, hut in the homes of need to cheer some human weariness or ■omfort some human sorrow.

The whole matter of practical consecration is of Himes very unsatisfactory. We say that wo give ourselves to. Christ; 'making an unreserved consecration of all our gifts and powers v to his ■service. Wo are not insincere, yet are wo not conscious that in our actual living we utterly fail to make good our solemn covenants and honest intentions? it may help us take our consecration mt of the region of the emotional and make it real to remember that it is at iviao sacrifice we are to make of our-j selves to God —that is, it is not merely f hymn-singing, praying, and love-rapture He wants, but a living service in His name and for Him. in this blighted world.

We bring our natural endowments, our acquired powers or gains, our gifts uni blessings, to His feet; and, touching them with His benediction, He gives them hack to us and says, "Take these again -ami use them for Me in bearing jov. help, comfort, cheer or inspiration to those about you and in life’s paths who need your ministries.” As we read more deeply into the heart of this matter, we find that God bestows no gift, power, or blessing upon us for ourselves alone. Take money. The man who fulfils his mission, and illustrates his consecration when money is given to him is he who says, "This is not mine. I have received it through God’s blessing. He lias greatly honoured me in making me His agent to use it for Him. It is a sacred trust, granted to lie employed in His name for the blessing of men; I must do with it .'just what Christ Himself would do if lie were hero in my place.” Or take knowledge. Culture, in a consecrated life is not sought for its own sake, lmf that we may thereby he capable of doing more for the good or the joy of others. Each new lesson in life, each new accession to our knowledge, each new experience is legitimately employed only when it is turned at once into some channel of personal helpfulness. Take the blessings of the spiritual experience. There is a wonderful sentence in one of Paul’s letters. He is thanking God for the comfort He had given to him in some sorrow, and he says, " Blessed be the God of all comfort. who comforteth us in all our tribulations, that we may he able to comfort them which are. in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God”—that is, he praised God, not merely he,'cause he himself had been comforted, hut because ,the comfort which had been given to him in his sorrow, gave him added power wherewith to comfort others. Take the wonderful experience of our Lord’s temptation. He certainly endured for His own sake that He might become Conqueror and Lord of all, that He might be "made perfect through suffering,” hut that which the Scriptures long to linger upon as the chief reason why lie was called to pass through temptation, was that He might thereby he fitted, by His own experience, to be to His people a sympathising and helpful friend and Saviour., The meaning of all this is that we are to ,receive even our spiritual gifts and blessings, not only as mere tokens of the love and kindness of God toward us, but also as new powers wherewith we are to serve our fellow men. It is easy to be selfish even in the region of our most sacred spiritual life. We may want comfort only that we may be comforted ourselves. We may desire high attainments in Christian life for their own sake, with no wish to be made thereby greater blessings to the world. But when we seek in this way we may not receive. Even in spiritual things unselfishness restrains the divine out,floiv toward us. God does not like to bestow his blessings where they will be hoarded or absorbed. He loves to put His very best gifts into the hands of those who will not store them away in barns, or fold them up in napkins and hide them away, but will scatter them abroad. He puts songs into the hearts of those who will sing them out again. This is the secret of that promise that to him that hath shall he given, and of that’ other little understood, little believed word of Christ, "It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Heaven’s benediction comes upon, not tlii? receiving, but the dispensing. We are not blessed in the net of taking, but in the act of giving out again. Things wo take to keep for ourselves alone, fade iu our hands. Men

are good. and groat before God, not as they gather into their hands and hearts tlie abundant gifts of God, whether temporal or spiritual, but as their gathering augments their usefulness and makes them greater blessings to others.