QUIET HOUR

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 6 November 1926, Page 7

QUIET HOUR

PRAYER. O word of God Incarnate, \Y ho hast expressed the thoughts of God in human speech, and embodied the purpose of God in a human life, we beseech Thee that w - e may be numbered among those who receive Thy fulness of grace and truth. And receiving Thee, may we receive power to become the sons of God because we have believed in Thy name. Amen. KEEPING THE FAITH. (By Rev. L. Mac-Lean Watt, D. D.) 2 Timothy iv. 7. As wc get near the finish of the year ive begin to think of that. Here is Paul, aged and weary, at the close oi day. leaving his task, and speaking to Timothy, the child of his ministry. Mis words are intended to cheer and sustain the man who was to come after him, by writing upon his remembrance the import of what had made Paul true. It is, in effect, ‘Do not forget that- I did uiv part and be you faithful, true, and brave also, Tor you may have to go to death by tho same road as I. I have fought a good light. 1 have finished my course. 1 have kept the faith.” It is a consolation' in bereavement, this remepibranee that death cannot obliterate good which has been achieved, and it is an encouragement for better things. I remember a blacksmith who had toiled hard and established a reputation for probity; and when he was dying he said to his .sons, “[ cannot leave you money, but 1 leave you a good name for good work, which nolmdy’cau fake away.” He had kept the faith; and like Paul lie had no fears for the future. He trusted his children. , t . , ~ Paul had been the best-hated Jew of his time ; for he had been the hope of his people. But lie had left the glory of the schools for the Cross, and so had received the wrong side of a beatitude for his wage. Even the Roman Christians had forsaken him. probably thinking him a failure, and dangerous to associate with. We have not to forget •that the ioes of Christianity are always busy, for Christ has His enemies still, in a Christian land, where they are tolerated only because of the charitableness of Christian principles. I knew one in a country, village who hated Christ so bitterly' that he used bo creep around at audit- among the sleeping houses, and push in under the doors infidel tracts which held Christ up to scorn. Everybody knew who had done it, but it was only pity and not execration that was his reward. . . Christ suffers when Christians do not keep the faith. Vet nothing has so much or so deeply as Christianity satisfied human needs, comforted sorrow or robbed death of its fears. I stood beside a poor man, dying; and one had’ brought an unbelieving book aJ>d laid it on hi.s pillow. But that day I found the Bible there, and he said ‘‘l ken the anchor that has steadied m.v life; and T'l! never let it go now. ’ In the power of Christ a dying soul lets go all. and grips the Cross. Keeping the faith is different from keeping n weed, which i.^ - often hut «V dish of curdled opinions which have grown cold-. The faith is the belief. through Christ that God is a fact in the life of man and man a fact in the thought and purpose and love of God. He who keeps that through change of circumstance, bereavement, convention, persecution, even unto death, preserves a heritage of honour for the world. Sometimes the faith finds expression in simplest ways. I once watched all night by a farm sen - a'nt. and he said, “I’ve done a thing but the kye; and the dark’s cornin’ doon.” And he sat up and called the cattle out of the bog. as he had dome when he was a boy, and then he lay down in the long sleep. He had to finish his day’s darg ere he would go out over the moor, home to the beloved. Some find it easy to keep the faith, because of the associations which cluster around it, as about a place where one has lived, wdiose every room is eloquent of honour and of love. The faith verv often gets to be like something which we have grown up in, because, if it be true, it is like the love of God. wide enough for our growth. It should be like a home, and not a coffin.

There are some who change from form to form of faith ;i« easily change apparel for a meal. They change easily because they have never really had a home iri the faith. They are like tramps and vagrants who sleep in a different barn every night, feeling, •or that night, at home. So. too. there be some who believe what they think thev are thinking, in the last place where they have given a collection for the - conversion of others. But Paul had one constant star—“ God forbid that T should glory, save in the Gross of the Lord Jesus Christ. ’ In the faith abiding, Christ is greater than kings. You remember how when Palissy the Potter was in the Bastille for his Protestantism, the king came to him and apologised. ‘•You see.” said he, “I am compelled bv the people to keep you here till you recant.” “Then.” was the prisoner’s reply, “in Christ I am stronger than kings, and stronger than the crowds that compel them.” _ And he stayed there, in the faith, till be died. For the faith keeps you, if you abide in it But not if you loosen your belt and leave your cloak in the enemy’s bands, and run. The battery saves the line, but- only if the gunners stand by it, serving it. If the gums are deserted they might as well be scrap iron or billets of timber. What keeps the gunners there? The faith —belief in the cause that brought them thither, counting ease and money nothing alongside the duty of the soul. That faith is meat and drink for them in their day of trial. Hungry and thirsty, there they stand to the last nian,_ till the smoke blows by, anti the din sinks into stillness, and the victory be won. Bo with the Cross. All hell may surge ft bout it. The soul that knows the love of God stands by it till the dawn. And they who have done so find a shadow like light itself about their weariness, and hear a voice like faroff music whisper in their hearts. Thev have fought a good light. J hey have finished their course. They have kepf the faith. These are flic three steps leading to a new life. Ami Christ, stands at the top to lead you home.