QUIET HOUR

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 12 March 1927, Page 18

QUIET HOUR

DESTINY. (By Rev. J. ii. Jowett, iu the “British/ Weekly. ’) “For this cause came 1 unto this hour.” — .John Xil. 27. A little company of young Greeks are in Jerusalem, estrange stories of a wonderful Nazarene have come along the roads and have reached them in their homes far away. They have a burning curiosity to see Him., Peril aps something deeper than this is stirring tnem. Tfley seek out Philip as the best means or getting an introduction to Christ. “Sir, we would see Jesus!” Philip brings them to his Master. And when nis Master nears the word of Philip, and sees tlie joung urieA.s in Mis presence, a liiut of toe world triumph seems to take possession or Him. The coming or a tew seekers appears as tne first-, ruits of a mighty narvest. This little nre of desire xoretells the desire of all nations. And in the thrilling joy ot victory Jesus cries: “.Now is tne Son of Man glorified.” But the brilliant life' is only tor a moment. The shadow of death falls upon the vision of sovereignty. Death rears itself between llim and the end for which He came.

“Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and/die it abideth alone, but if it die it tringetn forth much fruit.”

An apparent shrinking steals into the Saviour’s spirit. “/Now,is My,soul troubled.” He is not arraid of death, :but He falls back from (the awful human sin which He is to meet and inro.porate in His death. It is not the darksome but the loathsome which so deeply troubles Him. “He was made sin lor us who knew no sin.” “Now is My soul troubled, and what shall I say? Iratner, save Me from this hour’?” Surely these are the trembling balancings with which we sinlul folk are quite familiar. But the Master is steadying His troubled consciousness in firm decision. “But for this cause came 1 unto this hour.” And then the sky of His soul is cleared in the vivid possession of His, redeeming work. •‘Father, gloiifiy Thy name.”

“For this cause came I unto this hour.” His consciousness was steadied in the conviction that He had come up to that hour as on the appointed road. Every step of the way led right to it. it was the hour of mission and of destiny. But this is how the Master approached every hour. His hours were not divided into sacred and secular seasons. It was not that some hour s bore the seal ot Divine appointment while others were only the drift of human accident and caprice. It was not that some hours carried a royal signincance while others sped by in indilterenee. Our Master felt the Divine call , oi the crisis because He had felt the Divine call in the apparent commonplace. It was not only the striking hours which housed a sovereign purpose. They only proclaimed a movement which had .run through minutes and seconds in the intervening time. Concerning every hour He could say: “l'or this cause came I unto this hour.” And so in a very real sense every hour in every day was laden with distinction, and He entered into it as though behind Him there was an eternity of brooding purpose and, motive which had prepared Him for it. Every hour contained a- Divine happening. Every circumstance, however giey and colourless, was the home of an appointed mission. At the wedding in Cana of Galilee Jesus could say; “For this cause came I unto this hour.” In the night season with Nicodemus He had the illuminating consciousness that He had been prepared for that hour. The sanctified and sanctifying hours among the commonplaces of life led Him on to the more critical hours. But crisis and oommonplace alike were on the same road, and every step on the road had the loyaltyi of Divine distinction. ■ The way to this glorious destiny led over the plains of life as well as over its mountains. It threaded the trifles as well as its more momentous calls.

Well- it is His blessed will that it should be the same with His desciples. The disciple is. to meet every hour robed and ready for service. His life must be pervaded” by a sense of the unbroken continuity of the Divine purpose. The holy grace of our God is not withdrawn; wnen some startling crisis is over. God’s sacred commission is like the red strand in an alpine rope, it runs through the entire length. It pervades all our circumstances, and in every one of them it is part or our inheritance to be able to say: “For this cause came unto this hour.”

All this gives a large range to the Christian conception of a dedicated spirit. Dedication is not a matter of special communion, when mere points in lire are gilded with fine gold. Dedication is an unbroken line, and it claims every circumstance through which it runs. And" therefore we are to meet every’ circumstance as though the whole of opr past lire had-been specially leading up to it. The circumstance may be' a bright one, like a lovely summer morning; or it may be a dull hour, with a snap of biting winter in it. It may be an unwelcome and uninviting duty, and “what shall .1 say? ‘Lather, save me from this hour?’ But for this cause came I unto this hour.” And when the great word, which greets the unwelcome with a cheer: “Father, glorify Thy name.” Or the circumstances may be a stretch of most inviting leisure and pleasure. Well, let us go into it as those who are divinely commissioned to take.possession.

It is this sense of unbroken dedication which subdues every hour and every moment of every hour to the Divine control. Life becomes a royal road; and at every stage I may share its royalty. And what a brave journey life would he with such a brave, upliiting consciousness! To say as it approaches us. “This hour bears the imperial purple, too. Enter in, my soul. Here and now let the Father glorify His name.” PRAYER. O Lord, Thou knowest all our needs and dost understand all our weakness and our waywardness. Help us, we beseech Thee, that we too may desire most, and may know what it is for which our souls thirst. It is Thyself, O Lord. And we pray Thee that alt outward means of worship, our gathering together, our study of Thy holy word, our .praises and our prayers, may indeed open our hearts to desire, and Thy hand to bestow.' the things that are pertaining to the better life of godliness. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.