QUIET HOUR

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 21 May 1927, Page 18

QUIET HOUR

A LITTLE WHILE.

(By Rev Theodore L. Cuyler, D. D.)

In our Lord’s last conversation with His disciples before His betrayal and crucifixion, He said to • them, “A little while and ,ye shall pot see Ale—because I go unto tlie Father.” Before them was the bloody tragedy on Calvary, and forty days after that His ascension through the vernal air to Heaven. They should see Him no more in earthly form. But in another little while—in fifty days thereafter, He should come again by His Holy spirit in the wondrous baptism of power at Pentecost. He was then to oe glorified by the Holy Spirit in the hearts of His disciples. Jesus Christ is with His people now; for did He not promise “Lo! I am with you alway. ’ ‘f

Those sweet, tender words “ a little while” have deep thoughts in them, like the still ocean at the twilight — thoughts too deep for. our fathoming. They breathe some precious consolations to those whose burdens are heavy, either of care, or poverty, or sickness. If the prosperous can enjov their ■ prosperity only for a little while, neither shall the mourner weep much longer, or. God’s poor children carry much longer the pains of privations of poverty The daily toil to earn the daily bread, the cariung care Lo keep tlie barrel from running low, and the scanty “cruse” from wasting will soon be over Cheer up, my brother! “In a little while and ye shall see Me,” says our blessed Alaster, “for I go to prepare a place for jou.” O the infinite sweep of the glorious transaction! A few years here in a lowly dwelling whose rent it was hard to pay m 3 and then infinity ages in the palace of the King of kings! Here' a seamy table and coarse raiment soon outworn; yonder a robe of resplendent light at the marriagesupper of the Lamb. Let his blissful thought put new courage into thy soul, and fresh sunshine into they countenance.

I sometimes go into a sick chamber where the “prisoners of Jesus Christ” are suffering with no prospect of recovery. Perhaps the eyes of some of those chronic invalids may fall upon this article. My dear friends, put under your pillows these sweet words of Jesus —“a little while.” It is oniy lor a little while that you are to serve your Master by patient submission to His holy will. That chronic suffering will soon be over. That disease which no earthly physician can cure will soon be cured by vour divine Physician who, by the touch of His messenger, will cure you, in an instant, into the perfect health of Heaven! You will exchange this weary bed of pain for that crystal air in which none shall say “I’am sick;” neither shall there be any more pain. Not only to the sick and to the poverty-stricken child of God do these tender words to our Redeemer bring tsolace. Let these words “a little while” bring a healing balm to hearts that are smarting under unkindness, or wounded by neglect, or pining under privations, or ,bleeding under sharp bereavements. I offer them as a sedative to sorrows and a solace under sharp afflictions—“a little while and ye shall see Ale;” and the sight of Hihi shall, in an instant, wipe out all the memories of the .darkest hours through which you made your way into- the everlasting rest.

A few more struggles here, A few more conflicts o’er; A little while of toils and tears And we shall weep no more.

These words of the Master are also a trumpet-call to duty. In a little while my post in the pulpit shall be empty; what manner of minister ou"ht I to be in fidelity to dying souls? ■ Sabbath school teacher, in a little while you shall meet the young immortals in vour class for the last time i Are you winning them to Christ? The time is short. Whatever vour hands find to do for the Mastei, do it! Do it, A.quila and Priscilla in the Sunday-school 1 Do it, Lydia in the home! Do / it, Dorcas with thy needle, and ’ Mary in the room _or sickness and sorrow! Do it, Tertius with thy pen, and Appollos with thy tongue! Do it. praying Hannah with thev children, and make for them the “little coat” of Christian character which they shall wear when you have gone home to a- mother s heavenly reward.

Only think, too, how much may be achieved in a little while. r lhe atonement for a world of perishing sinners was accomplished between the sixth hour and the ninth hour on darkened Calvarvo That flash of divine electricity'' from the Holy Spirit which struck Saul of Tarsus to the ground was the work of an instant; but the great electric burner of the converted Paul has blazed over all the world for centuries A half-hour’s faithful preaching of Jesus by a poor itinerant Methodist exliorter at. Colchester brought the' boy Spurgeon to a decision, and lauuched the mightiest ministry of modern times. Lady Henry Somerset tells us that a few minutes of solemn reflection in her garden decided her to exchange a life of fashionable frivolity for a life of concentrated philanthropy. Why cite any more cases when every Christian can testify that the best decisions and deeds of his or. her life turned on the pivot of a few minutes? In the United States Mint they coin eagles out of the sweepings of gold dust from. tlio floor. Brethren, we ought to be misers of our minutes! If on a dying bed thev are so precious, why not in the fuller davs of our healthful energies? Said General Mitchell, the great astronomer, to an officer who apologised for being only a few minutes behind time — “Sir, I have been in the habit of calculating the tenth part of a second!”

Our whole eternity will hinge on the “little while” of probation here. Only an inch of time to choose _ between an eternity of glory or the endless woes of hell! And as a convert exclaimed in a prayer-meeting, “it was only a moment’s work with me when I was in earnest.” May God help us all to be faithful only for a little while; and then comes the unfading crown:

A little while for patient vigil keeping To face the stern—-to wrestle with the strong, A little while to sow the seed with weeping, Then bind the sheaves and sing the harvest-song. A little while to keep the oil from failing, * A little while faith’s flickering lamp to trim, And then rthe Bridegroom’s coming footsteps hailing, "We’ll haste to meet Him with the bridal hymn. —Christian at Work.