DEVOTIONAL COLUMN.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 20 May 1933, Page 3

DEVOTIONAL COLUMN.

PRAYER. Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, We lift up our hearts in praise that Thou hast called us to bear Thy name, and that eve are members of Thy family. We bless Thee that this was the eternal purpose of Thy love. What rest to the heart, what joy to the life, to ■'know that 'Thy- watchful eye is upon us, and that Thou wilt lead us to the end. Accept our worship and praise through Christ our Lord. Amen. iScripture: Psalm. (Jo; Eph. 1. THE LOVE OF GOD, <0 God, to Thee my love- I give. For Thou hast first loved me; Thy bondsman would. I rather live, Than walk at liberty. Except Thy glory in my heart, May no remembrance be; And be this still my only art— How to lay hold on Thee. Yea, whatsoever Thy will may be, That will alone is mine; All that I have Thou gavest me, And now I make it Thine. I render back Thy gift again; Use it as pleaseth Thee. I fear not Avhat Thou shalt ordain, Knowing Thou lovest me. Love is the only gift I crave, That I may Thine requite. If this Thou givest, all I have; All else are dreams of night.,' Latin Hymn, THE SERIOUSNESS OF SIN. It has never 'been the part of the Christian Church, when it has been healthy and alert, to minimise the practical seriousness of sin. It may have varied its thought of the character and nature of evil, but it has never been able to think lightly or flippantly of it when engaged in actual battle. The more closely earnest men and .women are brought into contact with the ravages of sin and wretchedness, the more greatly do- they estimate their seriousness, the more certain is it that .they themselves as workers are again and again only saved by the narrowest margin from hopelessness and despair. All easy optimism is .smitten out of them. —W. Charter Piggott (Minister .of the Streatham Congregational Church, London). PRAYER CHANGING EVENTS.

Nothing’ can alter God’s grace, His will in that sense, His large will and final purpose —our racial blessing, our salvation, our redemption in Jesus 'Christ. But for that will He is an infinite opportunist. His ways are very flexible. His intentions are amenable .to us if His will is changeless. 'The ■steps of His process' are variable ac; cording to our freedom and His. We are living, let us say, in a careless way; and God proposes a certain treatment of us according to our carelessness. But in the exercise of our spiritual freedom we are by some means brought to 'pray. We cease to be careless. We pray God to visit us as those, who hear. Then He does another thing. He acts differently, with a change caused by our freedom and our change. Thei treatment for deafness is altered. God adopts another treatment —perhaps for weakness. We have f by prayer changed His action, and so far, His will (at any rate His intention) concerning us. As we pray the discipline' for the prayerless is altered to that for the prayerful. THE NEW RULE. “Live and let live!” was the cry of old. The call of the world when the world was cold, .The call of men when • they pulled apart, ■The call of a race with a chill on the heart. But “live and help live!” is the cry of the new, The cry of the world with the dream shining, through, The cry of the brother-world rising to birth, The cry of Christ for a comradelike earth. Ndwin Markham.

“POUR OUT YOUR HEART BEFORE HIM.” (Psalm 62.) “Pour out your heart” —it is a striking and pregnant phrase. It brings you and me a double message about the character of our intercourse with God, a message of the frank and affectionate intimacy of its manner, a message also of the unreserved completeness of its recital and story. Prank and* affectionate faith should be when it speaks. It is the heart that is unveiled. Formality is far away. 'The man himself, the woman herself—they are laying bare the deep places of their nature; they come to God not with the fringes and the circumstances of their personality but wiih its glowing and burning centre. God is ready to listen to the tale with which we must not affiict our dearest friend, and prepared to help and heal. Let our hearts be unconstrained with Him. Complete and all-embracing this l intercourse of faith ought to be also. The fountains of the heart are not

merely to be unsealed; they are to be poured forth. Nothing is to be kept back. Sins and griefs, difficulties and temptations, the perplexities, of to-day and the problems of to-morrow; each of them is a legitimate subject for discussion for our Father and Lord. And it is not till we learn the width and inclusiveness of prayer, that we live the calm, effective, triumphant life.