DEVOTIONAL COLUMN.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 8 February 1936, Page 6

DEVOTIONAL COLUMN.

Precept. I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness. Jer. 9, 24. Promise. They shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord. Ps. .107, 43. Prayer. Let thy loving kindness • . . continually preserve me. Ps. 40, 11. Oh, for a passionate passion for souls! Oh, for a pity that yearns! Oh, for a love which loves unto death! Oh, for a fire that bums! Oh, for a prayer-power that prevails, That pours itself out for the lost; Victorious prayer in the Conqueror’s name, Oh, for a Pentecost! THE PEACE WHICH PASSETH UNDERSTANDING. John 14:27. Jesus said: Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. John 1(5:33. These tilings I have spoken unto yon, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. ETERNITY. “One that inliabitoth Eternity, whose name is ‘Holy.’’’—lsa. 57:15. How small my pen, my hand how weak, What time I long to write of thee, And yet thy praises I would speak, Eternity—Eternity! For men are sunk in things of time, Forgetting what is yet to be, Forgetting hcav’nly joys sublime, — Eternity —Eternity! Lome dip their cups in wayside rills Who never yet have seen the sea; Or known the spaciousness that thrills; Eternity —Eternity! And yet the ocean lias a shore, How shall it be compared with thee Since thou shalt last for evermore, Eternity —Eternity! God dwells in thee, how sweet the word Ami faith would bid us dwell in thee, And reign forever with the Lord, Eternity—Eternity! —Edith Ellen Trusted. CHARIOTS. We may make out of each event in our lives either a Juggernaut cur to crush us or a chariot in which to ride lo heights of victory. It all depends, not upon what these events are. but upon how we take them —whether we lie down under our trials and let them roll over us and crush us, or whether we climb up into them as into a chariot, ami make them carry us triumphantly onward and upward. — Mirs. Pearsall Smith. “SEARCH ME, O LORD.” St. Augustine tells the story of one who complained to God about his neighbour, saying, “O Lord, take away this evil person!’’ And God said, “Which?” REMEMBER. When things go wrong from a human po*mt of view; when we arc stricken down with sickness; when we pass through a time of bereavement; when we are sorely tempted; when we are right down in the valley as far as we can get; when we think that everything is contrary to us, let ns remember that Jesus is yet alive; and is Governor. All authority has been granted unto Him in heaven and on earth, and He has pledged Himself to be with us every day, every hour, every second. .Moreover, it is quite within the realms of probability that many of us shall really see Him before We die. ALL DONE FOR US. The first part of God’s throe-fold work of grace is our justification, and the last is our glorification; and in the lime between, in our daily life, is our sanctification. All three are perfect as God sees them; it is simply a. question whether we are willing to take all three by faith. If we cannot, by muscular power, help Christ to catch us up to meet Him at His coming, neither can we while we await His coming help Him to set us, or lice]) us free from the power of sin. It is all His work, and exclusively His. To work or struggle or fight for our victory is as foolish as to expect to help in our glorification. —Charles G. Trumbull. THE TIE THAT BINDS. Dissension and division have come within the brotherhood. Many times one finds a blush of shame arising as he rends. He realises that, even as the disciples of old, so His followers through the ages have little understood the heart and the message of the Christ. In their contacts with their fellows they fail to show love—and love is the first fruit of the Spirit. So often we sing the fine hymn:, “Blest be the tie that binds.” What is this tie? Is it the subscription to a creed, the performance of a ritual? These

things have in themselves always proven divisive. There ar o not the tie that binds. The tie that binds our hearts in Christian love is our -common experience of having found God in Jesus Christ. Not merely in the words you say. Not only in your deeds confessed; But in the most unconscious way Is Christ expressed. Is it a beatific smile? A holv light upon your brow? Oh, no; 1 felt His presence while You laughed just now. For me ’(was not the truth yon taught, To vou so clear, to me still dim; But when you came you brought A sense of Him. And from your eyes He beckons me. And from your heart His love is shed, Till I lose sight of you—and see The Christ instead.