DEVOTIONAL COLUMN

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 287, 7 November 1925, Page 15

DEVOTIONAL COLUMN

PRAYER. Almighty God, the Mighty Counsellor, we pray Thee to make descend upon our rulers, and those recently chosen to he members of Parliament, a right, wise, humble spirit that they may exercise their office as Thy stewards; knowing neither partiality nor search of favour, but ever seeking Thy glory, the honour and well-being of all classes in this country and Empire. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. READING. Blessed is everyone that- fearetli the Lord; that walkoth in His ways. — Psalm 128. IN AHEAV OF ARMISTICE DAY. “Truly all our decorations on the strength of human reason are no more than the cant and jargon of pride and ignorance, so long as there is such a thing as war. So long as this monster stalks iineondemneil, where is reason, virtue, humanity “ They are utterly excluded. They are a name and nothing more.”—John AVesley. Lloyd George said of the above: “That, fiery declaration of John AVesley ought to be written in words not of gold, for they fade, but in red blood over the lintels of the League of Nations.” A TASK OF THE BRITISH “God has given us richly the treasures of His Gospel. He has also given to us special powers lor the diffusion of the Gospel. Our language, our literature. our institutions, our spirit of adventure, our striving, and capacity of universality, lit us for the task. .AVo are a people gifted of God and prepared of God for carrying out in an eminent degjoe His gospel of universal salvation and blessing. < Other lands have not come under our influence that we may exploit them, but that we may serve them. ‘He that will bo greatest must be servant of all’ is a truth for a nation as well as for an individual. AVe have an open Bible, an evangelical creed, an enthusiasm of faith, and we are to bless with spiritual blessings throughout the wide sphere of our imperial influence.” —Dr. \V. L. AYatkinson.

PRAYING FOR WISDOM. (By Rev. John lvelnian. D.D.) “If any of. you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men simply, auu taunteth • not.”—James i. 5. There is an intimate connection between the Epistle of James and die books of the Apocrypha, especially Ecclcsiasficus. The subject of these books is wisdom, and we all know how great a literature arose .about that complicated and suggestive idea in the times of the Exile. It is indeed a complex idea, and it does not stand for information or erudition. It may iiij elude these ,indeed, but Solomon’s knowledge of plants, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows upon tho wall, was a very minor part of wisdom, and it came to him, as it must come to everyone, not by prayer, but by studying botany. The student, pious but lazy, who neglects his studies until the day before the examination and then earnestly prays to God that ho may pass, finds that God is on tho side of the examiners, and is more interested in filling the earth with competent practitioners who know the subject that they profess to know than in the convenience of the individual student. „' | This wisdom has had many definitions, but perhaps the best of them all is ‘‘the power to judge tilings according to their true worth and in relation tj our own plan of life,” or, “to see life steadily and see it whole.” Thus the. text is not nearly so naif as it seems at first. It does sound strange that any mail should confess that ho lacks wisdom so frankly, and recognise that he is meant by the words which advise him to ask God for it. Most of ns think wo arc wise enough, and a good deal wiser than our neighbours, and that may he very true concerning some things, ln.it there are tilings in which it is not true at all. This mail is already now far on the way to wisdom, for lie is wise enough to know that he lacks it. Tile point at which wc are continually being convinced of our need of wisdom is temptation. Tho Epistle of Janies is full of references to temptation. Temptation is essentially an illusion in which the true scale of values disappears, and for tile time

being we are confronted by a false; scale of values. Something which is usually seen, to bo undesirable becomes, for the moment, intensively attractive; and that which in our saner hours we honestly value and follow after seems suddenly to have become worthless. There are many who are wiso in every other matter and yet fools in tho matter of their temptations. They cast give advice to otliers as wise as Polonius, hut they themselves go down without resistance. The acute, point in all this is the matter of the teaching of experience. It is sometimes said that “experience teaches tools,” but, after all, that is exactly what it does not do. Mon who are taught by experience are no fools; they are usually wise. The text, however, seems to indicate a wisdom that will enable us to use experience on the next occasion. It is a wisdom which takes advantage of experience, and docs not do a second timo that which has proved futile the first time. Wo all suffer from the lack of just this kind of wisdom, and most of us know it. Thus the dreary history of fools comes to he writetn, people who know the hotter and choose the worst, curting disillusionment and disappointment. 'They know that sin is vain, and yet they continue to sin. Life is just a. ship of such fools, and experience is like the stern lights of that ship, shining upon black waters that we have passed over, hut shedding no ray upon our future course. Js there then no hope, no way of getting such wisdom ? Yes, hut it is hid with Christ in God. There are many ways in which the wisdom of tho world may come to us, hut the only way in which this may come is that God shall give it. 'The wisdom which profits by experience and defends us in tilt hour of temptation lias been well • called “living insight rooted in faith.” Thus prayer is the process hv which we can receive it. In other words, God is absolutely necessary ,1° give men common sense in moral and spiritual matters, and (lie appeal to God is answered by tho rectifying of the balance of flic soul. He who is in communion with God has called out to his assistance something better and stronger than momentary desires. Realising .vliat it means to stand with God and live- his life, ho grows too promt to sin; he sees the meanness of temptation. Sane, poised and controlled he lias lacked wisdom, lias asked of God, and it has been given him.