DEVOTIONAL COLUMN

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVIII, Issue 45, 21 January 1928, Page 6

DEVOTIONAL COLUMN

GOD’S WONDROUS LOVE.

(By W. M. Czamanske.) God’s wondrous love knows neither East nor West, Enfolding both in its wide embrace. ’Tis wider than the circuit of >tke sun, Rejoicing as a strong man in his race. God’s wondrous love is not confined to time, A thousand years are but as yesterday ; Before creation’s work began, it was, And will abide, when all things pass away. God’s wondrous love is deep and fathomless, So deep no sounding-rod can ever tell. It stoops to save the vilest wretch, and plucks The burning brand from out the jaws of hell. God’s wondrous love has summits unexplored, Surpassing every flight of human thought. What eye hath never seen, nor ear hath heard, God hath prepared, his wondrous love hath wrought. A DAILY PRAYER. Lord, give me, day by day, .a burning zeal For souls immortal. Make me plead with such With earnestness intense; love strong as death; And faith God-given. Will the world cry “Mad?” I would bo mad, such madness be my joy; For thrice it blesses. First my own cold heart; Then glorifies my God; and straightway plucks My sin-stained brother from the jaws of hell. For Christ’s Sake. Amen.

SHORT CIRCUITS. Satan, is his own worst foe. He continually defeats himself. We can watch him do this as we trust wholly to the Lord and ask Him to keep us safe from the Adversary. Then we shall see Satan's shrewd, far-reaching plans turned against himself; and God’s glory manifested through the very attacks of the Evil One. A pastorreader of the Sunday School Times, writing of an attack upon the Belgian Gospel Mission that helped the cause pf the Gospel, says: “Ttie Devil often short circuits himself. Dr. Banks had a good article in Christ Life on this.” A short circuit is a miscarriage of electric power. We may see every plan of Satan against us miscarry if we resist him “stedfast in the faith.” If he is attacking us just now, and if his work seems to be terrifyingly successful, let us remember that he is really not ourselves but Christ that this powerful enemy is against; he will seek to injure us because we are Christ’s; but ho cannot defeat Christ, and he cannot have that which belongs to Christ. This plan of Satan against us, therefore, is doomed. Let us not wait until its failure has been shown, but let us praise God now that the Devil is “an already defeated foe.” THE REALM AND OFFICE OF ANGELS. God would not inhabit eternity in solitude, but as Lie made mail and

“crowned him with glory and honour,” so. He surrounded Himself with angelic beings that His love might rejoice in their happiness. We have no definite description of the angelic beings, hut many, interesting references to them. They are of a higher order than men, endowed with greater powers, pure and holy, and delight to do the lyill of their Creator. >

The first mention of one is the cherubim with a flaming sword, stationed at the Garden of Eden to guard the tree of life. Angels appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in visions which made them feel that they beheld the opened gate of heaven. What is of intense interest to the Christian is that tlio angels are deeply concerned as to our welfare, and that they are charged with a guardianship over us. “He shall give His Angels charge over thee. “The angel of Jehovah encampoth round about the righteous.” An angel appeared to Christ in Getlisemane, comforting Him in His agony. So did angels appear to Paul, Peter and Stephen at critical times. Angels rejoice at the repentance of a sinner and chant: “Glory to God in the highest.” They do God’s will perfectly, “flying through mid-heaven,” to execute His commands, and in that larger life which we look for, it is our joyous fruition that we “shall be equal to the angels.” CHRISTIANITY REFRESHES. It is said in Vigil that ho beheld a god open his hand and release the south wind, which, blowing softly, filled the land with the perfume of violets. Is not that what Christianity is doing in this world ? Wherever Christ’s power has gone, women have been lifted to become help-meets of men, hospitals and infirmaries have been built, and in many other ways it lias been the cause of a summer civilisation over this winter planet. THE EVERLASTING ARMS. The catacombs of ancient Rome were the only safe retreat for the "persecuted Christians. While above, the rich and licentious populace indulged in all forms of Bachanalian pleasure, below, in the. catacombs, the humble and poorly clad Christians prayed and worshipped in tender fellowship. Not in the corrupt city, but underneath it, were the seeds of a wonderful future.

Now, no one can live very long on earth without coming to realise the soul’s need of Divine reinforcement. The rushing life of the market place, the pleasure whirl of the gay white way, the innumerable temptations, the bitter struggle of the battlefield and in the industrial world, these all go on. But behind them and controlling them all and deciding the destiny of the world are the prayers, the thinkers, the men and women who in secret are close to the Everlasting Arms which hold the world in balance. These underlying powers are deciding for the future. The eternals are to be found with internals, not the externals. “Underneath are the everlasting arms.”

Deep down in the human heart, too, are to be found those reserves which are the individual’s best refuge in the face of life’s hardest trials. When the storm beats about us, when pain and sorrow and disappointment fall around us like snow-flakes, only the soul’s strength will suffice. No matter about our knowledge or our intelligence then. No matter what our physical strength, or our material possessions. We must fall back in that hour of trial upon the deep reserves of the spirit, upon the bottom-rock of our soul’s strength, and what can this be but the everlasting arms of the Most High? His grace is sufficient in every need. In the tremendous hour of our visitation, the superficials disappear in the white light of the furnace of testing, and we discover life’s profoundest and surest refuge—the Everlasting Arms!