DEVOTIONAL COLUMN

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 21, 22 December 1928, Page 12

DEVOTIONAL COLUMN

GOD’S WONDERFUL LOVE. (By Amos R. Wells.) It is high on a throne, it is low in the vale; it is faithful, persistent, and never can fail; for the foes of the righteous it carries a rod; we worship the marvellous love of God. It is father and mother and husband and wife. It is shelter for peace, it is armour for strife. It is childhood’s preserver and age’s delight; a scourge for the evil, a crown for the right. We totter and faltor and stumble along, but the love of the Father is wondrously strong; our groaning diseases make wretched appeal, but the love of the Father is mighty to heal We faint in the desert, we fly from the good, but God’s love pursues- us with strengthening food. We chase after folly, go hunting for harms; and lo! we are caught in the infinite arms. We break from the fold of God’s merciful laws, but the cord of his love unceasingly draws; though the heart of the Pitiful grievously aches, he never, never, no never, no never forsakes. O endless compassion! O pardoning free! O yearning that follows wherever we flee 1 All sinning, all failure, all sorrow above, we rest in (the arms of God’s wonderful love. HEART-GLADNESS. I am so glad the Child-Christ came As Holy Babe this Earth to bless, For evermore will Motherhood Be crowned with love and tenderness I am so glad the cattle-shed Received the Messenger of Grace, For henceforth ev’ry homely spot, May be a hallowed trysting-place. I am so glad the Wise Men thought An offering of Myrrh was meet, Because it tells that any gift, The Christ accounteth passhig sweet But most of all, so glad am I, The Shepherds came that happy Eve, For thus i know the humblest soul, Yes—even me, He doth receive. THE PULLMAN PORTER. While Dr. James 11. Franklin, a foreign missionary of the Baptist Church, was travelling across the continent, an old negro-porter on his car asked him, “Say, /boss, is you a preachah?” “Yes, how did you guess that?” “Oh, Ah just saw a book in your seat, and Ah thought you must be a preachah. Ah was almost a preachah myself once.” “Why did you give it up?” “Well, sail, All’s got a young brothah, and when Ah told him Ah wanted to be a preachah, why, he’d been converted and preached liisself, boss. Well, sail, we talked it ovah, and decided he’d go ahead to college and be a preachah, and Ih’d come back on the road and work, so Ah did, boss; and every month Ah sent him money and lie went to college.” “And did he finally become a preacher?” “Yes, sail, in Africv. They call him Bishop Scott.” “Bishop Scott 1” Dr. Franklin gazed with amazement at the noble figure- before him. Bishop Scott is said to be the first coloured preacher whom the Methodist Episcopal Church made a bishop. Dr. Franklin had often read of his heroic life among his people in Africa. Later Dr. Franklin met Bishop Scott in a little town of Georgia. After the service lie went up and shook hands with him. “Have you a brother who is a porter on a sleeping car, Bishop?” he asked him. Then he told of i the incident on the train. “Yes,” said the Bishop, and the tears ran down his cheeks, “he’s my brother, and may God bless him. I owe everything to him.” SUNSET TURNED INTO SUNRISE. John 1:14. “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” Mai. 4:2. “But unto you that fear

my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings.” Clement of Alexandria paid a beautiful tribute to Jesus, according to Dr. E. F. Tittle, when he said: ”He has turned all our sunsets into sunrise.” , THE ENDOFTHE QUEST. (By Ruby Weyburn Tobias.) They said he needed a warmer clime, Where softer airs were blowing; A sort of perpetual summertime Away from the city’s dust and grime, Where greener grass was growing. So up and down the world he went In search of fields Elysian; And all of his little strength was spent, But nothing yielded a full content, Or charmed for long his vision. At last the' One who loved him best, And followed him all the way, Showed him the end of his weary quest North and east and south ami west, Where the land he was seeking lay. Jesus, the soul’s own native air! Jesus, the climate pure! Jesus, land surpassing fair— And all who nurture their being there Shall find, as he found, their cure. CHRISTMAS AND BEYOND. As we celebrate the Christmas festival in our homes and churches and public gatherings, let us not forget that the anniversary of the Advent has a double significance. Jesus came to earth, the world’s Redeemer in the form of a little child, and was cradled in a manger. When He comes again —and we have His own blessed assurance that He will—it will not be m the same humble wise, but the “nations shall see tlio Son of Man coming with power and great glory.” This is the larger vision which ought to be associated with the Christmastide. So as we listen to the Christmas songs, and while we take down the Old Book and read the sweet story from the second chapter of Luke, which tells of the angel’s message and the coming of the world’s Redeemer, let 11s not forget that King Jesus will come again. It is a beautiful and sublime thought that this world is drawing nearer to that great event which is the logical rounding out of the pliopliecies. It brings to us a vision of a time when there will be no sects or denominational divisions in the Church of Christ; when all the old quarrels will be healed and when His followers will be everywhere united. And what a wecomo He will receive ! With what joy Ho will be acclaimed by those who have suffered for His sake and who, amid trials, privation and persecution, have remained faithful and true. Let us look beyond the Christmas Day, then, to this event for which tlio whole world longs, and let us so live and act and think and love that we may be worthy to welcome Him. A NEW ERA. The birth of Christ inaugurates a new era in human history; it was really the birth of a new race. The presence of God embodied in human flesh ivas designed to produce peace between men and tlicir fellow men; between the opposing elements in men’s own hearts, and between men and God. When men are at peace with God, they will bo at peace with one .another.

A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL MY READERS, AND MAY YOUR LIVES BE FULL OF THE PEACE AND JOY OF THOSE WHO ABIDE IN CHRIST JESUS.