DEVOTIONAL COLUMN

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 102, 30 March 1929, Page 12

DEVOTIONAL COLUMN

A HOUSEKEEPER’S PRAYER. Luke 10:38. “And a certain woman, named Martha, received him into hexhouse.”

“Dear Lord, I am like Martha, cumb-ei-ed about much serving. No doubt I need Thy gentle reprimand; I long to be like Mary, keeping my faith unswerving, The higher things of life to understand.

“Each day my homely labours seem to be quite unceasing And leave no quiet moment for a prayer; A petty round of duties holds me without releasing Till night has come befoi-e I am aware.

“But while my hands are busy, laden to overflowing, ■I feel Thy presence with me through the day. Thy tender benediction, precious beyond all knowing. Sustains my spirit.when I cannot pray.

“Dear Lord, I am like Martha, cumbered about much serving; We folk that serve have special need of grace. 1 long to be like Mary, keeping my faith unswerving, To see the daily visions of Thy face.” THE DAY WHICH THE LORD MADE. “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” Psa. 118:24. A day of Victory. A day of rejoicing. A day of remembrance. AT THE CROSS. “Sweet the moments, rich in blessing, Which before the Cross 1 spend, Love and health and peace possessing,. From the sinner's dying Friend, Here it is I find my heaven While upon His cross I gaze, Love I much? I’ve more forgiven, I’m a miracle of grace.” THE JOYOUS MESSAGE OF EASTER. "For this is the will of the Father, that evei-y one that beholdetlx the Sou, and believeth on Him, should have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”— John 6.40. (R. V.) Easter is the Church’s supreme Festival. It sounds the highest symphony of Christianity, it .echoes the sublimest oratorio of Faith. It is the suni-ise of Hope over this darkened world. All nature seems to dance on Easter Day, and why ? Because it tells of life. This is the secret of the universal in- 1 tei-est in Easter. " ■ 1. The distinctive message of Easter' is the affirmation of the fact of ;Tmmortality. As the shell murmurs tlie music of the ocean from whence it came, so the soul carries the life of a lovelier land. . I 2. The Easter message proclaims nob only the life of the soul, it asserts -the existence of a body in a form that is incorruptible. See Cor. 15:53. r I will ■ raise him up at the last day. | 3. Heaven is the home of the beautiful. Easter reassures us of the joy that will be ours in that heavenly meeting. !

AFTER EASTER—WHAT? “But tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high.” Luke 24:49. The Book of Acts is sometimes called the “Acts of the Holy Spirit.” _lt has never been finished; it is going right on. Think over the heroes of the “faith” since the blessed Book was closed. The Cross had failed to defeat and the tomb had failed to hold the conquering King. The Church is not a widow, but a bride! The resurrection of Christ is the central fact of Christianity. ■ The followers of Jesus are not walking in a funeral cortege, but behind Christ’s victorious chariot. The call is “On to Christ.” After Easter —what? The first thing is “Tarry for power.” Second, wait and work for His return. And when He comes let us go out to meet Him unashamed and unafraid! But, Now is Christ Risen from the Dead. —(1 Cor. 15:20). And since we are risen with Him we are not in our sins. In His renewal from tlie dead we are lifted for ever from their dark unfolding condemnation. They cannot bind a single fetter on us now; they cannot remand us for .a single instant to the prison-house of despair. Because “the God of peace has brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, the great Shepherd of the sheep,” all the flock folded in Him by faith are safe. “They will never perish, neither shall any man pluck them nut of his hands.”—Dr. A. J. Gordon. ONE GOD AND ONE MEDIATOR BETWEEN. One God was the great truth that Judaism introduced to tlie world. Instead of having many gods for all kinds of weather and circumstances, the world was taught to believe and love one God. One God and Him the ruler of heaven and earth and all that is therein. One God and that one above all and beyond all others. One God, the God and Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Man and One God and that man estranged from the one, God. Fellowship was lost. That man was a sinner. His sin had separated—the link between man and God was broken. Mari could not come to God. God • was shut off from coming to man. But there is that blessed tru.th of One Mediator between. What a difference this makes both to man and God; A sinning man, a righteous God, a mediator between. Thank God for the Daysman. And He ever liveth to make intercession.

To be full of happiness and delight we must have God. Life find its highest expression in God. But no man of himself can find God. Sin has shut him off from God.. But there is a mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, who was free from guile, who by His enemies was declared guiltless— Jesus Christ the righteous One. The hope of a mediator changes everything for all of us, if we only believe. Now we. need not despair for we have one to take our part and to stand on our side. There in Only one Mediator, but one is gloriously enough when the One is Jesus Christ the Righteous One. One Lord, one hope, one faith, one home, one Grid, one Mediator. Praise God for the power and glory of Divine oneness. All the hopes of eternity are changed now that we know we have One on our side. i'“one.- God.” Let us thank that one God for provision made for us poor sinners, to find that One God in and through the One Mediator, Jesus Christ. -