DEVOTIONAL COLUMN

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 116, 12 April 1930, Page 12

DEVOTIONAL COLUMN

PRAY—GIVE—GO. Tbreo things the Master hath to do And we who serve Him here below And long to see His Kingdom come May Pray. or Give or Go. He needs them all—the Open Hall, The Willing Feet, the Praying Heart — To work together, and to weave A three-fold cord that shall not part. Nor shall the giver count his gift As greater than the worker’s deed, Nor he- in turn his service boast Above tire prayer, that voice the need. Not all can Go; not all can Give, To speed the message on its way, But young or old, or rich or poor, Or strong or-weak—we all can Pray: j Pray that the gold-filled hands way I Give To arm the others for the fray; That those who hear the.call may go I And pray—that other hearts may Pray! - • . —Annie Johnson Flint. •, SACRIFICE? > For ■> my -own part, I have never ceased to rejoice that' God' has appointed me to such,an office.' People talk of the sacrifice, I have made in spending so much of my life in. Africa. , Can that be called a sacrifice which, is simply paid'back -as a small part or a great debt owing to our God, which we never repay? Is that a ; sacrifice which brings,its own blest reward in healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, . peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny there, after? "Away with the word in such ■a view, and. such a thought I It i 3 emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, 'suffering or danger, now and then, with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause and cause the spirit to waver and the soul to sink, but let this only be for a moment. All these'are nothing when compared with the glory .which shall hereafter be revealed, in, and for, us. I. never made a sacrifice. Of this we ought not to talk. when we remember the great sacrifice which He made, Who left His Father’s throne on high to give Himself for us: “Who being-the brightness, of that Father’s glory,, and the express image, of His person, and upholding all things by'the Word, of His Power; when He -hful by. Himself purged our sins, sat down .on the right hand.of the Majesty on high.” —David Livingstone.

GLEANINGS. “Paul was never so magnificently Paul as when he was crucified wita Christ. I want to say, to all who are not Christians, that the Lord Jesus Christ will do better for you than anybody else can do. He will make the very-most of you.-He made you. He understands tire mechanism of your body and of your mind; He gave vou powers of thought and reason and rf feelings and of choice, and He Who made all these things can make the most/ of them. If you let God have you, so that you are God’s man, your whole personality becomes raised to a higher power.”—J. Russell Ilowden.

God is a Physician who never gives His medicine from the wrong bottle; Maclaren, of Manchester, tells that ho once heard a man ot very character who was sound on the Atonement. “What,” he'asks, “is the use of being sound on the Atonement if. the Atonement does not make you sound?” ■ It is calculated that wo only get one two-hundred-and-seventy-third millionth part of the sunshine that streams from the sun. Our informant, “God is not hard up for sunshine.” A man’s life means: tender teens, teachable twenties, tireless thirties, fiery forties, forcible fifties, serious sixties, sacred seventies, aching eighties shortening breath, the sod, God. ' ' i' A little boy was asked to explain forgiveness. Ho gave this beautiful answer: “It i 3 the odour that flowers breathe when they are trampled upon.” SICKLY CHRISTIANS. The reason why wo are such sickly Christians is because we do not feed on the Lamb. Wo have a wilderness journey before us, as the children ol Israel had, and if we do not feed upon Christ wo must starve by the way. Wt have not only to look to the blood for safety, but we must feed on Christ for strength. How’ much the soul needs to be fed 1 Feeding upon Christ is feeding on His word. There is no book that will feed the soul but the Bible. If I feed on the Word of God, I get spiritual strength and power. Somo , people think if they get one glimpse of Christ, it is enough. We must live by faith as well as le saved by faith. . Each day'-we must gather the manna afresh. A good many people seem to bd living on stale manna —manna that they got, months or years ago, when they wero converted. Wo should no more think of laying in spiritual food to last for ten years than we should of bodily food. MR SPURGEON’S PARABLE. Mr Spurgeon once made a parable. He said: “There was a tyrant who summoned one of his subjects -into his presence and ordered him to make c chain. The poor blacksmith —that was his occupation—had to go to work and forge the chain. When it was done, lie brought it into the presence of the tyrant, and was ordered to take it away and make it twice the length. Hu brdught it again to the tyrant, and again he was ordered to double it. Back ho cnine when he had obeyed his order, and the tyrant looked at it, and then commanded his servants to bind the man hand and foot with it, and casts them into outci them of a Deliverer. “That is what the devil does with men. He makes them forge their own chain, and then binds them hand and foot with it, and cast them into outei darkness.” My friends, that is just what every sinner is doing—that is just what drunkards, gamblers, blasphemers are doing. .But, thank God, we can tell the mof a Deliverer.