DEVOTIONAL COLUMN

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 144, 17 May 1930, Page 12

DEVOTIONAL COLUMN

Ye also helping together by prayer for us, 2 Cor. 1 11. The weary had rest, tho sad had joy That day and wondered “how? A ploughman singing at his work had prayed, “Lord help them now!” Away in foreign lands, they wondorod “how?” Their simplo word had power P At homo, tho gloanors, two or- three, had mot To pray an hour. , Yes, wo are always wondering how r Beeauso wo do not soo Somoono, unknown perhaps, and far away, On bended kneol tVHAT, COULD YE NOT WATCH WITH ME ONE HOUR? I wonder how many Christians ever really take the burden of man|s sin upon their prayers, and thus at least watch and brood, even if they can do no more. I wonder how often we read the newspaper reports of police and other cases with morbid interest, but with. hardly a stir of atoning desire, hardly a thought of the Divine heart of suffering within the shadows. —Herbert H. Farmer. SIGNS AND SOUNDS OF HIS COMING. “And when thou shalt hear a sound of going in the tops of the mulberry trees” (1 Ghron. 14:15). When Wellington’s armies were growing weary on tho field of AVaterloo, after the fierce onset of tho French, they longed for the reinforcements of the Prussians to arrive. At last a dragoon threw himself from his saddle, with his ear to the ground, and listened for the tramp of their coming; and hark, in the distance he could hear their marching feet, and with a shout he arose to bid his comrades be of good cheer, for there was a . sound of marching all along the battle line, and they knew that help was near. This is what the sound of marching means. Yes, faith can hear, when hearts grow faint, tho sound in the tops of the mulberry trees, even when on the lower plane there seems nothing but darkness and despair. Look up, comrade, listen for the celestial armies. There is help from on high. God has gone forth to smite the hosts of the Philistines. There are many assurances of the Lord’s coming to succour His saints and vindicate His honour. We hear it in the prophetic Word of His prophecy (Dan. 7: 13, 14), in the declaration of His Word (Isa. 63: 1), in the utterance of His promise (2 Thes. 1: .10), in the voice of His pictorial unfolding (Rev. ~19: 7-16), in the assurance of His utterance (Matt. 24: 30), in the Spirit’s clear testimony of His accomplishments (Isa. 32: 15), and in the purpose of God’s declaration (Acts 17: 31). _ '

CONFIDENCE. “I only enter on the rest, Obtained by labours done; I only claim the victory, By Him 60 dearly won. “And, Lord, I seek a Holy rest, A victory over sin; I seok that Thou alone shouldst reign O’er all, without, within. “In quiet, then, and confidence, Saviour, my strength shall he; And, ‘Take me, for I cannot come,’ Is still my cry to Thee. “A\ r ork on, then, Lord, still on my soul Eternal light shall break, And in Thy likeness perfected I ‘satisfied’ shall wake.” AVAITING. I was very ill. . They brought me word that my wife was dying. A thousand times I had been tempted with the thought that she, rather frail, might sicken and die while I was across oceans and seas. Now she was near, and 1 was not able 1o go to her. Why? Did not God care for my heart-break ? If I had judged by appearance, I should have said, God doesn’t care. But I knew God did care. I got to her just as slio was passing away. I saw her slip out of my sight through tho gates. But as she slipped through the veil where 1 could not follow it seemed as if some of the blessing and glory into which she was entering camo through. God has never told me why He took her away, but He gave me blessing that enabled me to bear it. If God were to say, “You may have her back just as she was before she was stricken, but I shall have to take away the blessing,” I should say, “Then I’ll not have her back.” I shall wait to see my loved one in some better land. Any blessing that has come to mo through the trials and bereavements of life more than outweighs any loss I' may have sustained. —Commissioner S. E. Brengle. HARVEST. In Cairo I secured a few grains <f wheat that had slumbered for more than three thousand years in an Egyptian tomb. As I looked at them this thought came into my mind: If one of those grains liad been planted upon the banks of the Nile the year after it grew, and all its lineal descendants planted and replanted from them until now, its progeny to-day would be sufficient to feed the teeming millions of the world. There is in the grain of wheat an invisible something, which lias power to discard the bpdy that we see. and from earth and air fashion a new body so much like the old one that we cannot tell tire ono from the other; and if this invisible germ of life in the grain of wheat can thus pass unimpaired through three thousand resurrections, I shall not doubt that my soul has power to clothe itself with a new body suited to its new existence when this earthly frame has crumbled into dust. —AV. J. Bryan.