DEVOTIONAL COLUMN

Manawatu Standard, Volume LI, Issue 182, 4 July 1931, Page 11

DEVOTIONAL COLUMN

SCRIPTURAL PRAYER. Almighty God, unto Whom all hearts be open, all desires known, and from Whom no secrets are hid; cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration- of Thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love Thee, and worthily magnify Thy Holy Name; through Christ our Lord.—Amen. Oh God, to Whose all-seeking eye, The hearts of all wide open lie, Who knowest each desire of man And dost each hidden secret scan, The Holy Spirit, Lord, impart • And cleanse the thoughts of every heart, That perfect love our gouls may fill And mould us to Thy heavenly will. All that we ask by faith we take, Hear, answer prayer for Jesus’ sake. —Amen. ' FERVENT IN LOVE. “Above all things being fervent in your love among yourselves, for love covereth a multitude of sins.” - Peter iv. 8, it.v. The devil is busy in these last days as tlie accuser of the brethren (Rev. xii. 10). Not only does he accuse them to God, but to one another. We need to learn the secret of always disbelieving- the thing which ought not to be true, because by the time it reaches us. the accuser is at work and he is a liar. Our Lord said so. (John viii. 44). The remedv for much of the mental distress and unrest caused by differences amongst Christians is to be “fervent in your love among yourselves.” Wo all know how our hearts make excuses for those whom we love, and a multitude of things which others might deem “sins” we are enabled with the eyes of love to discern to be caused by lack of knowledge, and it is easy to forgive. NUGGETS. There is no other supernatural religion worth having. Give us a religion of joy and peace in the soul or we are not better off than the world about us. Find out what the Bible says about our eternal redemptive rights, and then enjoy them, and then go and tell others of them. How little we know of the Bible compared with what we know of other books. Let us study it more and read it upon our knees; ask that the light of the Holy Spirit may be upon it. Then will the Scriptures become glorious before our eyes as He unfolds to us the possibilities of grace and of service, the possibilities of doing and being and conquering in God.

FOR LOVE'S SAKE,

I could not leave Thee, Master, Nor pass from Thine employ; Thy service is my freedom, Thv yoke mv greatest joy. Thou" dost not bind Thy servants With any cords but love, And all are* free to stay or leave, As wish or choice may move; But who has known Thy service For love’s sake needs must stay, And work for- Thee, with heart and hand The longest, happiest day. —Marianne Farningham. THE GLORY AND THY GRACE. Bring me to see, Lord, bring me yet to see Those nations of Thy glory and Thy grace Who splendid in Thy splendour worship Thee. Light in all eyes, content in every face. Raptures and voices one whole manifold, Love and are well-beloved the ransomed race. Home-comers out of every change and chance, Hermits restored to social neighbourhood. Aspects which reproduce one countenance, Life-losers with their losses all made good, All blessed hungry and athirst sufficed, All who bore crosses round the Holy Rood, Friends, brethren, sisters, of Lord Jesus Christ. C. Rossetti. BELIEVING GOD. (By George Muller.) Just in the proportion in which we believe that God will do just what He said, is our faith strong or weak. Faith has nothing to do with feelings, or with impressions, with improbabilities, or with outward appearances. If we desire to couple them with faith, then we are no longer resting on the Word of God; because,faith needs nothing of the kind. Faith rests on the naked Word of God. When we take Him at His word the heart is at peace. God delights to exercise our faith, firet for blessing in our own souls, then for blessing in the Church at large, and also for those without. But this exercise we shrink from instead of welcoming. When trials come we should say, “My heavenly Father puts this cup of trial into my hands, that I may have something sweet afterwards.”t Trial is the food of faith. Oh, let us leave ourselves in the hands of the heavenly Father. It is the joy of His heart to do good to all His children. But trials and difficulties are not the only means by which faith is exercised and thereby increased. There is the reading of the Scriptures, that we may by them acquaint ourselves with God as He has revealed Himself in His Word. And what shall we find ? That He not only is God Almighty, and a righteous God, hut we shnli find how gracious He is, how gentle, how kind, how beautiful He is—in a word, what a lovely Being God is.