DEVOTIONAL COLUMN

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 42, 18 January 1936, Page 11

DEVOTIONAL COLUMN

EZRA’S PRAYER. “I fell upon my knees.” Christ fell on His face and prayed. Soul agony 7 has its degrees. Wc bow the head, bend tiie knees, or lie prostrate before God as best suits our inward distress, infinite is tiie distance between His agony and ours. The more we realise that God, and God alone, can help, ■ tiie more we shall be found in the room of the throne of grace. INI ore real blessing conies to this world from the mercy seat than from earthly judgment seats. God’s approval annuls all the damage done by the world’s frown. When wo call upon Him our enemies retire. Pray for all church prayer meetings.

ABIDE IN ME. ''By Minnette Mac Kay.) Abide in Me, that your desires Shall of My nature be, That what you ask you shall receive Because you ask in Me. Abide ill Me,, that you may love Even as I love you, Bearing My gifts of love to all Because My love flows through. Abide in Me, so shall your deeds, As fruit that doth abide, Bear witness of the feast of joy 7 My life, My grace provide. EVERY QUALIFICATION BUT ONE. The people had a mind to work (Golden Text). The Bishop of Chelmsford told at Keswick of a friend of his who advertised for a gardener, and got a letter from a gentleman concerning a man whom we shall call 'John Smith. “He said, ‘John Smith has an excellent knowledge of gardening, he can manage a kitchen garden wonderfully, and an ornamental garden to perfection’ and lie went on through the list of what lie could do. As his friend read the letter he said, ‘That’s the very mail for me; lie can do the very tilings I want.’ When he turned the page on the other side there were only three words—‘But lie won’t!’ What is the interpretation? There are men and triets in which they live! But they women who could revolutionise die diswon’tl”

THE INDEFATIGABLE HEN. The people had a mind tci work (Golden Text). Hard work means nothing to a hen, she just keeps on digging worms and laying eggs regardless of what the business prognosticators say about the outlook for tnis or any other year. If the ground is hard, she scratches harder. If it is dry, she digs deeper. If it’s wet, she digs where it’s dry. If she strikes a rock, she works around it. If she gets a few more hours of daylight, she gives us a few more eggs. But she always digs up worms, and turns them into hard-shelled profits as well as tender, profitable broilers. Did you ever see a pessimistic hen? Did you ever hear of one starving to death waiting for worms to dig themselves up? Did you ever hear one cackle because work was hard? Not on your life! They save their breath for digging, and their cackles for eggs) Success means digging. Are you digging?

THE EXTENT OF GOD’S MERCY. The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him.—Psa. 103:17. Lord, Thou hast won my heart, It rests on high with Thee; Sweet conscious rest is mine In Thy great love to me. Long had I wished for love— I tried, Imt all in vain, Those days were weary days, I want them not again. By faith I saw my place As raised with Thee above, It filled my wondering heart— Such purpose of Thy love. In this I saw Thee mine— More intimately nigh Than all created love, Or dearest earthly tie. Ah. Saviour, Lord, still make Thyself much more to me, And my responsive love, A ■ bright reality. —J. Denham Smith. EZRA’S TEACHING. “Ezra . . . brought the law . . . and . . . read therein . . '.from the morning until midday . . . and ... all the people were attentive.” God’s Word publicly read (in church or family), by a man of God, and attended by the co-witness of the Holy Spirit will have in our day similar mighty effects. The voice of God through the Scriptures effects spiritual recovery. “My sheep hear My voice.” The Word will always be attended with power when it is read and expounded by a man whose life harmonises with its truth. WORKING TOGETHER. “Ye are God’s cultivated field.” “Neither is he that plantetli any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.” May our Father, “The Husbandman” find our hearts “good and honest ground” prepared for the “goodisced”—the Word. To please Him the, garden of the heart must be fruitful. “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit.” He wills that we shall be “fruitful in every, good work.” PRINTED WORDS. (By Bertha Gerneaux Woods) They sometimes prove such potent things— I’m always half afraid Lest mine should darken some one’s day Or make his visions- fade; Should raise in timid faith a doubt — Cause careless feet to slip, Or choose too easy paths. Dear Lord, I need thy censorship. WAITING FOR HIM. * Ye turned to God ... to wait for His Son from Heaven, whom He raised from the dead.—-1 Tliess. 1:10. We are not waiting for “the beast,” we are not waiting for the great tribulation, we are not waiting for signs. We “are not appointed unto wrath.” (1 Tliess. 5:9). We are waiting for Him. That is the Blessed Hope of His Church. That is the end of the pilgrim pathway. And it may come, I repeat

it deliberately, after thirty-five years of as close study of the Scriptures as I am able to give them, in a moment, and the sooner the better! “Come quickly, Lord Jesus.” I am seventy-one years old. I am not looking for death. I may pass to Him in that way, but I am not looking for and waiting for death. I am looking and waiting for Him, and He knows it.—Dr C. I. Scofield.