DEVOTIONAL COLUMN

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 194, 17 July 1937, Page 12

DEVOTIONAL COLUMN

PRAYER. Our Father, we thank Thee for the spirit of forbearance and iorgivencss that is set forth to us in Thy Word. If any of us are harbouring to-day hard l'eeJings toward others, may we face Thy truth as a personal message, and learn from it the attitude that Thou wouldst have us take toward those who have wronged us. May we not become hard-hearted in our judgments of others, or in our remembrance of their attitude toward us, but may we remember our own weaknesses, and exercise kindness in a generous spirit toward those who have been quite otherwise toward us. May that forgiveness which lias been exercised toward us through Christ be at the root 9!' the forgiveness that we are to exercise toward others. We ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.

INFLUENCING THE WORLD. Many in all parts of the world are growingly convinced that that great event for which we are all looking and longing, is drawing very near—the Return of our Lord Jesus Christ from Heaven. We look out over a world seething with unrest, torn with uncertainty, gripped with fear, and sometimes apparently drifting towards an inevitable catastrophe. Bgt is it not terribly possible that so many in the Christian Church to-day are like the salt which has lost its savour, and like the light that is hidden under a bushel? And, therefore, they have 60 little influence in the world to-day. The message is for the individual believer, and its goal is the adjustment of every life to the will and purpose of God. —W. H. Aldis. THE HEART OF THE SHEPHERD. Dear to the heart of the Shepherd, Dear are the sheep of His fold; Dear is the love that He gives them, l>(• per than silver or gold. Dear to the heart of the Shepherd, Dear are His “other” lost sheep; Over the mountains He follows. Over the waters so deep. Out in the desert they wander, Hungry and helpless and cold; Off to the rescue He hastens. Bringing them back to the fold Dear to the heart of the Shepherd, Dear are the lambs of His fold ; Some from the pastures are straying, Hungry, and helpless, and cold See, the Good Shepherd is seeking, Seeking the lambs that are lost; Bringing them in with rejoicing, Saved at such infinite cost. Dear to the heart of the Shepherd, Dear are the “ninety anti nine,” Dear are the sheep that have wandered Out in the desert to pine. Hark! Ho is earnestly calling, Tenderly pleading to-day; “Will you not seek for My lost ones, Far from My shelter astray?” A PRECIOUS MEMORY. My father. A son who had an invalid father had to carry on the burden of the homestead. One day he asked his father to do some little chores, but he

was weary and his memory failing, and he forgot. When the son came home and asked about the chores the father said, “Son, I am sorry to own it, but I really forgot.” The son said, “Never mind. Father, I’ll attend to them,” and was turning to go to the barn when the father called to him and said, “Oh, my boy, God bless you. You will never know wlmt a comfort you are to me. You are so faithful to duty.” When the son returned and spoke to his father there was no response, and he found that he had gone to the land where “there shall lie no more pain.” His sweetest memory are these words, “God bless you, my boy.”

“I WILL FORGIVE, BUT.” Even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you (Golden Text). Rev. E. L. Hamilton says: “I remember once rebuking a Christian worker for manitesting an unforgiving spirit toward another. At length she said. Well, 1 will forgive her, but I never want to have anything more to do with her. [ stopped her and said, ‘ls that how you want God to forgive you ? Do you want him to say He will forgive you, hut He will have nothing more to do with you?’ ”