DEVOTIONAL COLUMN

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 302, 19 November 1938, Page 14

DEVOTIONAL COLUMN

HELP IN PRAYER. So closely does the Holy Spirit thus identify Himself with us that He is said to mingle His voice and His cries with ours. In the whole range of inspiration is there anything just like that in the eighth chapter of Romans where it is written; “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities?” When we are overpowered with the intensity of our longing, when our whole soul goes up in vehement intercession, when human language gives way beneath the pressure; when nothing remains but the unutterable groan; it is the Holy Spirit’s groan, and voices the music of His love! Moreover, He is referred to as an abiding Comforter. One whose love our coldness and waywardness cannot quench. —James M. Gray, D.D. CHRIST-EXPRESSION. We hear a good deal in these days about self-expression, the very antithesis of the Christian life. The Christian life, in its very essence, is Christexpresson; it the loveliness of the Lord Jesus being manifested through a human personality. The fulness of the Holy Spirit means nothing more and nothing less than that. “Christ liveth in me,” and there is no lovelier beauty than that—the outshining of His loveliness: His graces, His virtues, His sweetness. —Capt. Reginald Wallis. The child of God proves the strength and grace of His heavenly Father only as he walks in the ways of the Lord Jesus Christ. —R. C. Chapman. “HE SATTSFIETH.” It was easy for Daniel to say he did not want the king’s -meat, because with the Jewish faith, and the Jewish heritage, he had enough, ho was satisfied. We sing in our hymns, “Now none but Christ can satisfy,” and “Thou, 0 Christ, art all I want, more than all in Thee I find!” He gives you bread to eat the world knows not of, and spreads such a banquet for you that you do not want other banquets. If He supplies you with the luscious produce of Paradise, why go down to Sodom and Gomorrah lor delightsomeness and pleasurable gratification. Beside the banquet which Christ supplies all wordly dainties have no sweetness. To what extent are you allowing Jesus Christ to satisfy? —'W. Grist, M.A. WHEN GOD’S WILL IS DONE. Thy will de done Wiiat would happen to-day if you o" I should say from the heart, “Lord, work Tliv will u ith me?” Dare we do it? Are we all aid ? If so, what do we fear? What is God s will? What does He want to make of us? We have heard the story of the man who dreamed that a man ot wondrous beauty and noble hearing approached him. With admiration and envy he gazed and said, ‘W ho is this stranger of so majestic mien?” The answer came, “That is tiie man God meant you to be.” “EXCEEDING ABUNDANTLY.” (Eph. iii, 20.) Why am I weak, when Thou art strong, And I might draw my strength from Thee ? Why am I poor, when Thou art rich, Lord, Who hast bought all good for me ? Ha.st Thou not taken on-Thyself All insufficiency of mine? Then let me mine own self forget, And take, and use each gift of Thine. 0 work out all Thy will in me! My inmost being, Lord, control, That so my life may manifest The risen Life, within my soul, GRACE OF CONTINUANCE. How many of us continue to endure after the freshness and ardour of youth have left us ? Once we become absorbed in the business of life, immersed in its cares and anxieties, or it may be its pleasures and successes, we lose the consciousness of the presence of God that was so real to 11s in the springtime of youth. And so we find ourselves in middle age, or in old age pier haps, lamenting that things are not now as they were of yore. The tragedy of Samson is tliat in spite of all his early promise, in spite of his great privilege and opportunity, he failed to endure to the end. . But how common, shall we not say, is the same tragic decline and fall ! —Dr. Donald Davidson. A LITTLE WHITE. Oh, for the peace which floweth like a river, Making life’s desert places bloom and smile 1 Or, for the faith to grasp heav n s bright “for ever,” Amid the shadows of earth’s “little while!” A little while for patient vigil keeping, To face the storm, to battle with the strong; A little while to sow the seed with weeping, Then hind the sheaves and sing the harvest songA little while to keep the oil from failing, A little while faith’s flickering lamp to trim; And then the Bridegroom’s coming footsteps hailing, To haste to meet Him with the bridal hymn ! And He Who is Himself the gift and giver; The future glory and the present smile — With the bright promise of the glad “for ever,” Will light the shadows of the “little while 1” “RESERVED IN HEAVEN.”

We have each a personal interest in the “better country, ’ and wo verily believe that the beauties and glories of Heaven will be described to us by the Lord Himself, even as Moses on Pisgah’s height had the boundaries and glories of Canaan shown him by Jehovah. (Deut. 34). Scenes of surpassing delight await us. Sights on which no cloud or shadow ever rest. Our sun will never set. Our happiness shall never b© dimmed. No grief, no sigh, no tear there. It is a “land of fadeless day.” We shall traverse the whole extent of our magnificent inheritance, exploring its wonders and beauty. In joyful hope we anticipate walks and talks with our ever blessed Lord. . —Walter Scott.