DEVOTIONAL COLUMN

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 69, 18 February 1939, Page 14

DEVOTIONAL COLUMN

CALLING UPON GOD. Of what use or advantage is it to ask God to consider our complaints? Perhaps no use or advantage so far as God is concerned, but great use or advantage to us. Is it not natural lor us to pour our complaints into one another’s ears? Do we not find relief merely in relating our tale of woe, even though the one to whom we speak already knows it, and though he may not be able to Help us by so much as a word? How much rather spread the matter before God. Every command to pray is only an obligation to tell God what He already knows. God loves to hear His children’s voices and regards with jealousy our making confidants of others than Himself. —James M. Gray, D.D. REMEMBRANCE. I thank my God upon every remem-’ brance of you. —Phil. 1: 3. “I want you to know you are never forgotten, That the old, old days hid in memory

sweet Are still a part of my life that I would

cherish, Without them 60 much would be in

complete. And you are mixed up with so much

I remember, Your name so often I utter in prayer; Never forgotten, on earth or in hea-

ven, Always the child of God’s tendercsl care.

“I want you to know you are ncvei forgotten, That my thoughts and prayers are folding you round; Rest in His promise, go where He sends you, Do what He bids you, faithful bt found. Look up and trust Him, a new year is dawning, Streteb out your hand and take His to-day: Bought by Him, loved by Him, never forgotten, Hid in His heart forever and aye.” “God is faithful”—not He has been, Not He will be; both are true; But to-day, in this sore trial, “God is faithful” now to you! A BREATH FROM THE PSALMS. I to the bills will lift mine eyes, From whence doth come mine aid; My safety coineth from the Lord, Who heaven and earth hath made. Thy foot He’ll not let slide, nor will He slumber that three keeps: Behold, He that keeps Israel, He slumbers not, nor sleeps. The Lord thee keeps, the Lord thy shade On thy right liand doth stay: The moon by night thee shall not smite, Nor yet the sun by day. The Lord shall keep thy soul: Ho shall Preserve thee from all ill; Hence-forth thy going out and in . God keep for ever will. WHAT WILL HE NOT DO? What will not God do for His children who really walk in His ways and really seek to do His will? Anything and everything He will do. Our business is to walk in'.’fellowship.' with God, our business is to seek to Him and act according to the Scriptures, and it is impossible to say to what degree .wo shall be honoured and used. —George Muller. THE OBJECT IN VIEW.

This is the issue of' the Christian life—to make people like Jesus ChristYou see a ■ very simple, and yet a very drastic meaning and purpose here.'The object of all Christian teaching and work is that men and women should become like Jesus Christ. That is the object of our salvation.- It does not merely have as its end the escaping o'f Hell and the attaining of Heaven, though, thank God, these are included; but it lias pre-eminently as its object the making of sinful, rebellious, disobedient, unhappy men and women into glad, joyous sons and daughters of the King of kings. It is making them ever more and more like their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. —J. Russell Howden, M.A.

ONE AliU In every age, from those whose eager eyes beheld their Lord depart into the heavens, down to those who shall as eagerly behold Him as He returns, (here have been and are those who Live counted the world but dross that they might fully know Him and experience His resurrection power: but there are many others who, called by His Name, have lost the dignity of their high calling. their right to the privileges of true discipleship, not by deliberate sin. but simply through other things entering into their lives. Christ told ns that their entrance inevitably chokes the Word and causes unfruitful ness. Ts it worth while to have these other things in our lives ?

PRESENT BLESS ING—FUTURE HOPE. T would think of God’s love to me, with an ever-renewed sense of amazement, feeding moro and more the mystery of it, the sheer incredible grace, never taking God’s gift as a matter of course, taking it “in wonder lost, with trembling joy.” And yot still taking it, accepting my place in God’s family, my share in His love, resting in the certainty of it, happy in the deep gladness of it. But let mo see iti it the promise of things more wonderful still. Beyond this life, where now I live as God’s child, there is another, to which some day I shall come. Here I see but glimpses of Him, which set me longing for clearer vision. Then we shall siee Him as He is. —Francis B. James. HOLY ADMIRATION. This holy admiration begins now and here. It Consists of bumble love and wonder. Every sight of Christ, every unfolding of His glorious work, produces a sense of admiring love. The Gospel unveils His beauty to faith, and reveals the purpose of the Father in sending His Son to die for us. There is a beauty in His Godhead which faith perceives and loves, but cannot measure or express: and there is a beauty in His humanity which is equallv perceived and loved by faith: but there is beyond this an unspeakable beauty when faith beholds the union of the two natures in One Person. Every glimpse produces holy love and wonder.