DEVOTIONAL COLUMN

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 216, 10 August 1940, Page 12

DEVOTIONAL COLUMN

FAITH. Faith is not a fiction, Faith depends on tacts, Fears no contradiction, Uoldly, quickly acts; God is never changing, Faith on Him reiies, Ho our ail arranging, Is entirely wise. Faith expects much trouble, let can praise each day, Trails burn the stubble, Faith abides alway. Faith looks up admiring, God’s unfoluing plan, Nothing more requiring, Doubting sinful man. , Faith will never vanish, Till it turns to sight, Then the Dord will banish, Darkness by His light, In His presence ever, AYe shall praise His name, Nought His own shall sever, Nought defeat His aim. Faith accepts God’s statements, Trusts the written Word, Dreams of no abatements, Will not be deterred. God has plainly spoken, Men may it upbraid, Ho lias never broken, Any promise made. CONFIDENCE IN DARK DAYS. The eleventh Psalm begins with a note of true confidence: “In Jehyvah put I my trust.” This is Die secret at rest and peace, as the prophet Isaiah expresses it: “Tliou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee,” or “and bis mind «taved on Thee” “because he trusted in Thee” (Isaiah 2G: 3). God can keep the mind stayed on Himself and the heart in perfect peace, no matter what the circumstances may - be, and the one condition of His doing so is trust ir- Himself. He who thus confides in God asks, “How say ye to my Suiil, Eb'o as a bird to your mountain,” tr escape the arrows which the wicked privily shoot at the upright in heart ? \Vhv should I turn from the path of duty or service to flee to any mountain when I can say to Him who formed the mountains, “Thou 0 Jehovah, art a shield about me?” No arrow can pierce that shield. MY PRAISES AND MY MERCIES. An elderly man was ill. His wife carried a basin of hot soup to his bedside. As he took it he exclaimed, out of the fullness of a grateful heart, “My praises do not keep pace with my mercies I” He was in the habit of tracing God’s hand in all the circumstances ol life, and felt that lie never praised Him enough for His care. Christian reader, can we not say the same? Do we not find that our praises lag behind? Yet the Lord even “daily loadeth us with benefits.” “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God iu Christ Jesus concerning you.” THE CURTAIN OF SILENCE. If we have not been able to discover the good tiling in your brother and fellow servant; if our eye lias only detected the crooked thing; if we have not succeeded in finding the vital spark amid the ashes —the precious gem among the surrounding rubbish ; if we have only seen what was of mere nature; why, then, let us with a loving and delicate hand draw the curtain of silence around our brother, or speak of him only at the throne of grace.

LOVE TO THE KING

When Robert Bruce was fleeing from the English, when they invaded Scotland, lie came to a -poor old Highland woman’s house, and asked for a night’s lodging. “Who are you?'’ said she. “I am a stranger and a traveller,” said the King. “All strangers and travellers are welcome here,” said she, “for the sake of one.” “And who is that one?” asked the King. “Our good King Robert the Bruce,” said she, “who. though he is hunted by hounds and horns, I acknowledge to be tho right King of all Scotland.” She could not enthrone him except in her heart, but she would if she could; and in his rejection she acknowledged him as her rightful king. And so it is, or ought to be, with us; and we should watch with jealousy anything which would tempt us to refuse the heavenly principles, where it is possible to carry them out, during tho absence of the King.