Devotional Column

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6667, 21 July 1928, Page 9

Devotional Column

PRECEPT. Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 Tim. 2, 1. PROMISE. No weapon —formed against thee shall prosper. .- ' • ; Isaiah 54, 1/. PRAYER. In Thee ! do I put my, trust. Psalm IC, 1. THE WORLD'S BIBLE. Christ has no hands but our hands to do His work to-day; He has no feet, but our feet, to lead * men in His way. He has no tongue, but our tongue, to tell men how He died; He has no help, but our help, to bring them to His side. We arc'the only Bible, the careless world will read; . . We are the Sinner's Gospel; We arc the scoffer’s creed. We arc the Lord’s last message, given in deed and word, What if the type be crooked? What if the print be'blurred! What if our hands ate'busy with, work that is not His!' What if our feet are walking where i sin’s allurement is! , What if our tongues are saying things, His lips woilld Spurn? How can we hope, to help Him,, or hasten His return? Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God hath forgiven you, • Eph. 4, 32. If we have crooked and worldly saints to deal with, don’t let us think we can put them right by hard words; but may we be so living in the presence of God that bur faces will shine with the joy of the Lord, and God will, by His grace in us, attract them from their worldly ways-J ■'Worldliness docs not pay; conformity to its ways docs not pay. Nothing but obedience to God will pay- Though you bo crowned with a. crown of thorns, every thorn will be a diamond.’ and t£e, crown will be a crown of glory. •. > . THE ONE WORK. What we do for Christ is nothing; what-Christ did for us is-everything. Our works do not justify us before God; Christ’s work presents us holy and without blemish and unreprovable before Him. Much of the present-day Christianity, by emphasizing the former, makes void the latter. Not charityworks; not evangelical works; not yari-‘ ous and miscellaneous-works connected’ with these works; but tho life and death of Christ; especially His vicarious death upon , tho cross; that it is that is our work and our salvation.

Compared with this work, all other works cannot bo called works. Believing in this work and looking up into it and trusting it, our other works bear, fruit. Eight and true it is as Paul said: "I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified." With Paul, Christ’s work for him was his only work. God holds the key of the unknown, And I am glad; If other hands should hold the key, Or if He trusted it to me, I might be sad. I cannot read His future plans; But this I know; I have, the smiling of His face, And all the refuge of His grace While here below. A PREACHER’S DIFFICULTIES. A young preacher in a college town was embarrassed by the thought of criticism in his cultivated' - congregation; He sought counsel from his fatnev, an old and wise Christian worker; saying: "Father, I am hampered in my ministry in the pulpit I ! am now serving. If 1 cite anything from geology, there is Prof. A —, teacher of this science, right before me. If I use an illustration of Roman mythology, there Is Prof. B—, •ready to trip me up for any little inaccuracy. If I instance something in English literature that pleases me, 1 am cowed by the presence of the learned man who teaches that branch. What shall I do?" The sagacious old man replied: "Do not be discouraged, preach the gospel. They probably know very little of that." The unlearned and untutored disciples of old wrought wonders "in the name of thy holy Servant Jesus” i (Acts 4:13,’27, E. V.). Why not to-day? ■/

TWELVE REASONS POR CHRIST’S DEATH AND RESURRECTION. (By Prank Hamilton). ; 1. That God might be just and yet the justiflcr Of\ them that 1 believe .(Rom. 3:26). . ■ ‘ ‘' J 2. As our Substitute, suffering in our place (Gen. 22:13; John 1:29), “ 3. As our Redeemer (Lev., 25:47, 48; - . . 4. The power of God unto salvation; the great appeal (Rom; 1:16; Hob. 2:3). 5. The proof of God’s, love; winning ours .(John 3:16). ’ • '6. The measure of. God’s love, and self-sacrifice (Rom; 8,52; ; Mark 8:34). 7. To prove that Jesus was the Christ (1 Cor. 15:17). . ■ , . 8. To prove the heavenly life, and win us to it (John 14:10),' ■ 9. To show the sinfulness of sin rn God’s sight (1 Tim. 1:15). 10. That salvation might be of grace, - and not of works; and so Heaven delivered from the proud (Eph. 2:8,,9). 11. That the Scriptures might be fulfilled, both Old Testament and tire Lord Jesus’ prophecies (Luke 22:37; 1 Cor. 15:3, 4). ■: ' , , ■ .

12. To show us the way to Heaven (Isa. 53:11; John 16:20-22; Heb, 12:?).