DEVOTIONAL COLUMN

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6849, 2 March 1929, Page 4

DEVOTIONAL COLUMN

Precept. Consecrate yourselves to-day to the Lord. Ex. 32, 29. Promise. The anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you. 1 John 2, 27. Prayer. Oh that Thou wouldest bless me indeed. . 1 Chron. 4 10. BETTER THAN OUR LOVE POE GOD. “I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love."

A good man was very ill, and his friends came to comfort him. They remembered his good deeds, and how ho had always cared for the lambs of Christ’s flock. One prayed, “Lord, thou knowest how he loves thee.’’ “Ah my friends,’’ said the sick man, “do not say that. ' When 'Mary and Martha went to Jesus, their message was not, “Lord, he who loveth thee is sick,’ but, ‘He whom thou' lovest.’ It is not my imperfect love to him that gives me comfort, but his perfect love to me.’’

“VICTORY.’’ “The perfect victory is to triumph over one’s self.” When you are forgotten or neglected, or purposely set at naught, and when you smile inwardly, glorying in the oversight—that is victory. When your good is evil spoken of, when you are crossed, your taste offended, your advice disregarded, your opinions ridiculed, and you take it all in patient and loving silence—that is victory. When you are content wth any food, any raiment, any climate, any society, any solitude, any interruption—that is victory. When you can bear with any discord, any irregularity, and unpunctuality, any annoyance—that is victory. When you can stand face to face with waste, folly, extravagance, spiritual insensibility, and endure it all as Jesus endured it—that is victory. When you never care to refer to yourself in conversation or to record your own good works, or to itch after commendation, when you can truly “love to bo unknown ”■—that is victory.

THE LIVING WORD. Beyond even the sacred pages of the Bible the plain-minded Christian sees his Lord. The Holy Ghost who moved the faroff prophet or apostle to write his message floods the mind of the devout reader that he may receive the message. And as he reads his Bible it is strangely and divinely translated into personal terms. Every promise becomes a personal promise. Every warning a personal warning.

Every message a personal message. And the truth of promise and warning and message finds constant verification in daily life. The Bible is a certified book.

IN HIS SERVICE. (By E. W. C.) I longed the world to compass And many souls to save , To tell the glorious Gospel Across the ocean’s wave. To sing aloud His praises, Proclaim the Saviour’s love— His death and resurrection; Preach the atoning blood. I thought it would be sweet to bring To Christ a worthy offering. A humble place He gave mo And tasks some might call mean, Yet in His choice and purpose Is infinite wisdom seen. I still may sing His praises, His wondrous love declare, Be filled with His blest Spirit And faithful witness bear. God grant that I in lowly place May show the beauty of His grace.

AN OCCASIONAL MESSAGE. (By Pastor W. Mall is.) The bare heights transformed (Isa.-41. 18. R.V.). “I will open the rivers on the bare heights.” You will notice that this is an act of God. “I will open,” something that He alone can do. We cannot —it is , outside all possibility as far as man is concerned to transform that bare height in his life. But God says “I will open rivers on the bare heights”. This word “bare” comes from a Hebrew word that conveys the thought of scraping bare, or making bare by friction. It is a word that suggests constant action, removing all that is on the surface, making it bare, I

barren and hard, but God can transform it. “I will open rivers on the bare height.” You recall'that the Apostle Paul had something which greatly troubled him “a thorn in the flesh,” and he went to God about it; and too often we look upon that approach as a kind of failure, as though he did not get the answer. But for my part 1 think that was one of the most completely answered prayers in the New Testament. Here Paul made a groat discovery, ho entered into the plan and purpose of God in dealing with hard things, not the removal of that which causes friction, but the introduction of that which makes friction impossible. This is the divine order, this is the waj r the Master works. He docs not remove the bare heights, but transforms them. How it lifts us up and makes us even glory in the hard places when we know that our being there, and our life there, in the power of the Holy Spirit is going to exalt the Grace of God on that bare height that is so worn to-day by the constant friction or opposition and misunderstanding and care —the cares of home and business, and it may be personal cares—God will open rivers there. Then I want you to look at this thought in another light. The bare height suggests the non-productivc spot in your life. A bare height does not produce much, and if I understand aright, the word used refers to barren non-productivc places. It seems to me that the Holy Spirit has a great hatred of barren places. He is ever looking after, yea He has a jealous envy to possess the barren non-productive spots and make them fruitful. God bends ovfer it now and says: I will open the rivers on that bare height in your life and make it productive. Are there 'not many such places in your life lying waste, because you have shut off the river of God’s power? It is the irritable, care-worn spot in life that the Holy Spirit is ambitious to transform, because a care-worn Christian is a bad advertisement of the power and possibilities of the Spirit-filled life. When we transfer the burden the care goes. When we let the river pour in, all that irritability, that gloom, that doubt, that weariness, that so many Christian Workers feel, must depart, because the divine supply is more than sufficient. Oh the abundance, the overwhelming supply of divine blessing, meet our need at every point.