Devotional Column

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 6841, 23 April 1932, Page 7

Devotional Column

Precept. Take ihcieforc no thought for the morrow. Matt. 6. 34. Promise. In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength. Isa. 30. 15. Prayer. Cause mo to hear Thy loving kindness in the morning. Ps. 143. a. MY FATHER’S CARE. "The Lord thinketk upon me” (Psa. xl. 17); “Think on these things” (Phil. iv. S). O blessed thought; what holy calm is mine To know that Thou are ever thinking good for me. In detail, Love is watching all the time; My best employ is to be praise to Thee. I’ll fear no ill—so safe within Thine care; This moans continual rest for soul and mind. Thy resurrection-life is mine to share; While dwelling deep in Thee my all I find. To think upon these things brings peace indeed; “By love to serve,''’ whilst Thou arc making true Thy promises—supplying every need, The good old-fashioned way I’ll still pursue. To praise by faith till sight, and then praise on For grace, more grace, continually supplied. All things are mine from Thee to think upon; My hope is centred on Christ crucified.

IMMORTALITY,

I believe in conscious personal Immortality bccauso I want to, and because I think so strong a want, so attested by effects which flow from it in life, is its own warrant. I believo in it bccauso I believe in the permanence and persistence of personality and of the capacity for selfsacrifice. I believe in it because of the significance of the senso of memory, the conscious continuity of life and the principle of responsibility. I believe in it because I think the idea is veracious. I believe in it because I think it is a primitive, human instinct, enriched and assured by the best and truost development and verification, in life and fruitage, of our primitive ideas. I believe iu it because I see values in human souls that I believe are indestructible and that I do not see perpetuated in the mere continuance of the human race. I believe in it most of all because I believe in Christ; in what He had to say about duty and destiny, about G-od and the human soul; and because I believo iu His resurrection and in all that His resurrection signified and signifies for ever. —Robert E. Speer.

WHAT CONSTITUTES A MISSIONARY CALL?

We sometimes receive requests for information that will create interest in missionary enterprises. For creating a missionary conscience in any group or individual we know nothing better or even equal to the New Testament, If study of Hark 16, 15-16, John 3: 14-16, Acts 2. 38, Korn. 10: 9-15, Acts 4: 12, fails to create a desire to ■ carry the Gospel to others, to obey the Lord’s

command to "Go,” the job is beyond

These days a good deal is heard about “receiving a call to the mission fields.” It seems to us that a good bit of this talk comes from clouded thinking. As far as rve know we never received any call any different than that which has been given to every Christian. The responsibility to evangelise is no more ours than it is the lawyer’s, a doctor’s or farmer’s, or any other Christian’s. It is a matter of willingness to use our talents as best wo can for .Christ. The man who supports the missionary is working for Christ just as much as is the missionary. The man who makes it possible for another to preach the Gospel is himself preaching. If you want a call to service don’t wait for a voice to speak to you in the night; get your Bible and read Matt. 28: 19-20. That is the call of Christ to each and every Christian. Failure to obey is a denial of the authority and Lordship of Jesus. You can “Go,” by going, or you can “Go,” by sending.

My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you. Galatians iv. 19. Let those who see the most, of me each day Recognise Christ in all I do and say. Not I, but Christ. Galatians ii. 20.5

“FFjAR NOT.”

THE ENCOURAGEMENTS OF GOD.

(By L. G. Yailanco.) “Thou drcwesl near in the day that 1 called upon Thee: Thou saidst, Fear not.” —Lam. 3: 57. I wonder if the reader at some time or other has had this experience; he has doubted tho assurance of Godjs interest in some matter which he is laying before Him in prayer. Let us think to-day of tho many little things in life which arc worrying and perplexing us; matters, perhaps, insignificant in themselves, yet annoying. In regard to how many of these can we truly say wc have called upon Him? Is He not willing to draw near to us and whisper His “Fear not” in these little things? Were they omitted from Paul’s mind as lie writes, “In everything ... let your requests bo made known”? May we be firmly gripped by the stupendous fact that, although our Saviour is Lord of the Universe and daily regulates the coutso of myriads of heavenly bodies, yet He deigns to interest Himself in the tiniest detail of the life of one man or woman on one of the tiniest of those spheres. How beautifully does David, in that twenty-third Psalm, see Jehovah as the perfect Shepherd, providing for every need of the sheep, from the beginning to the close of the day! Wc miss so much joy each day, because wo take only the “big” things to tho Lord. Ho does not say wc are 1o call upon Him only when we are at our wit’s end. Whenever, and about whatsoever, wc call upon Him, He will draw near with His glorious, “Fear not.” Nothing is too trivial for Him. Have you ever thought that you arc grieving Him if you do not take everything to Him? Christ was willing to go to the depth of Calvary’s darkness, because He wanted the whole of you; because He wanted to have a vital interest in everything in which you are interested. Surely you cannot deny Him that for which Ho died. Then let us here and now take all our interests to Him, and if there is anything we dare not take, something wo know He cannot be interested in, let us say honestly, “I do not want anything in which my Lord cannot be interested.” “Thou drewest near in the day that 1 called upon thee; thou saidest, ‘Fear not.’ ”