Devotional Column

Manawatu Times, Volume LVI, Issue 7103, 11 March 1933, Page 9

Devotional Column

Precept,

Hearken unto Me, every one of you. Mark 7. 14. Prayer, Speak, Lord; for Thy servant hcareth. 1 Sam. 3. 9. Promise. Whoso hearkeneth unto Me shall dwell safely. Prov. 1. 33. SPIRITUAL BREVITIES. Talent for talking docs not constitute a (all to preach. If I am go;;wing up in love to Christ, I am growing down in my own estimation. Let those who claim to live nearest to the truth of God bo those who livo nearest the God of truth. If you cannot keop sweet in tho kitchon, or shovelling coal, you have no right to shout in the tabernacle. It is a good thing to have command of foreign tongues, but far better to have command of one’s own tongue. Did you ever hear the proverb, "The itch of disputing is the scab of the church”? Ponder it, and as a Christian act on Ephesians 4:1-3. God’s commands are the tests of our faith. We may ascertain how much our faith in His promises is worth by the response we give to His commands. Humility in a Christian is a sign of true fruit-bearing and a vital union with the vine. The boughs that carry the most fruit arc always bowed nearest to the ground.

OUR REDEEMER. “Oh dearly, dearly has He loved, And wo must love Him too, And trust in His redeeming blood, And try His works to do.” “My song shall be of Jesus; His mercy crowns my days; He fills my cup with blessing And tunes my heart to praise. My song shall bo of Jesus, The precious Lamb of God, Who gave Himself my ransom And bought mo with His blood. ’’

TKY IT. The man who begins to tithe his income will have at least six genuine surprises. He will be surprised—,l. At the amount of money he has for the Lord’s work. 2. At the deepening of his spiritual life in paying the tithe. 3. At his case in meeting his own expenses with the remaining ninotentlis. 4. At his case in going on from one-tenth to larger giving. 5. At the preparation this gives to be a faithful and wise steward over the nine-tenths that remain. 6. At himself for not having adopted the plau sooner.

STEWARDSHIP IN EXERCISE. Many a steward of God, because of becoming unfaithful and unwise through lack of exercise of heart as to personal expenditure, has beon deprived of his stewardship through ill-health, losses, etc.

A’ Christian farmer on one occasion was handing a somewhat largo gift to a servant of tho Lord, who showed some reluctanco in accepting it, and said that ho thought it was too much for tho brother to give. Tho farmer replied, “You know I am only caretaker in this farm, and if I don’t attend to my business tho Lord may put someone else in my place.’ ’ To quote another case. A missionary, on receiving a large gift from a brother, asked if’ he were sure it w*as not too much for him to give. In reply the brother said, “On a former occasion it was laid on my heart to send a certain sum of money to pay the homeward passage of a missionary sister, but I neglected to send it. Illness came into my family, and when the doctor’s account was rendered it was found to amount to the exact sum I should have sent to tho missionary. Through the bounty of fellow-mission-aries the sister received her passage money all right, but the doctor got mine, and one such lesson is enough for me.”

How often we have acted in some such imprudont way, and yet the Lord is very slow to deprive us of our stewardship. “Take therefore no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto tho day is the evil thereof.” —Matt. 6: 1, S 4. The words quoted above are part of the Sermon on tho Mount. Christ wished to impress upon His disciples that, their time and thought must be given day by day to the furthering of God’s Kingdom upon earth, rather than to their personal and material wants. The words, horvovor, taken literally, might be passed on to many people who are to be found in all walks of life. To those who worry, but with reason, they will bring reassurance and comfort, for behind them they will glimpse the promise of God’s care, everlastingly extending beyond their daily needs to the to-morrows of the future.

But what of those who worry without reason, and who spend their daily lives in borrowing troubles, and anticipating catastrophies which, more often than not, never come to pass? Surely for them there is a message, too.

If they will but take literally the words, “Take, therefore, no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself,” and apply them to their daily livens, they will find that tho bulk of their troubles will disappear, and the majority of their gloomy forebodings will never materialise. For the troubles they have to face and the hardships they may be called upon to enduro can come but one day at a time.

If, therefore, they make strenuous efforts to live the present day, doing their utmost to meet its difficulties to the best of their abilities, never losing sight of the fact, that it is God’s will they must be doing, and not their own, and that it is the Causo of Christ on earth which they must endeavour to further, and not their own personal desires and ambitions; then can they look forward to their to-morrows, unfolding daily before them, without gloom and depression.