Devotional Column

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 7191, 24 June 1933, Page 4

Devotional Column

Precept Bo strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. Eph. 6. 10. Promise. Ono man of you shall chase a thousand; for the Lord your God, He it is that fightcth for you, and. He hath promised you. Joshua 23. 10. / Praise. O Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto Thee? or to Thy faithfulness round about Thee? Psa. 89. 8. BRIGHT LIGHTS AND NIGHT LIGHTS. ' Tho bright electric rays of the lighthouse shone over the water; but, though ground for its work, it would hardly do for a night-light iti a siek-room. . Thank God for little lights as well as big ones. “Yes, another light of the world,” may apply to some towering beacons; but "it giveth light unto all that arc in the house,” is more applicable to others (Matt. v. 14, 15), "Jesus bids us shine, with a clear, pure

light, Like a little candle burning in the night. ’ ’

Jesus is both a Great Light for th& world, and a Home Light for the silek-room. HIS WILL. If He should eomo to-day and stand beside me, And I should seo Him as He was of yore, When, veiled in flesh in all His stainless beauty, He walked beside tho Galilean shoro. If He should spea.k and beckon me to follow A lone path and dreary up life's MU, I wonder —should I dare to go unflinching, Oaring for naught—save but to do His will ?

If I should see Him, scorned of men, rejected, Bending beneath that bitter cross anew, With patient eyes that smile through tears of anguish, His brow thorn-crowned, scarred hands, pierced through, If He should hold to me the cup of suffering, Bidding mo drink the dregs and trust Him. still, I wonder —should I shrink from such a testing Or stretch out hands of faith to d» His will?

If I should sec Him in His risen splendour, Bearing the palm of perfect victory, Love’s vory self enthroned, triumphant, tender, Gleaming in light of awful purity. If He should touch mo with those radiant fingers, Sealing me His, His purpose to fulfil, Should I refuse that claim to my allegiance, Or, strong in faith, go forth to do His will? I KNOW THEIR SORROWS.

That Sorrow which can bo seen is the lightest form Teally, however apparently heavy; then there is that which is not seen —secret sorrows —which yet can be put into words, and can be told

to near friends as well ns bo poured out to God; but there are sorrows beyond those, such as are never told, and cannot be put into words, and may only be wordlessly laid-before God: these are the deepest. Now comes tho supply for each: "I have seen” that which is patent and external; "I have heard their cry,” which is the expression of this, and of as much of tho external as is expressible; but this would not go deep enough, so God adds, "I know.their sorrows,” down to the very depths of all, t-hoso which no eye secs or ear over heard. (Exodus iii. 7.) LIVING BY FAITH When you go out to your business or to your worok, you will not bo half- so discontented when you know that this is not your rest,-but that you have a ■rest on the hills eternal, whither your heart has already gone, and that your portion is in the everlasting dwellings: "Lay hold on eternal life.” Get hold of it now. It is a thing of tho future, and it is a thing of tho present; and even your part of it can bo by faith so realised and grasped as to bo actually enjoyed while you are yet here.

JACOB’S SURRENDER. Surrendering to God changes evorytMng for tho .better. It does not change God, but it does change tho ono who surrenders. God w r as. with Jacob to 'bless him from before tho time of his birth, and God continually poured out His blessings upon Jacob; but Jacob

was slow, to receive, them in the abunI dance that might have been his all the time. Ho was selfish, lying, crafty, distrustful, yet God did not stop blessing him. Finally came the timo when he "let go and let God.” It was on his way back from Haran to Canaan, with his largo family and great company of servants and ilocks, and intense fear was the circumstance used of God. When Jacob learned that bis brother, Esau, who had. vowed that ho would take his life, was coming to meet Mm with a troop of 400 men, then Jacob feared for his life and his loved ones. For the first time now', he prayed tho prayer, of a broken-spirited, humble man. Instead: of bargaining with God now as he had before, he cried out, "I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies , . . which Thou hast shewed unto Thy servant.” He acknowledged God’s undeserved love in making him a rich and prosperous man, and he pleaded with God for deliverance for himself and his loved ones from the hand of his brother. Four ontirely new facts in Jacob’s attitude appear. First in tho humble prayer acknowdedging his own unworthinoss and God’s grace. Second in his subjecting of himself to Ms brothey Esau. Third in his refusal to ’‘let thee go, except thou bless me,” as he wrestled with God. Fourth is the outward and visible sign of all this as "he halted upon his. thigh” when tho next new day dawned and he set forward again on his journey an utterly changed man. The super-, natural shrinking of 'the sinew of Jacob’s physical strength was a sign that something had gone forever out of Ms life; the'-confident dependence upon himself was now replaced by Ms acknowledged helpless dependence upon God. God asks every child of His to make tho same surrender —for God cannet bless us as His great heart of love and powder longs to do until we have "let go and let God.”