Devotional Column

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 60, 12 March 1938, Page 8

Devotional Column

THE COMMAND TO PRAY The Sermon on the Mount opens up prayer in a new light. Here is the Saviour’s three times repeated command to pray. “Ask ! Seek ! Knock !” Great is our need; its forms are manifold. Great is our slowness; it needs a spur. What may we pray for? For great things and for small; for the imbedded thorn that troubles our finger-tip, as well as for the bullet that has lodged in our bone; for the safe coming of a letter, as well as for the life of a mother. For ourselves and for others; for the Church and for the world. None need be at a loss for subjects of prayer. “Ask!” Do you feel your need? Your aid lies in God; He can hear, He will help. —Anon. THE TRUE CHURCH The one true Church is composed of all believers in the Lord Jesus. It is made up of all God’s elect—of all converted men and women—of all true Christians. In whomsoever we can discern the election of God the Father, too sprinkling of the blood of God the Son, the sanctifying work of God the Spirit, in that person we see a member of Christ’s true Church. It is a Church of which all members have the same marks. They are all born agaiu of the Spirit; they aIJ possess “repentance towards God, faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ,” and holiness of life and conversation. I want you to belong to tlie one true Church. —Bishop Ryle. ON JUDGING. Romans 14 : 13. —Let us not therefore judge. There is a play upon th 3 word “judge” in this verse. The word has two uses : (1) To criticise. (2) To decide. We are not to criticise others; that is, in the sense of carping, fault-finding criticism. We are bound to form judgments upon the actions of others (1 Cor. 2 : 15), but if we find ourselves obliged to differ from a Christian brother in loyalty to what we believe to be the will of the Lord we are to give him credit for being equally loyal. However, our own actions are to be criticised unsparingly, and we are tu decide about them that they shall never cause any hindrance to others. Stumbiingblock is an occasion of stumbling in act. An occasion to fall is an occasion of stumbling in thought. HEAVENLY FRAGRANCE. An alabaster box of ointment of spikenard. Donald Hankey had gone up into the trenches. And regularly, presents, most welcome and appropriate, came to him. He says, however, ‘Every week there used to come to the writer an envelope containing a gift more exquisitely stibtle—a soft handkerchief wrapped round a sprig of verbena or of lavender. It was so out of keeping with every circumstance of one’s life, so like a breath of fragrance from another world, that its preciousness was infinite, unspeakable’.” Tc Jesus, drawing near his death, this gift of love must have come like a breath of fragrance from another world. “IF ONLY! IF ONLY!” Now in the case of Martha and Mary the remorseful regret was altogether needless. “If Thou hadst been here !” But He had been there all the time. He had been with them in deepest sympathy, in kindly thought, in gracious intention, in tender and yet ample plan. What they were thinking to be a lamentable mischance was a vital part of a larger scheme, begotten and inspired by unfailing love. There was no need for regret; everything was just exactly right. And so it is with most of the “ifs,” the remorseful “ifs” that ravage and devastate our peace. They destroy filial trust; they destroy spiritual peace;

they destroy the wide sweeping light of Christian hope. —J. H. Jowett, ALA., D.D. FULL PARDON. In the Atonement of Jesus Christ there is much more than forgiveness for us before God. There is the putting away of the guilt as well. When you and I stand before God in Christ, we shall be as those who have never sinned at all. Not only will the very stain of our sin be washed away, and every fibre of our being be cleansed and made whiter than snow, but it will all be forgotten by God and ourselves. Oh, blessed of blessed cleansings ! The Hood of Jesus Christ not only enables God to forgive us in Christ., but actually to forget that we have ever sinned at all. The thought of Heaven was not all joy to me until I knew this truth. —George Clarke. “VESSELS UNTO HONOUR.” “If a man therefore shall purge himself from these (earthly things), he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified and meet for the Alaster’s use.” Sometimes, O Saviour, I am sorely tempted To give up all the work Thou gavest me; But when I am of self-love thus all emptied, Thou dost put forth Thy mighty power in me. It is the empty vessel Thou requirest, That all the power may be acknowledged Thine. A willing heart is all that Thou desirest, To do Thy will my aim—Thy will, not mine. Fairelie Thornton. AT HIS COMING. I know not the hour of His coming, Nor how He will speak to my heart; Or whether at morning or mid-day Aly spirit to Him will depart. But I know . . I shall wake in the likeness Of Him . . I am longing to see; I know . . that mine eyes shall behold Him, Who died . . for a sinner like me. I know not the bliss that awaits me, At rest with my Saviour above; I know not how soon I shall enter And bathe in the ocean of love. Perhaps in the midst of my labour A voice from my Lord I shall hear, Perhaps in the slumber of mid-night, Its message may fall on my ear. I know not, but oh I am watching, Aly lamp ever burning and bright ! I know not if Jesus will call me At morning, at noon, or at night.