SUNDAY READING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15563, 21 March 1914, Page 4 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING.

.?- "LITTLE PICTURES." BT D. L. MOODT. A poor old widow. living in the Scottish Highlands, was called upon one day by a gentleman who had heard that she was in need. The old lady complained of her condition, and remarked that her .son was in Australia and doing well. "V "But does he do nothing to help you?" inquired the visitor. • "No, • nothing,'' was the reply. "Ha writes me regularly once a month, but only, sends me a little picture with his letter."' ■ , .j, The gentleman asked' to see o&e. of the pictures that she had received, and found each of them to be a draft for ten pounds. '. •?' That is the condition of many of God's children.' He has given us many, "exceeding great : and precious promises," which we either are ignorant of or fail to appropriate. Many of them seem to be pretty pictures of an ideal peace and rest, but are not appropriated as practical helps in daily life. And not one of these promises is more neglected than the as« surance- of salvation- An open Bib-la places them within reach of all, and wo may appropriate the blessing which such a knowledge brings. x

OUR ASSURANCE OF VICTORY. BY HESBT GROVES. The Book of Joshua is emphatically, the book of the higher life—the history of him. who, in the wilderness, has learned that highest of -all lessons, to follow the Lord fully. It describes, therefore, the normal condition of every child of God, yet alas, actually of how very few! But because so few attain unto it, it is the more important to keep before our minds the responsibility of attaining unto that to which we have been calledThe child of God has learned in Egypt the redeeming power of the sprinkled blood, and in the wilderness he has proved that in his flesh dwelleth no good thing; while at the same time, he has tasted and Tejoiced in the realisation of the efficacy of God's provision, in the. Priesthood of the Holy One, to meet and to put away all sir. and defilement, and so to remove ©very let or hindrance to the progress of his soul in the divine life.

God foresaw our feebleness and shortcomings, and therefore has .provided all that is needful to meet them. Hence the elevated character of those steps into holiness and power, into which He would lead him who is prepared to follow &is Master in a step-by-step acquaintance with Him—him who is "following to know the Lord whose going forth is prepared as the morning" (Hosea 6 : 3). He will be prepared to follow his Leader—the true Joshua ("Jehovah is salvation"), wherever He would lead him, over those mountain-tops where the Anakim dwell, and into those fruitful valleys, though the enemies who- dwell there "have chariots of iron." For mountains present no obstacles, and "chariots of iron" no difficulties, to him who takes the salvation of God with him.

Triumph is ever the outcome of faith, and that outcome for which God has made ample provision in the counsels of His love, to meet all our need. He would have us remember that "He is able to keep us from falling, and to present us faultless before the presence of His glory' with exceeding joy" (Jude 24). May He do it for each reader, and mav saints be encouraged to feel that we are not lest to the hopelessness of defeat, nor to the helplessness of weakness; but that we have the mighty Captain of salvation going before us, towards whom faith can, ever direct her eye, and in whom the believing, trusting soul is sure of victory! For "the battle is the Lord's" and not ours, as the foes are His, rather than our own. • ;| When God was sending Moses on his work of deliverance, to rescue Israel from Pharaoh's bondage, He appeared to him in the burning l;uBh, and there announced! Himself as the "God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,'* commanding Moses to put his shoes from: off his feet, as *His own presence •had; made holy the very ground on which Moses stood. The vision > suited themission, and thus do we ever find that the revelation which God makes of -Him self.to His servants is just suited to it* need they may be in, or to the character; of-the service they may have to perform''.