Restful Thoughts for a Quiet Hour

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12453, 22 May 1926, Page 12

Restful Thoughts for a Quiet Hour

CHOICE SAYINGS Prejudices are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilised by education; they grow there firm as weeds among stones.—Bronte. All life is seed dropped in Time’s yawning furrow, Which will slow sprout and shoot, In the revolving world’s unfathomed morrow Will blossom and bear fruit. —Mathilde Blind. a * a * Ho who receives a favour must retain a recollection of it for all time to come; but he who confers should at once forget it, if he is not to show a sordid and ungenerous spirit. Take heed to thy friends. ■ A faithful friend is a strong defence, and lie that hath found such a one hath found a treasure:—Proverbs. » « • a A taste for hooks is the pleasure and glory of my life. I would not exchange it for the riches of tho Indies.—Gibbon, * * a # Misunderstanding and neglect cause more mischief in the world than even malice and wickedness. —F. W. Robertson. A HYMN OF WORSHIP Lord Jesus Christ, we seek Thy face: Within the veil we how the knee; Oh, let Thy glory fill the place, And bless us while we wait on Thee. We thank Thee for the precious blood That purged our sins and brought us nigh; All cleansed and samdifipd to God, Thy holy name to magnify Shut in with Thee fnr, far above The restless world that wars below; We seek to learn and prove Tliy love, Thy wisdom and Thy grace to know. The brow that once with thorns wan hound, Thy hands, Thy side, we fain would see; Draw near, Lord Jesus, glory-crowned, And bless us while we wait on Thee. —Alex. Stewart. SCRIPTURE PASSAGES Wherefore seeing wo also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let. us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith; Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye he wearied and faint in your minds Hebrews. EVENING MEDITATION “She came., aforehand to anoint my body to tlio burying.”—Mark xiv. 8. Many people would have kept the jar till Jesus was dead, and would then have broken it to anoint His cold body. At least, that is the way too many of us do in these days. V. e wait until our friend dies, and then send our flowers and speak our wolds of appreciation. Should we not learn a lesson from Mary? The kind words We mean to speak when our friends are dead, let us speak while they can hear them. The flowers .we mean to send* for their coffin, let ns send to brighten the rough paths for their feet. The epitaphs we mean to put upon white marble, let us carve in deeds of gentle love while our friends are with us. Words of cheer to-day ure what people crave. “Withhold all eulogies when 1 am dead, All noisy sorrow; Give me the tender word to-day Instead, of tears to-morrow. “Speak not my name, when I am passed from earth In tones ot sadness; At thought of me repress no note of mirth, No burst of gladness. "Regard me not as altered when removed To the hereafter; Think of me still ax loving and ns loved With joy and laughter. “Delay not thou when 1 have wounded sore » Till thou outlive me. To grant tho pardon that 1 here implore ; But now forgive me.”

A PRAYER O God, let all the world he brought nearer to Thee this quiet night. Let Christ lay His Cross over all our hearts, and all life’s varied and fluctuating interests, claiming them for Thee; and may all roads everywhere be highways of Thine angels, till darkness and sin be driven far away. Be Thy light, our ’guide for evermore. Heavenly Father, bless the place we live in. Guide its trade, and bless all "'hose enterprise has helped to make it what it is. Let its leaders be always men of noblest integrity and worth. Bless our native land in all its interests. Watch over our soldiers and sailors scattered abroad across, tlie world. Comfort all mourners. Hush all angry passions. Let Thy peace steal over all the "world’s distresses. Cklm .the distracted and lead the dying hbnie-. Bless all wo love, and make and’ keep us worthy of the affection of pur own dear ones, and the esteem of. our fellows: Set Thy star above, qur'darkness, and keep it shining till it guides us to Tby day. For Christ’s 'sfike, Amen. “I AM THE BREAD OF .LIFE” (A One-Minute Sermon by C. H. Sprugeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle, London-) The Lord is the ideal bread—the ideal supply of man’s soul hunger. Grateful Israelites truthfully judged that there was never such bread in all the world as that which fell in the wilderness in the form of manna. It was very wonderful bread, was it not? Men did--eat angels’ food, and found it good for them. They went out in the morning, and they gathered manna, and they found it most marvellous meat to sustain them. It was the ideal meat for persons travelling through the great and terrible wilderness. There are different- theories of what we ought to eat. One person tells Us that, if anybody suffers from rheumatism, he must eat so many pounds of meat % day. Other doctors have vehemently said: “You must not touch meat. It will best you if you do. You must keep to a strictly vegetable diet.” I believe that these learned persons know one as much as the other about it, and probably the whole of them put together know so little that a very small round nought might encompass all their certain knowledge as to health and disease. But there is one thing we do know, that the bread the Israelites ate in the wilderness, the manna was the best sort of food. It was God’s own invention; and He who created man best knew what nutriment his life would require. It was not aerated bread, but it was celestial bread which had never been soured by earthly leaven, but had dropped immediately from the sky: the best food that men could eat if they would be healthy, active, and able to endure a hard and toilsome life. Sly brethren, if we do hut get hold of Jesus Christ, and feed on Him, He is sufficient for us—sufficient for gigantic labours, sufficient for anguish, and grief and sorrow. Sufficient for the weakest of babes, for He is the unadulterated milk; sufficient for full grown men among us, far He is the strong meat of the Kingdom. His flesh is meat indeed. For your spiritual manhood there is hone, gristle, muscle, brain, everything that you want in Christ. If you feed on Him He will build you up, not in one direction, only, but in all ways; for ye are complete in Him—thoroughly fnrnished unto all necessities. Christ Jcsua meets all the wants of His people with a divine sufficiency. ; THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD Make Your Plans Large.—lt is told of D. L. Moody that <m -the last day of his life he was listening to passages from tlie Bible aa they wee read to him by one of his sympathetic friends. At last he asked that the Bible he laid beside him, and lie wrote on iis margin: “If God bo your partner, make your plans large.” The advice is good. Our tendency is to limit the power of our Heavenly Father. Spurgeon’s Laughter and Prayer.— A friend from America wa“s spending an evening with C. H. Spurgeon. His humour delighted Spurgeon, who while the tears were rolling down his cheeks with laughter, said: “Our Father gives us a good time—doesn’t He? Let ns thank Him for it.” And there and then they prayed. That is the Tight way in which to regard life. If humour is clean, it is as much a gift of God as the most serious thought. “Let u* thank Him for it.” The Pensioner’s Gift. —Rev. C. E. Wilson records the following incident: —“After a prayer meeting held a few days ago at the Baptist Church at Fakenham one of the poorer members approached the mission secretary and gave him a packet, asking him not to open it until he reached home. The packet when opened was found to contain five shillings and the following brief letter: ‘Please accept this, the first fruits of the old age pension, for the Baptist Missionary Society.’ ”