THE GARLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 3584, 21 November 1922, Page 57

THE GARLAND.

FOR THE QUIET HOUR, No. 482. By Duncan Wright, DunedinTruth crushed to earth shall rise again, - IJie eternal years of God are hers; But Error, wounded, writhes with pain, And dies among his worshippers. —W. O. Bryant. We are bom to inquire after truth; it belongs to a greater power to possess it. —M. D. Montaige. Great is truth, and mighty above all things.—O. T. Beauty is truth, truth beautv, —that is all Ye know of earth, and all ye need to know. —John Keats. He is the freeman whom the truth makes free.—Win. Cowper. IVlercy and truth are met together: righteousness and peace have kissed each otner.—Psalm 85, 10. There is nothing so powerful as truth, — and often nothing so strange. —Daniel Webster. This is the truth the poet sings, That a sorrow’s crown of sorrow is remembering happier tilings. —Tennyson. He lives most Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best. Life’s but a means unto an end ; that end Beginning, mean, and end to all things, God. —P. J. Bailey. Unto the t Son He saith, Thy throne, G God, is for ever and ever. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy peace, long-suffering,- gentleness, goodness! taith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. 1 inally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things iJL PUre ’ whatsoever things are lovelv, whatsoever things are of good report ; 'if virtue, and if there be any liaise, think oil these things.—Scripture. A little te derm of renewals. Fol- Tffi- r vte ! f u ! 13hi " e af ter nights of rain; Fm- Tbv ♦ bH ““ of , comfo rt after pain; strife • * Peae ® tllat ends a longdlrawn Fol Jite ly SWeet reSt that ends a burdened f!”, oy ’ dispersing sorrows as ike sun ° "h lhe morning mists, and as Tliv wnias J Dispel the clouds and show the blue again lhe deep, pure, tenuous, heavenly blue teat seems, In its infinity of tenderness. Like to Thy Love, that, fills a ll time and space Aitn Thy sweet Spirit’s all-abounding grace; ° For all Thy heating ministries,— Ae thank Thee, Lord. Fai strip 1 ' 1 * estranged > won hack to fellowAnd closer knit by sweet forgivenesses*or blows*-* 8 mad ' e tenderer by fortune's For souls' by sorrows ripened in Thy love • Wl for that te»k our pride- away And cast us wholly on Thy chanty: For d hH A d '? y 3 ,hat led to the Light, steffi 3 tears that yet renewed our Throul a b' ail t ■ T ia P e, 'P le xitie3 of mind find- WhlCl VVe wrest! e<l, nobler life to And teund, beyond' cur craving souls’ upThe te "'°" deil of lessons Thou wouidst Death- IITOS salvaged from the hand >[ FOI ‘ scathe 6 ; S ° UU ’ &@ry purging “ wiUlOTt FOr b-o”sflov P eT yerS £h °' Ved Th> ' For prayers unanswered, wiser love to prove*orv^,s fading through life’s dewious Willi faith illumined and high heart of grace; \Ye thank Thee, Lord. —<L Oxenham. jj,A h fA m ?- y , b ? times "'hen you cannot hud help, bu-t there is no time when you cannot give help. A man that studies revenge keeps his S S't K n - " luo " "”"W What we have sown we shall reap hitt - 'l W i l ,} °< levolop1 evolop int ° flowers, nor bittti herbs into luscious fruits. Obedience to the word of the Lord Jesus is the alchemy that- transforms dis appointment into hope, failure into .t It we are trying to live our lives aright srto. “il Tf-“ waiting for us ‘ are n °t iSfiSEfi tLe ~ SS that 1 its perfect tosk 80 humble SiE! our work and J„ our praters.' J> ( „ i4v , a !, fi° od People sometimes stop to -omit the cost of Christian service. What they really need is a, little more reckless spending of themselves monoton! 1 GOf !’ S * ilJ .appoints for me dull monotony, and physical or .mental drawto do His will is the only purpose ior which 1 am here!

If U-od is not to be traced, He may he trusted; and that religion is of little value which will not enable a man to trust God when he can neither trace nor see Him. A man has a right to his own opinion, but when he insists that his is always the right opinion, and attempts to force it upon ofcners, he becomes either a fanatic or a persecutor. ■ —London Christian. REVIVAL OF PERSONAL RELIGION. 1 tie uncompromising Evangelical spirit in which the Wesley hymns were conceived, may be judged’ by' the title given by Charles to a, volume published in 1747: Hymns for those that seek and those that have Redemption in the Blood of Jesus Christ. This title—although marked by diffuseness which is typical of the eighteenth century—is eloquent of the extent to which the original Weslev spirit may profitably be invoked to-day, when £o many hearts are burdened with the desire to lead G-od’s people back to utter reliance upon the old Scriptural truths. It was to attack shallowness in Christian lire that much of Wesley’s energy was directed, and even as a growing ‘ belief m the efficacy of personal evangelism is with us to-day, so the movement led by Wesley ‘ began in a revival of personal religion ; and it professed to have but one aim—viz., ‘to spread Scriptural holiness over the land.’ ” John Wesley had himself experienced the power of hymnody to banish spiritual doubt; for Peter Bolder records that after the singing of a Moravian hymn, at a meeting in April, 1738, Weslev, “took nnalone into his own room, and declared that he was now satisfied of what I said of faith, and he would not question a nv more about it; that he was clearly convinced of the want of it-.’’ While John Wesley’s translations may not have entered into the personal lire of thousands of individuals to. the same degree as have several of his brother’s hymns, fine stories are told of the saving grace they have exercised on various occasions. Telford repeats an incident as arising out of the reading of four lines from “Jcsu, Thy Blood and Righteousness On a tombstone in Horsleydown churchyard. In May, 1783, Rev. Charles Simeon, a visiting minister, was impressed by that particular inscription ; and halted to read the verse: When from the dust of death, I rise To take my mansion in the skies; E cn then shall this be all mv pica— Jesus hath lived, h-atli died for me. —Selected.