THE GARLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 3614, 19 June 1923, Page 43

THE GARLAND.

FOR THE QUIET HOUR. No. 512.

By

Duncan Wright, Dunedin.

If a church is not evangelical it is new a church at all.—llev. Tulloch Yuille U923)Yo must be born again.—Jonn m (A.JJ. o CHIPS FROM ISAAC WATTS (1674-1748). Prom all who dwell beneath the skies Let the Creator’s praise arise; Let the Redeemer s name be sung Thro’ every land, by every tongue. Strange that a harp of thousand strings Should keep in tune so long Were I so tall to reach the pole, Or grasp the ocean with a span, It must be measured by my soul; The mind’s the standard of the man. To God the Father, G-od the Son, And God the Spirit, Three in One, Re honour, praise and glory given By all on earth, and alt m Heaven. But though we, or an angel from Leaver, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we preached unto you, let him > accursed.—Galatians i, 8. ~ And now abideth faith, hope, chanty, th.se throe; but the greatest of these is charity. I Corinthians xiii, 13. Watchman, what of the night 7—U. 1. Wine is a mocker, strong arink is rae> 111 Wisdom is the principal thing; therefor© get wisdom; and with all thy getting get understanding.—Proverbs iv, 7. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. —Psaan xxxxn, 1. JEHOVAH TSIDKENU. THE LORD OUR RIGHTEO-USNESS. By Robert Murray McCheyne. I was one© a stranger to grace and Gcd 1 knew not my danger, and felt not my load, Tho’ friends spoke in rapture of Ciiiist ou the tree, Jehovah Tsidkenu was nothing to me. When free grace awoke me, by light from Then” legal' fears shook me, I trembled to No refuge, no safety in‘self could sec, Jehovah Tsidkenu my Saviour must oa. My terrors all vanished before the sweet My "guilty • fears banished, with boldness 1 To drink at the fountain, life-giving ana free, — , . Jehovah Tsidkenu is all things to me. Ail have sinned, and corn© short of the glory of God.—Romans ill, 23. Tltat men are naturally in bondage to sin is a doctrine which is far from being aoreeable to present-day culture. Modern science and philosophy ratner repudiate the notion that men are conceived m sm and born in iniquity, though they have never been able to explain how it is tnat only one perfectly sinless Being has ever appeared on earth, or how it is that men universally, as scon as they begin to exercise their supposed morally-neutral faculties, go astray from the path of rectitude. Tire claim has never been seriously advanced that anyone except Jesus has been sinless; and now and then this attribute has been denied even to ITim. Hr Thomas Whitclaw. Come unto me ye weary, and I will give you rest. —Jesus Christ.. The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. Isaiah xi, 9. If we pray that the Gospel message may o-o Oltit into'all lands, and yet are satisfied to keep it within our own island, is not this a prayer which goeth out on feigned lips? When we pray that His will may be done we know that His will is that ail should bo saved, that not one should perish. When, therefore, we assist in sending the Gospel to the dark and distant corners of the earth, then, and non till then, may we consistently desire of God in our prayers that His saving health may be known to all nations. —Hannah More.

tide scalping knife. No man in all broad Scotland could use more skilfully the scalping knife to a great and fashionable congregation than Rev. Dr Alexander Whyte, of Edinburgh, and no preacher in all Scotland, and far beyond it, even to the ends of the earth, was more loved. J 1 is volumes entitled “Bible Characters” are worth their weight, in gold. Persons who are not wedded to the conventionalities of the 20th century will read with interest, even if not with full endorsement, a few sentences on his sermon on Mary Magdalene : “Who, then, for the love of the truth, will so read his own hcait as to take sides with me? Como away. Take courage. Speak out. Speak boldly out. You must surely know what pride is, and you must ail know, still better perhaps, what envy is, and at whose payments and praises and successes and positions your heart cramps and strangles and excruciates itself. Do you not both know and confess all these things before yourself and before God every day? Do you not? O stonedead soul! O sport, and prey of Satan ! O maker of God a liar, and the truth is not in you ! I would riot have your devilpossessed heart, and your conscience seared) with a redhot iron, for the whole world". I would rather be myself yet, and myself at my worst, a thousand times’ than be you at your best I have not tho least notion as to who or what Mary Magdalene’s seven devils were, and much less do I know how they could possibly be all cast out of her heart in this life. I do not know much, as you will see, about Mary Magdalene, ’ but I would not give up the little knowledge 1 have of myself, no, not for the whole world.”

DOWN INTO THE DUST. By Joaquin Miller. Is it worth while that we jostle a brother, Bearing his load on the rough road of life? Is iL worth while that we jeer at each other, In blackness of heart? —that we war to the knife ? God pity ns all in our pitiful strife. God pity us all as we jostle each other, God pardon us all for the triumph we feci When a fallow goes down ’neath his load on the heather, Pierced to the heart; words are keener than steel, And mightier far for woe or for weal. Were it not well in this brief little journey, On over the isthmus, down into the tide, To give him a fish instead of a serpent, Ere folding the hands to bo and abide For ever and aye in dust at his side? Xi-ook a,t the roses saluting each other; Look at the herds ail at peace o’er tho plain— 11 Man and man only makes war on his brother And laughs in his heart at liis peril ana pain; , Shamed by the beasts that go down on the plain. Is it worth while that we battle 'to humble Some poor fellow-soldier down into tne dust? ~ God pity us all! Time eftsoons will turnb-o All of us together, like leaves in a gust, Humbled indeed, down into the dust. REV. ALEXANDER M A CLARE N, D.D., of Manchester, was just as honest and straight in his hom ©thrusts, and was as much loved in England, and far beyond it, as Dr Alexander Whyte was in Scotland. Well db we remember the Sunday we saw .and heard the great preaciicT in his own pulpit. A happy memory. “And Dayid said to Nathan, As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this is worthy of death . . . because he did this thing, arid because he had no pity. And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man.”—ll Samuel, xii, 5-7. “If,” said the preacher, “a man’s own sin is held up before him a little disguised, he says, ‘llow ugly it is !’ Ana if only for a moment he can be persuaded that it is not his own conduct, but somebody else’s, that he is judging, the instinctive condemnation comes. ' We have got two sets of names for vices; one sc-t which rather mitigates and excuses them, and another set which puts them in their real hideausness. We keep the palliative set for home consumption, and liberally distribute the plain-spoken ugly set, amongst the vices and faults of our friends. “ihe same thing which I call in myself prudence, I call in you meanness. The same thing which you call in yourself generous living, you call in your friend filthy sensualism. That which, in the practise!- of it, is only righteous indignation. to the onlooker is passionate anger, that which, in the of it, is no more than a due regard for the interests of his own family and himself in the future, is, to the envious lookers-on, shabbiness and meanness in ‘ money matters. That which, to the liar, is only prudent diplomatic reticence, to the listener is falsehood. That which, in the man that judges his own conduct, is but ‘a choleric word,’ is in his friend, when he judges him, ‘flat blasphemy.’ “And so we go all round the circle, and condemn our own vices, when we see them in other people. So the King who had never thought, when he stole away Uriah’s one ewe lamb, and did him to death by traitorous commands, setting him in the front of the battle, that he was wanting in compassion, blazes up at once, and righteous sentences the other ‘man’ to death ‘because he had no pity.’ He had never thought of himself or his crime as cruel, as mean, as heartless. But when he sees a partially disguised picture of it, he knows it for the devil’s child that it is. Oh! wad some power the giftie gie us To see, oorselves a-s ithers see us; It wad fra© many an error free us. “And so it would, to see ourselves as we see others. We judge our brother and ourselves by two different standards.” Thou art the man. BE STRONG! Stronger the soul which says,— “This is with purpose sent for my ennoblement,’’ — And on its knees in prayer doth bravely bear Its overweight of care, Than one which, in its agony doth pray That its affliction may be taken away. God loves not to afflict, Yet sees at times the need, And firmly, tenderly, doth lead Our feet, by ways more strict, By straitened ways and clouded days Up to the shining crest, "Where the redeemed soul Looks back upon the whole Of those past days, and says,— “His way, in. truth, was best.” Pa,in is at times God’s minister, And suffering glorified, Since, sinless, for the sons of men, The Christ was crucified. -—J. Oxc-nham.