THE GARLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 3756, 9 March 1926, Page 72

THE GARLAND.

FOR THE QUIET HOUR. No. 654. By Duncjji Weight, Dunedin. (For the Witness.) Sin comes to the door of the drawingroom, for there are leprous men who go in the best society. Their arts are first hidden; soon they show 'out their true character. A cloud drops suddenly on the domestic circle thick as darkness, and there is agony in the parent’s heart that could wish the child had been swallowed in the grave. There has been no death in the family, but an adriot villain entered the household, took the cup of double happiness and dashed it! Oh hundreds and hundreds have been blasted thus; so do you wonder that father and mother are anxious and ask what will become of their children; Now, how shall this anxiety be relieved; Begin early. A ship must be made seaworthy in the dry dock, and in the dry dock of Christian homes children must be prepared against the tempests of life. In the family circle you will decide whether your child shall be generous and noble, or mean and despicable. I have seen a tree against which, when a sapling, something had leaned heavily, and the tree had grown up with an ugly crook. Thus it you allow any thing to stand against the child it may develop a moral crookedness. No wonder Lord Byron was a bad man. His mother, as she saw him limping across the floor, cried out: “Get out of my way, you lame brat!”. She blasted him for time and eternity. Again, two young men stopped at a door of sin; one went in, the other went on, for he felt an invisible hand on his shoulder, saying: “Don’t go in!” It was a mother’s hand. But your children see the example of a Christian life. Tell them to be Christians when you are not! Do you know that all your instruction goes for naught unless you illustrate it in your life? A teacher takes the copy-book and writes a copy across the top line with a mistake in it. The pupil takes the book and copies the line, mistakes and all, down the page! A father has a great fault; his son comes on and copies it. It’s what you do that tells. Have a family altar, and let it be in the brightest room of the house. Open the piano for sa-cred song. Kneel with your little ones and pray for your home. Do '*ou think they will ever get over it? Never! The memory of such a father and mother will le a power irresistible for safety. Go often before God and say: “Here are my children, immortal, immortal; make up to them what I lack.” He says : “I will he a God to thee, and to thy seed ifte. thee.”. Heaven will be in your home vhen the children come to Christ. Any t. Tit-Bits By Rev. Dr Joseph Parker. There are churches that are perhaps more conspicuous for dignity than anything else. Even dignity ought not to be unhoused or driven away from Christ’s feast. Christ, your Christ, my Christ, is mighty to save. Others are mighty to destroy, but the uniqueness of Christ ; s found in this, that He can put pieces together that no hand can ever unite. Out of the worst of us He can make the brightest of His saints. Out of Christ as a name has been taken deity, atonement, priesthood, responsibility, highest morality. If we be Christly we may bear the name of Christ; if we be other than Christly we have no right to the name of Christ. 0 the detail of the divine judgment! One by one we face the Judge. Could we go in upon the stream of a great crowd we might enter heaven; but the gate i§ so straight that only one can pass at a time. Jesus Christ spake his severest things to the disciples, as well as His gentlest things. He would not have men near him, supporting His kingdom and representing His cause, who were weak, ignorant, foolish, without constantly reminding them of their weakness and ignorance and folly, and without constantly offering them the enlightenment and tho sustenance which they required. THE ETERNAL VICTOR! “Lord save me.” —Matthew xiv, 30, 31. “Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.’’— 1 Corinthians xv, 57. Lord Jobub Christ—how deep is They compassion, How great Thy saving power! Stretch forth Thy hand in Thine almighty fashion, Save me, in this dread hour. Tossed on the sea of life, waves rolling round me, My heart fails, and I sink; If Thou art nigh, then nothing shall oonfound me, ,r ~ "* # Love, stands beside tho brink.

heelings may surge within, yet on Thee calling— In moment of my need— Thy hand upholds, and keeps my feet from falling, Thou savest, Lord, indeed. “Immediately!” O Jesus, Master, save me! Like Peter, this my prayer; Thy power impart, to strengthen and ernbrave me, To conquer doubt and fear. Eternal Victor 1 on Thy Cross relying, By Thine own peace possest, One with Thyself, in living or in dying, Our hearts shall find their rest. O Wondrous Cross! Love’s never ending Story Of “Conquest, Challenge, Charm”; Lord of our life, ’tis in Thy death we glory. And raise Faith's triumph-psalm. J. H. S. Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. All power in prayer depends on a vision of the Eternal, o« communion with the Eternal, and, if you are engrossed and absorbed in the temporal, how can you breathe the atmosphere, or have a vision of the Eternal; how can you lay hold upon the powers of the age to come? There is no difficulty in accounting for failure in ten thousand cases, because the prayers are those of essentially worldly people who know almost nothing of coming into real touch with the Eternal .Spirit ot God. —A. T. Pierson. THE HIGHEST KNOWLEDGE. I know not the names of the stars, That roll in yon infinite sky, I know not how seasons and years In wondrous succession pass by. But I know my transgression is sent As far as the East from the West, And for Jesus to spend and be spent Is the way both to bless and be bloat. I know not the secrets of God, The mystery of flowers and of trees, I know not the path of the sun, Or deeps of the world-circling seas; But I know of a Love that’s Divine, Of. a Saviour who died on the tree, And.l know that dear Saviour is mine, And that knowledge suffices for me. 1 THINGS TO THINK ABOUT. The work of Jesus in the world is twofold. It is a work accomplished for us, destined to effect reconciliation between God and man ; it is a work accomplished in us, \yith the object of effecting our Sanctification. By the one, a right relation is established between God and us; by the other is the fruit of the re-estab-lished order. By the former the condemned sinner is received into a state of grace; by the latter the pardoned sinner i 3 associated with the life of God. Many express themselves as if, with forgiveness and peace, the work of salvation is com? plete. They seem to have no suspicion that salvation consists in the health of the soul, and that the health of the soul consists in holiness. Forgiveness is not the re-established of health, it is rather the crisis of convalescence. If God thinks fit to declare the sinner righteous, it is in order that He may by that means restore him to holiness. And the greatest thing God can do for a regenerated soul is to make that soul like Himself.” —Professor F. Godet, D.D.