THE GARLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 3803, 1 February 1927, Page 68

THE GARLAND.

FOR THE QUIET HOUR. No. 701. By Dux*ax Wright, Dunedin. (Toe the Witness.) MONDAY MORNING. A RETROSPECT OF THE LORD’S ; DAY. I was glad for the hours which ware spent in God’s House; Such times with God’s people true pleasure afford: But these seasons, though sacred to praise and to prayer, Did I spend for the Lord? If I spake in the ears of a listening crowd The Message the Spirit describes as His Sword: Did I seek the good word of men, or did I Only speak for the Lord? Did I give to the offering as “in His sight,” For the work of the Church, or the missions abroad: - Was it true self-denial which led to the gift Which I gave to the Lord? When at home, or with friends, did I honour the Day: Did the talk with its worship and service accord: Did I seek with delight all its moments to bring To the feet of my Lord? Alas! for the breach of the Holy Command! God has chosen to hallow the Day by His Word: Let me set the example that others mav own It belongs to the Lord. —William Olney. THINGS TO THINK* ABOUT.

A fact of experience is more precious to a believer than his union with the Lord Jesus Christ. This fact is vital, practical, eternal. Dr A. J. Gordon expresses it this way: “The first link of religion (religio, to bind back) is the Incarnation—God in Christ. The last is Faith—the Soul in Christ. When the last has been joined to the first th: chain is complete. ‘I in them, and Thou Father in Me, that they may be perfect in one.’ This union is reciprocal. ‘Ye in Me and I in you.’ Can anything be so blessed as this interchange of life, character, and works, between the believer and his Lord? Wondrous mystery! He took upon Himself our human nature that we might share His Divine nature. He was ‘made sin for us, that we r-ight be made the righteousness of God in Him.’ This relation is patent as it is precious, and as we yield to and obey the dictates of the Holy Spirit He will make real in ourselves, and reproduce in our lives, what is already true for us in Christ.” May these and kindred thoughts hallow the present season to “them that are His.” MORNING PRAYER. Yield yourselves unto God.—Rom. vi, 13. Saviour, move Thou my hands, This busy day; So shall the work I do Endure for aye. - Saviour, guide Thou my feet; Then come what may, Thou knowest all life’s snares— Thou art my Way. Saviour, use Thou my mouth— Vain words are rife— But that which Thou shaft speak Tendeth to life. Saviour, take Thou my heart, Love Thou in me; Its strong, wild tides unsealed, Except by Thee. Saviour, possess my mind, Let me be still; So shall my thoughts work out Thy perfect will. —M. E. Gray. * * * SOLITUDE. Laugh and the world laughs with you Weep and you weep alone. ’ Tor sad old earth must borrow its mirth But has trouble enough of its own. ’ fling, and the hills will answer,

Sigh, it is lost on the air; Ths echoes bound to a joyful sound, But shrink from voicing care. Rejoice a»id men will seek you: Grieve and they turn and go. They want full measure of all your pleasure, But they do not want your woe. Be glad and your friends are many, Be sad and you lose them all— There are none to decline your nectar’d wine, But alone you must drink life’s gall. ’

Feast and your halls are crowded; Fast and the world goes by. Succeed and give and it helps you live, But no man can help you die. There is room in the halls of pleasure For a large and lordly train, But one by one we must all file on Through the narrow gates of pain. —Ella Wheeler Wilcox. * WISE APHORISMS. Water run by will not turn a mill. AVe cannot erase the sad records of the past.—A. Maclaren, D.D. Nor the good ones, either, thank God.— W. H. Howes. But will it mend the road before To grieve for that behind? —Walter Smith, D.D. There is a past which is gone for ever; but there is a future which is still our own.—Edward Young. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in ths seat of the scornful.—Scripture. True happiness has no localities, No tones provincial, no peculiar garb. •—Pollock. Domestic happiness, thou only bliss Of Paradise that has survived the fall. .t, , . ~ —Wm. Cowper. AU who joy would win Must share it—Happiness was born a twin. —Byron. As you give love, you will have lovs, A loveless life is a living death. Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all. —Tennyson. Love walks backward with her mantle on her shoulders and covereth a multitude of sins.—Gibbon. Humble love, And not proud reason, keeps the door of heaven; — Love finds admission where proud science fails- * —Young. THE HOME FIRST. Writing in the Watchman-Examiner, of New York, Dr Frank M. Goodchild traces to the laxity of home life the fact that so many young people are suscej ible to the voice of modernist scepticism. Young people are not made familiar with the great stories of the Old and New Testaments. They were more fascinating in our home than any fairy tales. And so, in coming to our seminaries, they have not the basis of Biblical knowledge that enables them to do their own thinking and they have to take what is given to them. When young people have no positive background rn. ?cnptural knowledge, mis-statements of Christian truth are likely to make a profound and lasting impression. They mav g ive the student’s life an evil bias from which he never can recover. ... I had a father who walked with God,’who grounded me well in the Old and New Testament Scriptures while I was yet a child. So that by the time I had reached the theological seminary there were some things that were settled, for me. Not only the pupils in the theological colleges, but some of the “professors,” also, are no doubt the victims of homes in which godlessness or indifference held sway, and wherein they were predisposed to the view that nothing in earth or heaven is sure and fixed, but that everything is in a state of flux and impending change. With very good reason may it be believed that if the professing Church is to get back to faith in the Lord Jesus, the movement must start in the homes before we can hope for the schools and colleges to be fired with holy zeal. * * * WHAT CHRIST SAID. BRIEF WORDS THAT CONTAIN VOLUMES. By S. E. Burrqw. (1) “Come unto Me.”—Matt, xi, 28. Saviour: rest for the burdened. (2) “Learn of Me.” —Matt, xi, 29. Teacher: knowledge, for the learner. (3) “Follow Me.”—John i, 43. Master; work for the servant. (4) “Abide in Me.”—John* xv, 4. Vine: recipe for service. (5) “Lovest thou Me?”—John xxi, 1517. Friend: the test of love. (6) “Believe also in Me.”—John xiv, 1. Lord: the ground of faith and comfort. (7) “Depart from Me.”—Matt, xxv, 41. Judge: an awful doom. - (8). “Shall sit with Me.”—Rev. iii, 21. King: a glorious eternity. —-From London .Christian.