THE GARLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 3869, 8 May 1928, Page 68

THE GARLAND.

FOR THE QUIET HOUR. No. 766.

By

Duncan Wright, Dunedin.

(Foe tub Otago Witness.) THE MAISTER AND THE BAIRNS. The Maister sat in a wee cothoose, Tae the Jordan’s waters near, An’ the fisher folk crushed and crooded roun’ The Maister’s words tae hear. An' even the bairns frae the near-hau streets Were mixin’ in wi’ the thrang— Laddies and lasses, wi’ wee bare feet, Jinkin’ the crood amang. An’ ane o’ the twal at the Maister’s side. Rose up an’ cried alood, — “ Come, come, bairns, this is nae place for you, Rin awa’ hame oot o’ the crood." But the Maister said, as He turned awa’— “ Let the wee bairns come to Me! ” An’ He gethered them roon Him where He sat. An’ lifted ane up on His knee. An’ He gethered them roon Him where He eat, An’ straiked their curly hair, An’ He said to the won’erin’ fisher folk Wha croodit aroun’ Him there—- “ Sen’ na the weans awa’ frae Me But rather this lesson learn—— That nane’ll won in at heaven’s yett That isna as pure as a bairn 1 ’’ An’ He that wisna oor kith and kin. But a Prince o’ the far awa’, Gethered the wee anes in His airms An' blessed them one an’ a’. —William Thompson. A ROSE AT LAST. It was only a rose-tree slender On a dingy windowsill. In the heart of the busy city With its mingled good and ill. And the angels must have seen it Unwilling to let it die, For it thrived and bore a rosebud Under that darksome sky! A white face watched it*dally With joy in Its childish eyes. As she played alone in the garret Under the city skies; It brightened the dingy windows Each night as she crept to bed, Though hungry and loveless and lonely, “It will soon be a rose,” she said.

Thera at the window one morning. The bud was a rose so fair, But the garret was still and silent, There was no little white face there! It was smiling in happy slumber. Its pain and its loneliness past, For the angels who loved her were saying. That the bud was a rose at last! —Clifton Bingham. THINGS TO THINK ABOUT. “ The Lord our God, ia One Lord. You cannot analyse, or divide, or explain Him, yet He is the one and only absolute certainty. He is One, all-com-prehending and indivisible. When you have said that you have said all. When you have omitted that, you have left everything out, and babbled only in chaotic confusion. From that truth I make a deduction. If God is One, then the principles and the purposes of His government never vary. Dispensations and methods change; the will of God never changes, never varies, never progresses, in that sense. You cannot progress unless there has been failure somewhere.. If I can be better in five minutes than I am rfow, I am wrong new. Ages come and go, dawn and vanish; but God remains the same, underneath, with, and in each. Some speak as though God had not only altered His methods, but His mind: never! He did not begin to love man when Jesus came. Jesus came to roll back the curtain, and show man the heart that was Eternal, the love that was always there. Christianity is not God’s alteration of attitude toward Man. It is not that in the old Dispensation He was a policeman, and in this a father. He has always been a father, He never changes. We must get our feet down upon this abiding rock; behind -everything, God. The accidents of human life perpetually change; the essentials abide for ever”.—Dr G. Campbell Morgan, in the London City Mission Magazine. WHAT A SMILE DID. In London, in 1872, one Sunday morning, said D. L. Moody, a minister said to me: “I want you to notice that family there in one of the front seats, and when we get home I want to tell you their story.” When., we got home I asked him for the story, and he said: “’All that family were won by a smile.” “Why,” said I, “how’s that?” “Well,” he said, “As I was walking down a street one day, I saw a child at a window; it smiled, and I smiled, and we bowed. So it was the second time; I bowed, she bowed. It was not long before there was another child, and I got in the habit of looking and bowing, and pretty soon the group grew, and at last, as I went by, a lady was with them. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to bow to her, but I knew the children expected it, and so I bowed to them all. The mother thought that I was a minister, and the children followed me the next Sunday, and found I was a minister. And they thought I was the greatest preacher living, and their parents must hear me. A minister who is kind to a child, and gives him a pat on the head, why, the children think he is the greatest preacher in the world. Kindness goes a great way. And to make a long story short, the father and mother and five children were converted, and are going to join our church next Sunday.” Won to Christ by a smile! We must get the wrinkles out of our brows, and must have smiling faces.

SUBMISSION. I bow me to thy will, o God! And all thy ways adore, And every day I live, j'j see k To please Thee more and more* the end, the blessed rule, Jesu's toils and tears; Thy will the passion of His heart. Those three-and-thirty years. And He hath breathed into my soul A special love to thee— A love to lose my will in thine, And by that loss be free. 1 Thf tO i See t s ee brin S to nought The plans of wily man: When simpie hearts outwit the wise, O thou art loveliest then 1 Th r e T„^ a^ tro Sf world - Jt Presses hard Upon the Church full oft; Bu mv the ? h , ow easily thou turn’st ine hard ways into soft. 1 t 0 each prlnt where Christ Did set His pilgrim feet; ISIO rer>. can 1 fear that blessed path, Whose traces are so sweet. When obstacles and trials seem Like prison walls to be, I do the little I can do. And leave the rest to Thee. CHRIST’S REVERSAL OF HUMAN JUDGMENTS. Jesus found a world that did not believe in human equality. He has been destroying its disbelief. He found a world that did not believe in human unity. He has been welding the race into one. He found a world that despised toil. “ A mechanic’s occupation is degrading,” said Cicero. “ A workshop is incompatible with noble. He took up a trade, and worked at a bench. Aristotle characterised women as beings of a lower kind, while I lato made it a mark of civil disorganisation that women should be on an equality with their husbands. Jesus drew no distinction between man and woman, and has deliberately reversed human judgment as to the subserviency of woman. He entered a world that had lost faith in goodness. “ All things ” wrote Seneca, “are full of iniquity and vice.” Jesus’ refused to abandon faith in man, even when man was doing his utmost to discredit such faith. He reversed man’s judgment of his own failure. He found a world that had lostjoy in the present life, and abandoned hope for the life to come. “The aim of all philosophy,” said Seneca, “is to despise life.” “ What folly it is to renew life after death! ” exclaimed Pliny. ‘‘ You „rob me of man’s greatest good—death. Jesus smote such pessimism and despair with the jubilant radiance of His own glorious life and love. In all these things He affronted and reversed the judgments of men. He turned the world upside down.

Christ is still full of reversing power. He is not dead. He ever liveth, and in each human life and in the life of humanity He is working His overturnings. _ All righteousness is the product of His influence. He is the source of all scorn of the sins the world loves, and of all love of the virtues the world hates. And that profound change, which the New Testament calls repentance, or change of mind, is merely the acceptance of .the reversals of Jesus. We alter our judgments to correspond with His. The “ despised and rejected of men ” becomes our adored Sovereign and Lord, and, like Paul, we preach the faith that once we destroyed. We exchange the lai country for our Father’s house, and the judgments of that evil land yield to the contrary judgments of Him Who brought us thence and hither.—Robert E. Speer. . IN EVERYTHING GIVE THANKS. 1 Thess. v, IS. “In everything give thanks," My God. is this Thy will? Give thanks for disappointments given I>or prayers unanswered still! ’ '^-blinks; though oft I’ve praved That I may useful be, ' . And .by the Spirit’s helpful aid. Bring many souls to Thee. Give thanks! when in the place Of health and usefulness,Through sickness thou ha.st.-.paled my - face With pain and weariness.-i... Give thanks! i£ ’twere Thy' will Submission to demand, . -. 5 I then might bld myself be still, And bow to Thy command. ' But hush, beneath Thy eye, I see in words of blood "Will He who gave His Son to die Refuse thee any good?” BUNYAN AND HIS GAOLER. As we shall all be celebrating the Bunyan Tercentenary this year, says the New Zealand Methodist Tinies, we relate the following incident, and leave it to our readers to decide whether it were a case of mental telepathy or answer to prayer; or, as we think, both. John Bunyan was 20 years in gaol. It was well known to some of his persecutors that he was often out of prison, and they sent an officer to speak with the gaoler on the subject. In order to discover the fact, the officer was ordered to go to the gaol during the night. Bunyan was with his family, but was too restless to sleep. He told his wife that although the gaoler had given him permission to stay out until morning, he felt he must return immediately. He did so, and the gaoler blamed him for returning at so unreasonable a time. Early in the morning the officer came, and asked the gaoler, “Are all the prisoners safe?” “Yes.” “Is John Bunyan here?” “Yes.” “Let me see him.” He was called, and at once appeared, and all was well. After the officer had gone, the gaoler said to Bunyan, “ Well, you may go out again just when you please, for you know when to return better than I can tell you.”