THE GARLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 3870, 15 May 1928, Page 15

THE GARLAND.

FOR THE QUIET HOUR. No. 767.

By

Duncan Wright, Dunedin.

(Fob the Otago Witness.) John xi, 35: Jesus wept. John i, 29: Behold the Lamb of God, Which taketh away the sin of the world. * * * THE MAN ON THE CROSS. Whenever there is silence around me By day or by night—• I am startled by a cry. It came down from the cross—• The first time I heard it I went out and searched— And found a man in the throes of crucifixion. And I said, " I will take you down," And I tried to take the nails out of his feet. But he said, " Let them be, For I cannot be taken down Until every man, every woman, and every child Come together to take me down.” And I said, “ But I cannot bear you cry. What can I do? ” And he said, " Go about the world— Tell every one that you meet — There is a Man on the Cross.” Isaiah liii, 3: He is despised and rejected of men; a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. In the cross of Christ I glory, Towering o’er the wrecks of time; All the light of sacred story Gathers round its head sublime. John ix, 35: To the blind man Jesus ? said: “Dost thou believe on the Son of God ? ” The answer was: “ And is he, Lord, that I may believe on him? And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and he it is that speaketh with thee. And he said: “Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.” I heard the voice of Jesus say, “ Come unto me and rest; Lay down, thou weary one. lay down Thy head upon My breast.” I came to Jesus as I was, Weary, and worn, and sad ; I found in Him a resting place, And He has made me glad. «■ * * Luke xiv, 18: “ And they all with one consent began to make excuse.” # # # Grace hath dominion though lusts are mutinous and seditious during the infancy thereof.—John FJavel. Let those who are admitted into the college of grace disdain any longer to go to the School of the Ceremonial Law, which truly may he called the School of Tyrannus.—Thomas Fuller. Grace is light and discovers itself.— Thomas Brooks. Work: “ To every man his work” (Mark xiii, 34). The labourer, not the loiterer, is worthy of his hire.—Henry Wilkinson. The master’s mind is often more toiled than the servant’s body.—Robert Leighton. Though you cannot do what you ought, yet you ought to do what you can.—Christopher Nesse. It is a more worthy thing to abound in work than to abound in wealth. — George Swinnock. * * * IN PRAISE OF LAYMEN. The February issue of one of the magazines contains some lines which have been going the round of the religious press in America. We have hitherto been diffident about reprinting them, but seeing that they appear in one of our congregational magazines we give them wider publicity: Leave it to the minister, and soon the Church will die. Leave it to the women-folk—the young will pass It by. For the Church is all that lifts us from the coarse and selfish mob, And the Church that is to prosper needs the layman on the job. It’s the Church’s special function to uphold the finer things, To teach the way of living from which all that’s noble springs ; But the minister can’t do it, single-handed and alone, For the laymen of the country are the Church's corner stone. When you see a church that’s empty, though its doors are opened wide, It Is not the Church that’s dying—it’s the laymen who have died ; •''' F}or it’s not by song and sermon that the S; Church’s work is done. It’s the laymen of the country who for God must carry on. * * « Who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.—l Peter ii, 9. Light is lovely. Beauty- cannot live without it. What fullness of beauty is in that Person Who is God and Man I What harmony of grace is in that work which joins God to man! What charms are in those precious Scriptures which show His worth! To see His varied excellence is heaven begun. The sight makes earth a blank, and all its glories but a withered flower. Just, too, as lovely light makes lovely, so Christ decks all on whom His beams descend. He beautifies the meek with salvation.— Henry Law. * * *, HOW BILLY GOT HIS NERVE. When the ships of the British Navy had more yards and masts than they have now there was one difficult evolution which meant men springing to the rigging like cats, and climbing swiftly to the foretop. Twice in two days the sailor who was captain of the foretop had missed his footing, fallen to the deck, and been

killed. Seamen are superstitious, and when the third captain of the foretop in that week was named they were sorry for him. He was sorry for himself. He was not a very good man, and sometimes he drank as he should not. He had sense enough to know that this' made things more dangerous for him. His name was Billy Hicks. But when the time came he went through the evolution without a single mishap, and the crew breathed more easily when it was done and there was no accident. A week later an officer of a sister ship was aboard. He said to the captain: “ Have you a man called Hicks 1 I want to see him.” When Hicks came the officer began to read a line or two out of a little note book he carried. Billy Hicks went very red in his face. On a dark night that officer on his ship had seen lights flashing, and it was those signals he was reading out of his book. “ You’re making fun of me, sir,” said Billy Hicks. “ No,” said the officer, “ but tell me about it.” Then Hicks said: “It was like this. I was made captain of the foretop when two had been killed, a.id I was in a funk. I asked the officer if I might go up to the tops and practise some signalling, and he says to me, ‘Go ahead.’ When 1 got •my light going I just said my prayers with it. ’ I’ve quit drink and low-down things, and stand on my own feet now, sir.” And the officer said, “ Good man! ” This was what the officer took down when he read the lights on a dark night: “ God—this — is — Billy — Hicks—signalling — I’ve — bin—promoted—cap — of — the — foretop — God — Ime—frightened — God — I — ain’t — much — feared — of — death — but ■— your — holiness — when — I — go — up — to-morrow — give —me — nerve — to — play, — the — man — and — God — give —me — what — I — used — to — feel — when — I — knelt — at — my — mother’s — knee — and — said — our — Father — good — night — God — vours — trewlv — Billy — Hicks.” That was how and where the captain of the foretop got his nerve. Ride on, ride on in majesty! In lowly pomp ride or to die: Bow Thy meek head to mental pain. Then take, O God, Thy power, and reign. EVERY-DAY CONSECRATION. We. may do the same things as other people, but with a difference. The Christian weaver drives her looms very much in the same fashion that the non-Chri-stian girl that is looking after the next set does. The Christian clerk adds up his figures, and writes his letters very much in the same fashion that the worldly clerk does. The believing doctor visits his patients, and writes out his prescriptions in the fashion that his neighbour who is not a Christian does. But there is always room for the personal equation—always! And two lives may be, superficially and roughly, the same, and yet there may be a difference in them impalpable, indefinable, but very obvious, and very real and very mighty. The Christian motive is love to Jesus Christ and fellowship with Him, and that motive may be brought to bear upon all life: A-servant with this cause, Makes drudgery divine. He that for Christ’s sake docs a common thing lifts it out of the fatal region of the commonplace, and makes it great and beautiful. We do not want from all Christian people specifically Christian service, in the narrow sense which that phrase has acquired, half so much as we want common things done from an uncommon motive; worldly things done because Of the love of Jesus Christ in our hearts. And, depend upon it, just as from some unseen bank of violets there come odours in this opening spring, so from the unspoken and deeply hidden motives of love of Jesus Christ there will be a fragrance in our commonest actions which all men will recognise. » * * “ It’s not so very far to heaven ; Sweet mother, let us go. I’m sure that Jesus wants us there, lie loved the children so.” “ Oh, heaven is very far away,” The merry schoolboy said, “ And who would ever think of it When earth is here instead! Its glorious hills and woods and seas— What do we need when we have these? ’’ I " Oh yes, I know there is a heaven In some far-distant time, But now I cannot think of it ” — The man said in his prime—- “ There is so very much to do To make the dreams of earth come true.” "I like to think there is a heaven," The man said, growing old ; “ I’m very tired and friends depart, Life seems so bare and cold. In heaven I’m sure things will be right, And with our friends we’U re-unite." “ It’s but a step from here to heaven, Where Jesus waits for me " And with a smile the dying saint Said, “ Lord, I come to Thee.”

A proposal was made at the annual meeting of the Wellington Amateur Radio Society the other evening at 2YA should broadcast the information that, in' the event of the station going off the air owing to mishap, listeners should ring “ information ” in order to ascertain whether 2YA or their sets were at fault. Apropos of this, Mr J. Ball, editorannouncer of 2YA, related that one evening after the station had been off the air for some time-ire was called to the telephone and was asked if the station was on the air. He replied that it was not, but said it would be on the air again in a short time. Thereupon the inquirer said: “And I have taken my set to pieces, and I cannot put it together again.’