Devotional Column

Patea Mail, 18 October 1935, Page 4

Devotional Column

1 *I{AY HU. Lord, we beseech Thee, grant Thy people grace to withstand, the temptation of the world, the llesh, and the devil, and with pure hearts and minds to follow Thee the only God. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. THE EEEEGT OF A BEEMON. “BOME BEED FELL BY THE WAYSIDE.” Jones was in church; ho heard the sermon; that is to ray, he wasn’t, deaf, and he heard the spoken words, but other things drew his attention, motor ears ' buzzing past the church door, someone with a troublesome cough, a person whispering quite close to him, the hardness of the seats also drew his attention from following closely. Jones wasn’t often at church, but for decency ho felt he had to go sometimes. Now a word as to the sermon. The preacher was no genius, not much oratory about him, but still he had his message. It wasn’t very startling; it was, like most men’s efforts, just a little bit of the gospel, but it left Jones cold, and he felt, “Well, I haven’t got much out of that.” Whyl Well, let us consider his position. He had many friends in town, lots of them seemed to get on quite well without church; they were ever ready to criticise; they were so engrossed in other affairs that at last church was looked upon as a nuisance. And Join's himself was in danger of coming to the conclusion that you ‘‘Didn’t get much out of it.” But Jones went homo feeling very miserable. He had gone to church totally unprepared. The hymns and prayers”” left no impression, and naturally it failed to satisfy him. However, a week or two after lie went again, and ns the minister road the lesson Jones had his attention drawn to the message. It was the parable of the ‘‘Bower ami the Bced,” and he heard the words, some a hundred, some sixtv, some thirty fold. A hat was the idea? Jones -.had had a lot of worry over business lately; instead of piotits he had had losses, in some cases up to JO per cent, on some things. The lesson appealed to him; he could quite see the point he thought, so when he got home ho fetched out his old Bible ho hadn’t read for years. Now he could sec it. The losses had been caused by various things. The seed was afl right, but the ground was at fault. Borne was rocky, some full of weeds which choked all the good seed, some fell on deaf cars. That was the point. Jones could see it now. He had started a plan to prevent losses in his business and to take more care it would pay better. Well, ho would do the same with God. “Ho that rcceivoth the seed into the good ground Is ho that heareth the word and doeth it, bears fruit in abundance.” ihis became a great joy to him and filled his life with a very different outlook than before. BY 2dY BFIEir, BAITH THE LOED. There was an ancient legend that while Christ hung on Calvary a dove settled on his Cross. This was regarded as an emblem of the Holy Bpirit. We have no assurance that the legend is true, but we do know that without the spirit even the sacred blood of Christ would not .have availed to save mankind, ia regard to the legend, Isolde writes a beautiful poem: Ask thine own heart, that willing slave to all that works 'thee woo or harm, Bhould’st thou not need some mighty charm to win thee to the Baviour’s side. Though ho had deigned with thee to bide, The spirit must stir the darkling deep. The dove must settle on the cross, Else wo should all siu on or sleep With Christ in sight, turning our gain to loss. Mon must learn and be made willing by a divine constraint to come to God. The Holy -Spirit must york in our hearts, ‘‘Not by might, nor by power, but by My Bpirit,” saith the Lord. THE BOWER OF EX AM I’LL. Jack Hobbs, the famous English cricketer, who has scored over lot) centuries in iirst-class cricket, is a devout Christian, and does a lot of good work for his church. A clcig.tman who met him ia Australia records the following incident: “I was travelling from to Adelaide, and it became necessary for ns to stay the night at an hotel. Accommodation was scarce, and the whole party had to sleep ia one room. ‘This was rather awkward, because 1 did not want to embarrass the others. I was wondering whether ,1 should read from the Bible and offer prayer m front of them, when the world’s greatest batsman settled the mallei, by going down on his knees to pray. His example was followed by others. “Speaking of the occurrence next day, one of Hie members of the party said, “I haven’t done that for years, but when old Jack got down on his knees I laid to get down too.*”—The Way.