Devotional Column

Patea Mail, 6 March 1936, Page 4

Devotional Column

9 PLAYER. Almighty God, Who s-eest Unit we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves, keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may bo defended from all adversities -which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul. ‘Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. • FRIENDSHIP. Friends love and trust one another. Mutual confidence is the mortar which binds the slQiies in society into a building. It makes the difference between the herding together of beasts and the association of men, Xu community could keep together for an hour without mutual confidence, even in regard to the least intimate relationships of life. But it is the very life-blood of friendship. . For any vivid, warm throb of friendship there must lie, first, a clear knowledge, and thou a living grappling of that knowledge lo our very heart. Unless we trust God we cannot be friends with God. If we are His friends we shall trust Him, and He will trust us. For this friendship is nut one-sided, and the name “friend,” though it may be ambiguous us to whether it means one whom .1 love or one who loves mo, really includes both persons to the compact; and there are analogous, if not identical, emotions in each. From one, to one, in one to sec All Tilings, To see the King of Kings But once in two; to see His endless treasures abide all mine own, myself the end Of all his labours! 'Tin the Life of Pleasures I To see myself His friend! Who all things finds conjoined in Eiin alone, Sees and enjoys the Holy One.

WHAT IS YOUK LIFE 1 There lie scattered throughout the Bible no fewer than eighteen answers to the question’, “ What is your life.’'’ And anyone who has not before gathered them together cannot but be surprised at the singular beauty and appropriateness of the collection. Bet as run over them. "'What is your life?” It is A talc that is told. A pilgrimage. A swift post. A swift ship. A haudbreadth. A shepherd’s tent removed. A thread cut by the weaver, A dream. Nothing. A sleep. A vapour, A shadow. . A flower. A weaver’s shuttle. Water spilt on the ground Grass. Wind. Generally speaking, the first thing to strike one about these images is that they arc all quick tilings—there is a suggestion, of brevity and evanescence aboriti them, and this re’cling is so strong that we might fancy there was only one answer to the question. 1 ‘What is your life?!’ namely, “Our life is short.’’ But if we look elosci at them for a moment, shades of difference will begin to appear, and wo shall find the hints of other meanings as great and striking, and quite as vucc'essary to complete tue conception of “our life.”

THE IMITATION OF CHRIST. 1 Cor. xi. 1; “Bo yn imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ’ (L. V.). The imitation of Christ is or'necessity imposed ou every Christian. Christianity is, or ought to be, the reproduction and perpetuation of Christ's life on earth; to bo a Christian in the simplest sense ot| the word is to bo Christ-like; if we ale to take our calling seriously, and if our Christianity is to be more than a name, we must all bo, with St, Paul, imitators of Christ. But whnt is it tluit wo uve to inntate. The four Gospels furnish us with a many-sided picture of our Lord, and the eyes of His followers hr all generations have been reverently fixed on the features there portrayed. But in the Epistles we find certain salient feuturok of the character of Jesus that wc are told to imitate in a special manner. The Epistles recognise that there is a double element in the life of Christ —the one side of which i.s for our imitation, while the other, being inseparably connected with the “work which the Father had given him to d,o, ’’ is altogether above and beyond us. Three of these special features of IChrist’s character |tho writers of the Now Testament would havie us imitate, if wc are to be worthy followers of the Christ His lo\o, His humility, and His sufferings. Let us take them iir their order.

LIVE CUEIST! . Live Christ! —and all thy life shall be A highway of delivery — A royal road of goodly deeds, Gold-paved with sweetest charity. Live Christ! —and all thy life shall be A sweet uplifting ministry, A sowing of the fair white seeds •That fruit through all eternity. Instruction ends in the schoolroom, but education ends only 'with life.— Hobcrtson.