ON THE THRESHOLD OF SUNDAY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18329, 12 November 1921, Page 2

ON THE THRESHOLD OF SUNDAY

(Contributed by the Wanganui Ministers’ Association). PRAYER. “Almighty and everlasting God, from whom cometh every good and perfect gift, mercifully grant that the frequent meditation of Thin© infinite goodness may make us to love Thee above all things; that we may here steadfastly believe what we do see, and, hereafter, in the blessed vision of Thy glory, see what we now cannot comprehend; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”—“Book of Hours, 1865.” THE ETERNAL RIGHT. O sometimes gleams upon our sight Through present wrong the eternal right. And step by step since time began Wo see the steady gain of man — That all of good the past hath had Remains to make our own time glad, Our common daily life divine And every land a Palestine. Through the harsh noises of our day A low sweet prelude finds its way; Through clouds of doubt and creeds of fear A light is breaking calm and clear. Henceforth our hearts shall sigh no , more For olden time and holier shore; God’s love and blessing then and there, Are now and here and everywhere. —Whittier. “GETTING ON” “No one can stand still who lives with God. If God is the fountain of your life, there will be no green mantle on the surface telling how long you have been in one place. Neither in earth nor in heaven do wo stand still or stay where we are. Take up the anchor and the ship follows the tide, and in God the tide always sets one way. You cannot stand still without anchoring to the creature. There must be fresh discoveries of truth and duty every day, and fresh inquisition made into the heights of Redeeming Love. Abandonment to God must mean advancement in God.” —J. Rendel Harris, in “Memoranda Sacra.” FAULT FINDER OR FAULT MENDER ? You may say that you know people who belong to the Church who are no credit to it. So far from that being a reason for standing aloof, it is a reason for joining at once. The tone of a Church is raised.by each true Christian who joins it. There are no people in the world like real Christians, as Thomas Carlyle, after bitter experience of the other sort, confessed. It is an easy thing to criticise other people. Some of those we criticise are fighting harder than we are. EFFECTIVE BIBLICAL CRITICISM The Koreans have a saying that the elders have the right to criticise the juniors, then when they get through if there is anything left of the juniors they may in turn criticise the elders. In Christian lands that practice is not followed very well. In our time the juniors Ifh’gely monopolize the right of criticism. Now the Koreans admit that the oldest criticism of man is in th© Bible; therefor© they always let tli© Bible criticise them first, and they never find anything of themselves left so as to venture to criticise God’s Book. I believe in that kind of Bibical criticism. We can’t have too much of it. If men were all humble enough to approach the Bibl© in the Korean spirit there would be more books burned around some seminaries than ever were burned on th© streets of Ephesus when Paul preached there. It would cause world-wide revival.

When Korean pastors and evangelists and elders were flung into prison wrongfully by the Japanese they didn’t waste time by idle repining, but set to work at their Bibles. On© of them read the Bible through seven times while in prison, and then exclaimed, “I never imagined my Saviour was so wonderful!” Another thought the I Japanese might take the Bible away and destroy it, so he memorized Romans and was hard at work at John when liberated. If real persecution ever arose in Christian lands the Bible would meet with more appreciation ihan at present. J. Goforth. D.D. ARE Y/OU RICH? Ownership is not always possession nor even the power of possession. Many a wealthy householder gets not ghc t'the of the enjoyment from his beautiful grounds that comes to the appreciative passer-by. Many a stately home is filled with costly pictures and rare works of art that do not hold for the owner’s eye one half the beauty they would disclose to some modest neighbour who could not purchase the least of them. Aloney may spread the feast, but only the beauty-lover partakes of it. And the eye and soul that hav© been trained to appreciation will never lack gratification while God decks the heavens and the earth. Selected. “THE FROWNING PROVIDENCE AND THE SMILING FACE.” Carry this best into the realm of human experience and let His saints bear witness how in their joys and sorrows, their prosperities and adversities they have been able to trace the footsteps of a Presence that ruledjind overruled, that guided and controlled, and even, unveiled His face through the mantle of the darkest cloud. Hear the Psalmist say; “It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn Thy statutes. Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now have 1 kept Thy word.” What does this mean if not that this man found God in all his life, transmitting even the darkest sorrow into the Divinest blessing. Hear Paul, beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, imprisoned, robbed of friends, home, comforts—hear Paul

say: “But I would have you understand, Brethren, that the tilings which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel ; so that my bonds in Christ are i manifest in all the palace and in all other places.” To Paul there was a Divine purpose even in his chains. Or hear Francis Ridley Havergal, from a bed of sickness, with not a moment’s suicease of pain, say: “ I take this pain, Lord Jesus, from Thine own hand. The strength to bear it bravely Thou wilt command. Tis Thy dear hand, O Saviour, that presseth sore, The hand that bears the nailprints for evermore. And now beneath its shadow, hidden by Thee, The pressure only tells me Thou lovest me” These are the glimpses of those who have read the meaning of human life, who have learned to know that “ all things work together for good to those who love the Lord,” who with eyes that were cleansed of the dust of earth and deepened in spiritual penetration have seen the vision of an “ angel standing in the sun.” j Itev. John MacNeil], Toronto, Canada I