On the Threshold of Sunday

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18757, 14 April 1923, Page 3

On the Threshold of Sunday

(Contributed by the Ministers’ Association). SUNDAY OBSERVANCE. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing Thy pleasure on My holy ‘lay; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour Him, not doing Thine own ways, nor finding Thine own pleasure, nor speaking Thine own words; then shalt Thou delight Thyself in the Lord ; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of Earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy Father: for the mouth of the Ixird hath spoken it.” —Isaiah 58. 13, 14. CHURCH GOING. The first feeling that we have on enterijig a church i$ one of peace and repose. The world is such a hurry, and is moving, as some people tell us. so much fast-jr than formerly, that we seem to want a few minutes of rest, an occasional breathing time before we go hence. We desire to be with Go la* we believe that we shall hereafter bo with Him. Here, at any rate, the strife of tongues is hushed, the strain of mind is taken off, the cares of life are no longer immediately pi esent with us: “There is a great calm.” Here we pause for a moment on our journey that we may proceed refreshed. Here we are raised above the mean thoughts of mankind; we hear the words of the Saints and prophets of old : we live for a short time in the nearer companionshin of and another world; we pass m review the last day or two, and ask ourselves whether we arc doing enough for others; we seek to realise in our minds a higher standard of duty and character. Here arc revived in us those aspirations after another and better state of being, which in good men are always returning and are never completely satisfied, but which, like wings, bear us up on the sea of life, and prevent our sinking into the ioutine of custom that prevails around us. Here we resign ourselves to the pure thought, to the pure will, to the pure mind, which is the truer part of gut own souls, and in winch and through which wc see God. —Benjamin Jowett. AN ONWARD STEP. To me all things seem to witness that a change is at the doors, that Christendom is even now on the very eve of judgment, and yet that the break up of the church, like that of Israel of old, will raise the world another step, and lead, no\ only to the departure of the fleshy forms of Christ, but to an outpouring of the Spirit; such as h'ith erto has not been known, and to an attainment by the race of an open ing of Heaven and the things oi God, which as yet has been the lot of very few. Christ shall be revealed. It will not bo what sc many are expecting, the continuation of that which now is seen, bii' the bringing in, or rather bringing out, of that which still is hidden, which, while it will surely shake all that can be shaken, will reveal also something which shall not be moved. But the thought that another and better dispensation will succeed the present is as offensive to many in the church, as the idea that the gospel should succeed the law was to God’s ancient people Israel. Those who counted themselves 1 the elect could not believe the passing awav of that which had stood so long, and been confirmed by such divine sanction. Yet man grew out of the Jewish to the Christian stage. An I row, if 1 not. by the churches judgment and through a process very similar to that which happened to the Jew, man is not only to extend what he now has—much less to retrograde, as some believe, to Jewish ceremonies,—tut rather to advance by the development of the life within, to do something higher and broader and more spiritual. —Andrew Jukes.

THE SOUL’S GUEST. “Oh! Sir, would you know the Blessing of all Blessings, it is this God of Love dwelling in your soul, and the killing every root of bitterness, which is the pain and torment of every seln&h love. For all wants are satisfied, ail disorders of Nature are removed, no life is any longer a burden, every day is a day of i>eaco, everything you meet becomes a help to you, because everything you see or do is all done in the sweet, gentie clement of love. I’or as love has no by-ends, wills nothing but its own increase so eveything is as oil to its flame; it must have that which it wills, and cannot be disappointed because everything naturally helps it to live in its own way, and to bring forth its own work. For the wrath of an enemy, the treachery of a friend, and every other evil, only helps the spirit of love to be more triumphant, to live its own life and find all its own blessings in a higher degree. —William Law. FOUND OF GOD. 1 said “I will find God,” and forth I went To seek Him in the clearness of the sky, But over me stood unendurably Onlv a pitiless, sapphire firmament Ringing the world, blank splendour; vet intent. Still'to find God, “I will go seek,” said I, ‘•His way upon the waters,” and drew nigh An ocean marge weed-strewn and foambe spent, And’ the waves dashed on idle sand and stone, And very vacant was the long, blue sea.: But in the evening as I sat alone; My window opening to the vanishing day, Dear God! I could not choose but kneel and pray. And it sufficed that I was found or Thee. —Edward Dowden. “AND THE DOOR WAS SHUT.’ !'he spirit came tn childhood And pleaded, “Let me in,” But ah’, the door was bolted By heedlessness and sin. ■‘Oh! I’m too young,” the child cried, “My heart is closed to-day;” Sadly the Spirit listened, Then turned, and went away Again He came and pleaded In youth’s bright happy hour, He called, but found no answer, For fettered by sin’s power The youth lay idly dreaming: > “Go, Spirit; not to-day; Wait till I’ve tried life’s pleasures.” Again He went away. Once more He came in mercy. In manhood’s vigorous prime, He knocked but found no entrance, The merchant had no time: No time for true repcntence. No time to think or pray. And so, repulsed and saddened Again Ho turned away. Yet once again He pleaded. The man was old and ill. He hardly heard the whisper, His heart was cold and chill, “Go! leave me: when I want Thee, I’ll send for Thee,” he cried; Thon, turning on his pillow, Without a hope he died. —Selected.