the Sabbath

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19639, 27 July 1935, Page 18 (Supplement)

the Sabbath

GRATITUDE. For sunlit hours and visions clear, For all remembered faces dear. For comrades of a single day, Who sent us stronger on our way, For friends who shared tho year’s long road And bore with us the common load, For hours that levied heavy lolls, But brought us nearer to our goals. For insights won through toil and tears, We thank the Keeper of our years. Dr, Clyde McGee. DAILY 4 TEXT.

Sunday. Parasites Condemned: Woe unto him that buildeth ids house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that usetli his neighbour’s service without wages, and givelh him not for his work. —Jeremiah 22: 13.

Monday. A Hearing God: For in thee, 0 Lord, do I hope: thou wilt hear, 0 Lord my GOd.—Psalms 38: 15.

Tuesday.

llospilality Commended: Use hospitality one to another without grudging.—l Peter 4: 9.

Wednesday,

He Overlooks: If thou, Lord, shouldest mark Inquitios. 0 Lord, who shall stand? —Psalms 130: 3.

Thursday.

Confidence In Prayer: Ami this is IhC confidence we have in him, lliat, if wc ask anything according to Ids will, lie hearelh us.—i John 5: 14.

Friday.

Turn From Wickedness: But if the wicked turn from his wickedness, and do that which Is lawful and right, he shall live thereby.—Ezekiel 33: 9.

Saturday. Faith Plus Works: What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him ? —James 2: l i.

THE PROPHETS. - _____ 1 • INSPIRATION AND INSIGHT. GOD’S MODE OF REVELATION. The prophets are oftefS persecuted; whether literally or llguratively, they arc stoned by their own generation. .That is not because of l.heir faculty of looking backwards and around, and and explaining Ihe significance of that which they see. It is because they trouble I lie conservatism so deeply ingrained in our race. Most men, young as well as old, are ready Lo oppose changes even of thought.. Venerable tradition must ho questioned, even though it may be dimly suspected that the new is belter. The prophets are uncanny, uncomfortable folk; they think too much.

But the prophets win in the long run. Sometimes they may be forced to deny the truth of their discoveries; but they whisper the while lo their hearts that truth is great and must prevail. Oftener they suffer and even die. for that which they proclaim, and so their vision wins the powerful consecration* of martyrdom. There arc Fatso Prophets As Well As True ones, though Ihe conscious deceivers are few. The vigorous propagandist of untruth Is generally more Ilian half deceived himself, or is wholly led away by an infectious enthusiasm for some fantasy or folly which convinces 'his contemporaries. History gives many examples of such men. who possess a strange power of leadership.

But the goodly fellowship of tile genuine prophets does not cease.

Every age, the present like the past, has its pioneers of the tilings of tho spirit. Some are in tho more definite sense theologians, students of the, mysteries of God- But there are also the poets, the statesmen, and the men of science. Their prophecies May here and now seem to conflict, since they look at time and eternity from different angles. But in the end what* ever is true will adjust itself to other truths. Each discoverer prophesies in part. But those who see any new side of the truth of God and make it known to their fellows are the noblest of mankind, “the loved and lovable whose names live evermore,"

Robert Bridges in "The Testament of Beauty" calls the prophets “Saviours of Socieiy, Seers of Hie Promised Lhnd.” Some are forever famous; they are of all peoples and nations and languages, and their words have gone out into all Die world. Olliers are forgotten as though they had'never been; nevertheless, lliclr work lives on. These were men and women inspired by God with insight beyond others, able nol merely to look into the future but into tho nature of things.

Until recently a view of prophecy which is now being abandoned still held Hie Held. 11 was thought that Ihe main purpose ol Hie prophet was to give useful information in some detail as to corning events, lie was regarded as one whose pwn

Intelligence Was Almost In Abeyance;

as the pen or the mouth of tho Divine. Hts speech and writings were the Immediate word of God and therefore inerranl. In our day we believe indeed that Ihe Holy Spirit speaks lry the prophets and that the message which conies from them is authentic. But it is evident that, only in some few instances of prophecy, and llioso not the most trustworthy, is tho seer’s own personality completely over-ruled. God speaks through him, but the man's own reason and heart arc used for the message. He looks h:ick into the past and ponders on it; lie sees the present with its achievements illuminated bythe light which shines out of the past, and with Iris own insight quickened by the Divine wisdom, lie looks into the future and proclaims warning or encouragement to his generation. This lias throughout been God's chief mode of revelation. NplTncltyhe uses men and women to mako’known His purposes: lie "breathes into" their receptive minds that which He would have known, and they tell it forth. That is the true meaning of the word tnspiratiou.