The Sabbath

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19759, 14 December 1935, Page 20 (Supplement)

The Sabbath

GOD, GIVE ME JOY.

God, give me joy in the common things; In the dawn that lures, the eve that sings; In the new grass, sparkling after ram, In the late winter wind’s wild and weird refrain; In the spring time’s spacious field of gold, In the precious light by winter doled.

God, give me joy in the love of friends, In their dear home talk as summer ends; In the songs of children unrestrained; In the sober wisdom age has gained.

God, give me joy in the tasks that press, In the memories that burn and bless; In the thought that life has loved to spend, In the faith that God’s at journey’s end; God, give me hope for each day that springs, God, give mo joy in common things! —'T. C. Clark.

MY CHURCH. Before I was born ray Church.gave to my parents ideals of life and love that made my home a place of •strength and beauty. In helpless infancy my Church joined my parents in consecrating me to Christ and in baptising me in His name. My Church enriched my childhood with the Romance and the Religion and the lessons of life that have been woven into the textures of my soul Sometimes I seem to have forgotten and then, when else I might surrender to foolish and futile ideas of life, the Truth my Church taught become radiant, insistent and inescapable. In the stress and storm of adolcs-

eence my Church heard the surge of my soul and she guided my footsteps by lifting my eyes toward the stars, strange awakenings of love When first my heart knew the strange awakenings of love my Church taught me to chasten and spiritualise my affections; she sanctified my marriage and blessed my home.

When mysheart was seamed with sorrow, and I thought the sun could never shine again, my Church drew me to the Friend of all the weary and whispered to me the hope of another morning eternal and tearless. When my steps have slipped and I have known the bitterness of sin, my Church has believed in me and wooingly she has called me back to live within the heights of myself.

Now have come the children'dearer to me than life itself and my Church is helping me-to train them for all joyous and clean and Christ-like living. My Church calls me to her heart. She asks my service and my loyalty. She has a right to ask it. I will help her to do for others what she has done for me. In this place in which I live I will help her to keep aflame and aloft the torch of a living faith.—W. IT. Boddy.

THE DIVINE GUEST. John 14:23. Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. Revelation 3:20, 21. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and He with me. 21. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his throne.