THE DEVOTIONAL PERIOD

White Ribbon, Volume 31, Issue 5, 1 September 1959, Page 3

THE DEVOTIONAL PERIOD

Scripture Reading. The \ctS 3 VI 1-9 The subject it FRAYER. \ Lord, what will Thou have mc to do '" 1 wonder how many bookn ami lermoni and papers and treatise havi written and printed on tins sul)ject, PRAYER? I think they cannot be uui.b-r d And /ct, Bible replittOUS are not unarotr >ie—s< ii." new truth when repeated ripens iiitn ih •' unfoldii A \.; v graphic lescription LI Kiven here, and in three l>. D the ~th and Mil chapters ot the latHC hook, of Saul he 1 aiarkable conversion He wai a young man, contenting unto the death 0< the hrst martyr, Stephen; Standing by the clothes of Stephen's rnud< tnd then "making havoc "t ttie church, entering into every house, and baling men and women, committing tliem to prison' And here we see him filled with wrath and hatred and enmity the followif the Lord Je>u> His conversion i> probably the most sudden well as the most outstanding of all* conversions recorded in the Scriptures It is the dear and graphic description of what PRAYER is, also the mo>t sudden transition from blasphemy t" belief One moment "breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples oi the Lord" and the ncit "Calling upon the Name ol the I —Who art Thou, Lord This was Saul's first prayer and it created that mystical link between Christ the Head and Saul, I member of the body of Christ a link that u,i^ forced on that day, nevci to he broken There followed the natural sequence ot conversion—the desin "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to d The Booh ol the Acts and the Epistles ot St Paul give the aiisvw I I pass on to you a \ -ry helpful explanation of the phrase—"A memher of the body of Christ" which 1 have taken from ' sermon hy the late Dr lexander Whyte, one of Scotland's great ministers and teachers in the earlier days ( ,f the Church's tness. Hi s,,v>, "But now," asks someone honestly and anxiously, ''how shall I ever become such a miracle oi Divine I to he actually, myself, a member of Christ's mystical Body:" lust hegin at once to he one ot His members, and the thing is done V our hands do not hang idle and "How shall we e\er do any work'" Your teet do not stand still and say, 'How shall we ever walk or run v Nor your eyes nor your ears They just begin to do, each Jieir proper work, and •lie moment they SO begin, your head and your heart immediately send down their virtue into your hands and your feet And so it is with the Mystical Head and His Mystical members. Just begin to he one of His members and Already you are one of them. Helieve that you are one of them and you shall be one of Just think about Christ Just lean upon Him, and look to Christ Just go home tonight and do that iWvA of love, and truth and humility, and brotherly kindness, and self-denial, in His Name and already Christ is dwelling in you and working in you as well as in Paul Saul of Tarsus just said as he lay asSMMg his horses' feM, 'Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do,' and the thing was done." —Catherine If, McLay, Bucklands Bench, Auckland