DOMINION PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

White Ribbon, Volume 32, Issue 8, 1 December 1960, Page 4

DOMINION PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

Dearly Beloved of God, As this will he my last message this year, I take the opportunity to wish you all a very happy Christmas. May you he renewed with fresh vigour and encouragement to take up the Temperance reins and prove to the world, although we are in the minority we are not daunted. God grant that we will all he full of joy as we remember the birth of the Christ Child so long ago, when He was welcomed to this earth. Especially we would remember when He was horn anew in our hearts, when we accepted Him as our own personal Saviour. What a joy it is to he a Christian, to read over again the story of lestiCs birth ami to know with assurance the reason of His coming. God grant us to live according to his teaching and help cithers to do so. There are so many lonely people in our cities, who have not much of this world’s goods, people whom von and I could help, we have been abundantly blessed, why not share our blessings with some-otie else, this Christmas festival ? Yes, sisters, this is a time of giving and sharing, Jesus gave His life, to hind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, to comfort all who mourn. To give unto them, beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning. The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord” May we all uphold the Christ who will draw all men. As Christians, we are God’s ambassadors of His teaching and His way of lilt*. “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if you have love for one another” It takes the love of Christ t<* love the unlovelv, hut it can be so. if His love is

shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit “Attempt great things for God, expect great things from God.” The more we arc cut ofT from human help, the greater claim we can make on Divine Help. The more impossible a thing is to human or mortal power, the more at peace car. we he when vve look to Him for deliverance. Let us move on and step out boldly, though it be into the night where one can scarcely see the way. The God of Israel, the Saxiour, is sometimes a God that hideth Himself, but never a God that absenteth Himself, sometimes in the dark, hut never at a distance. We arc entering upon a new year (DA .). Surely we cannot but believe' If we have rightly learned the lessons of the past, there lies before us a heritage of unspeakable blessing, let us claim our inheritance in the coming days, and find the hardest places of life’s experience of God’s greatest opportunities and faith’s mightiest challenge. “Better guide well the young than reclaim them when old For the voice of true wisdom is calling: To rescue the fallen is good, hut 'tis best To prevent other people from falling. Better close up the source of temptation and crime, Than deliver from dungeon or valley; Better put a strong fence round the top of the cliff, Than an ambulance down in the valley.” God grant us wisdom and grace to oppose the liquor business on practical grounds. Turn continually to God’s Word for guidance and heed His warnings. “But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way, the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they err in VISION, they STV.VIBLK in judgment.” Yours in His Service, OLIVE RICHARDS.