Everyman’s Hut

Camp News, Volume 3, Issue 140, 18 September 1942, Page 4

Everyman’s Hut

It is easy to love Him, when the blue is in the sky, When summer winds are blowing, and we smell the roses nigh; There is little effort needed to obey His precious will • When it leads through flower-decked valleys, or over sun-kissed hill. It is when the rain is falling, or the mist hangs in the air, When the road is dark and rugged, and the wind no longer fair, When the rosy dawn has settled in a shadowland of gray, That we find it hard to trust Him, t and are slower to obey. It is easy to trust Him when the singing birds have come, And their canticles are echoed in our heart and in our home; But ’tis when we miss’the music, and the days are dull and drear, That we need a faith triumphant over every doubt and fair. And our blessed Lord will give it; what we lack he will supply; Let us ask in faith believing—on His promises rely; He will ever be our Leader, whether smooth or rough the way,. And will prove Himself sufficient for the needs of every day.

In the beautiful story of Ruth and Naomi, we have a wonderful illustration of true love. Naomi has been in deep sorrow and distress. Leaving her home and people to escape the famine, she goes with her husband and sons to a strange country. In time her sons marry daughters of that land and later, the father and sons all die. Naomi is left with her two datighters--in-law and sad memories of her own land. Then comes word that God has blessed that land with plenty and she determines to return there—to Beth-lehem-Judah. The' two daughters-in-law set out with her, but Naomi points out to them that they are leaving all their relations aid going to those who will be strangers to them. She counsels them to stay, in their own land and perhaps find other husbands to care for them. One of the girls—Orpahturns back, hdr love for Naomi is not great enough to lead her away from all the old life in the land of Moab. But Ruth refuses to go back. We read that “she clave to” Naomi, and to the latter’s suggestion that she too should go back with her sister-in-law, she replied with these heart-touching words: “Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: where ‘thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to 'me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.” Her’s was no fine weather love, and it brought her to know the God of Israel, the living God, and to be one of His people; it gave her a rich and noble husband in Boaz, and it bestowed upon her the the great honour of being in the line from which came the Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world. That is the love for which He is seeking to-day. Job said, “Though he slay me yet will I trust Him.” We are not called upon to die for Christ, but we are called to live for Him. To do so requires that He lives in us, that we love Him and trust Him at all timesbad times as well as good—in the darkness of night as well as in the sunshine of noonday.