SUNDAY READING.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2580, 14 August 1909, Page 4 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING.

Comfort ono another, For the way is often dreary, And the feet are often weary, And the heart is very sad. There is a heavy burden bearing. When it seems thali none ara caring, And we half forget that ever we were glad.

Comfort one another, With the handclasp close and tender, With tho sweetness love can render, And tho looks of friendly eyes. Do not wait with grace unspoken,. While life’s daily bread is broken— Gentle speech is oft like manna from the' skies.

MEDITATION. “When thou prayest enter into thine inner chamber, and, having shut thy door, pray to thy Father, which seeth in secret.”—Matt. vi. 6.

Man was created for fellowship with God. God made him in His own image and likeness, that he might be fit for this, capable of understanding and enjoying God, entering into His will and delighting in His glory. Because God is the Everywliere-present and All-per-vading One, he could have lived in the enjoyment of an unbroken fellowship amidst whatever work "he had to do. Of this fellowship sin robbed us. Nothing but this fellowship can satisfy the heart of either man or G-od. It was this Christ caxno to restore; to bring back to God; His lost crcatui'e, and bring back man to all he was created for. Intercourse with God is the consummation of all blessedness on earth as in heaven. It comes when tho promise, so often given, becomes a full experience: I will be witlx thee, I will never leave thee or forsake thee, and when we can say: Thy Father is always with me. This intercourse with God is incant to be ours all the day, whatever be our condition or the circumstances that surround us. But its enjoyment depends upon the reality of the intercourse in the inner chamber. The power of maintaining close .and glad fellowship with God all the day will depend entirely upon the intensity with which we seek" to secure it in the hour of secret prayer. The one essential thing in the Morning AVatch or the Quiet Hour is— Fellowship With God. It is this our Lord teaches is to be the inner secret of secret prayer: “Shut thy door, and pray to thy Father which seeth in secret.” The first and chief thing is, see that there in secret you hav<Tthe Father’s Presence and Attention. Know that He sees and hears you. Of more importance than all your requests, however urgent, of more importance than all your earnestness and effort to pray aright, is this one thing—the childlike, living assurance that your Father sees you, that you have no« met Him, and" that with His eye on you arid yours on Him, you are now enjoy ing actual intercourse with Him.

BAKER’S BOY TO COMMISSIONER

Commissioner David Rees, who is proceeding- to take charge of the Salvation Army’s work in Australasia almost immediately, is one of the oldest officers in the Salvation Army. He joined the ranks when a baker’s boy at Reading. The positions he has held have been amongst the most onerous and responsible the Army has to offer, including the Principalsiiip of the training home at Clapton, the command of South Africa, and the control of the operations in Sweden. Mr Tom McKie, the Commissioner who is changing commands with David Rees, 5s a typical ‘red-hot’ Salvationist, who came from the Tvneside to tho old Grecian Theatre in “the stiff days of the Army’s early warfare. He has been round the world as the General’s travelling representative, laid the foundations of the Army’s present prosperity in -Germany, and lias for seven years been in charge of the work in Australia. His wife is a German lady 7 and a clever writer.

POLITICAL DUTIES AS SACRA-

MENTS

Dr. Amory H. Bradford' has been the guest at "a civic dinner given in the New Jersey city of Montclair in recognition of his long service as a citizen. Dr Boynton and Dr Lyman Abbott were among the speakers. In replying Dr Bradford said’: ‘I believe that my duty t-o mv city and to my country is as sacred as my duty to my Church, and a part of my duty to my God. I believe that "service of the public is one test of true religion, and that the ballot is a sacrament as holy as the Supper of our Lord.’

It is no unusual occunence at Westminister Chapel, London, of which Dr. G. Campbell Morgan is mastor, to see the notice “Full” in big letters placed outside the church soon after tlio commencement of the evening service, indicating that the largo building, containing two galleries, and capable of accommodating some 3000 people, is packed.

Bishop Tucker, of Uganda, lately said, “When he first entered Uganda he found a native church of about 200 members. That little band,” he says, “has grown to a mighty host of over 60,000. The sixty communicants- of seventeen years ago have become 16,000. The single place of worship has become mother of more than 2,000 churches, among ' which the Cathedral will accommodate 5,000 people. Forty-two thousand children are taught in the Christian schools. Moreover, the, entire work of the Native Church (schools churches and native ministry) is maintained hv the natives themselves. This is a wonderful record, and the tide does not cease to flow. Last year. Bishop Tucker records, 9,100 persons were baptised into the Church in Uganda.”

The Bishop of London, addressing a meeting of men in S. James’ Church, Piccadilly, on a recent Sunday, said that five mysteries had at last been revealed to man, after being kept secret since the foundation of tlie world, bor centuries men were puzzled T7v the question, What was there behind that which they could sec ? The answer was that behind this puzzling world there, was a living Person, loving and watching over them. The second mystery was the mystery of suffering, and the secret now divulged was that suffering and disaster were only the backwaters of the main s+reafh of life, which -;ns love. With all its suffering tlie happiness of human l.le outweighed the misery by 99 to 1. All men lived under a canopy of love. He asked the men ■of London to* stand l>v him and others who were .trying to shelter the innocent and crush the works of Satan that were going on. in their midst. The third secret was that sin could bo forgiven, and the fourth was that the felon could become a holy saint by the wonderful mystery of grace.. The fifth secret was that God was using the outward world as a veil through which to touch and bless His children.