DEVOTIONAL COLUMN

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 251, 21 September 1929, Page 12

DEVOTIONAL COLUMN

PRAYER. O God our Father, we bless Thy Holy Name, and remember before Thee all Thy benefits, forgiving all our iniquities, healing all our diseases, redeeming our life from destruction, and crowning us with loving kindness and tender mercies. We have kept to ourselves the wealth of blessing that Thou hast lavished upon us. Thou hast satisfied our mouths with good things, yet we have spared nothing out of our plenty for starving souls around us. Have mercy upon us, wo beseech Thee, and open our eyes, not only to our great heritage as sons of God, but to our holy privilege and heavy responsibility as servants of the Most High. So may we make known how great things the Lord hath done for us. And to His Name be the glory, now and evermore. —Amen. FREED FROM SIN. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein ? Know y© not that so many of us as were baptised into Jesus Christ were baptised into His death? Therefore w© are buried with Him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. . . . Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him. . . . Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. —Paul. THE JUNIPER TREE. A prophet prone, Under a tree, Despairingly 1 What a contrast now To yesterday, on Carmel! There, the rugged form Towered o’er the multitude on the hill side, Declaring— Miracle Must prove to which God Israel’s knee shall bow, Giving Baal’s prophets first place in their pride; And then, alone, Finding in Heav’n’s fir© Jehovah’s victory. Now, beaten by the storm Of threats from Jezebel, Elijah flies, And lies Under the juniper and sleeps. A Messenger Divine sent by the loving heart which keeps Watch o’er His own, Awakes the worn-out 60ul. A meal is spread, God’s well provided table, But the dull / weariness has not yet flown; Renewed sleep takes control. Again the awakening and a meal once more Doth to the saint restore Courage and Strength; And in the length Of nearly six weeks’ march he hastes To meet his God, midst Sinai’s rocky wastes. Courage, disheartened one! Manna from Heaven To feed thy strength in the blest Word is given; And in the might imparted by that meat Thou shalt thy God-given task on earth complete. —William Olney. PRIDE OF SELF. Let not sin . . . reign in your mortal body that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. —Rom. 6 : 12. We must die to the self-life, to the promptings, suggestions, and solicitations of the self, which is entrenched in the soul. All the evils of fallen angels and man have their birth in the pride of self. On the other hand, all the virtues and blessedness of the heavenly life are within our reach, when the self-life is nailed to the Cross of Jesus. How is this self-life to be brought to death? Only by our identification with the Cross on which Jesus died. We were nailed there in the purpose of God, and we must accept that position, and extract all its help by a living faith.—Dr. F. B. Meyer. WHAT GLADSTONE SAID ABOUT CHRIST. William Gladstone, the great English statesman, believed—- “ Every problem of life was a Gospel problem.” “The teachings of Christ when received and obeyed will regulate all human life in the best possible maimer.” “In Christ all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found.” He once wrote: “All I write, and all I think, and all I am, is based on my unfeigned faith in the Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, the One Central Hope of our poor wayward race.” THE PERFECT SERVANT OF GOD. There are times in the experience of all Christian workers when they feel the need of some shining example to which they can turn as an abiding inspiration for their own service. Mercifully for us, our Lord Jesus Christ has left us an example that we should follow His steps. Long before He came to earth in the likeness of sinful flesh, Old Testament prophets had sung of His coming, and had set forth the nature of the perfect service He should render His people. Whenever we think about our work for God, we may always turn to the example of our Saviour, and remember those things that characterised His labours. After He had washed the disciples’ feet, He told them that He was in the midst of them as One that served. The Gospel of Mark, in particular, lays considerable emphasis upon this aspect of pur Lord’s redeeming mission, for it is the object of Mark to set forth the Lord Jesus as the Perfect Servant of God. As we read the pages of St. Mark’s Gospel, w© see Jesus going about doing good. He healed the sick: He instructed the ignorant: He had compassion upon the poor: He raised the dead : He fed the hungry : He cleansed the leper: He gave sight to the blind. It means everything to us that wo have Someone who knows what w© are trying to do, who is not only full of sympathy and understanding, but who is ever ready to help. In His light we can see light, -and by thinking of His perfect service, we are enabled to correct our own efforts until they are in complete conformity to the will of God.