FOR THE QUIET HOUR

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 101, 15 May 1937, Page 12

FOR THE QUIET HOUR

— F. W.

Faber.

•To t the lover, everything- speaks of i the beloved. . It is the thougkt of hini that waits just beyopd. every other fairesfc thought, and that IurkS "xn 'the ' biiie heavenk height" hnd in. the sweet- , dst paesage oi' & song. ' ' And even so ? this lover of God find his BelovCd every- ; where, and reads on every hand tlie message of His mercy. • As the heavens ate high above the earth, so greht k His mei-gy toward them thfit fear Hina Hei'e is a mind not stunned and terrified before the . , boundless reaches of the universe. Their very vastness speaks tp him oi the greatness of God's mercy, Jtd thar 'dver-hfching sky he S6e& the lcTVC Oi' God' behding over us, spreading oVer us the mantie of His protection. When , night le.ads forth her train of ■stars, each one is a pledge of God's mercy, & lamp to lead the mind home to Him. And if tliis inan had been told that all Which he could see Was but as one small parish in the vast tiniversey and that some day millions of worlds uuguessed by him ivould be brought withxn the range of man's sight, it would only have. spoken to hihi of a lovd and ' mercy in which age after age new disCoveries are to be made, and yet which . ever remains unexhausted and still to be more fully known. As far as tlie east is from the west, so far hafh He femoved our transgres* sions from us. Beyond the opposite horizons, . leaguo after ieagtie of distance/ sundering east from West— as J great a separation . as that . does God i mahe between a pardoned sinner and i his sinsj Eartli's greatest ineasure of i distance bccoines an imago of the COiil- : b pleteness of God's forgiveness, tlia magnificence of His grace, the royal r bounty of it.- He has • east our sius | b into the depths of the sea. ; Like as a father pitieth his children «o the Lord pitieth them that fear Him.

Dowa from the starry heights, baek from the far distances, home to the tender antimacies of human life — and there also is the signature of God. A father 's heaTt vsith its tenderness, that "pity beyond all telling that ie hid in the heart of love," that poignant xealisation of the danger with whieh a child may be beset, that dnstinctive movement of protection, that willingness to suffer for the child 's sake— - it is all a dim shadowing f orth of the eternal pity with which God looka upon each of us His children. And seeing it, I bow my knees unto the Father, "from whom every fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named. So from every great and beautiful thing around us and within us there is a path that leads the loving heart up to God, We live in a world of types and shadows and intimationg; a sacra* mental world. And yet no type can. more than hint at the reality, and tlie best our eyes can see ds but a dim shadow of the True. Higher than the heavens and vaster is the mercy that besetg us behind and before, Noearthly measure can express all that God's -forgiveness means; we can but wonder and adore. Nor can the tenderest memory of earthly fatherhood make us fully Tealise our Heavenly Father 's love. We only know it when we hear Him say, "My child," and our heart answers, "Abba, Father." All fathers learn their craft from Thee; All loves are shadows east From the beautiful eternal hills Of Thine unbeginning past. O little heart of mdne shall pain Or sorrow make thee moan, When all this God is all for thee, A Father all thine own?