Restful Thoughts for a Quiet Hour

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12615, 27 November 1926, Page 12

Restful Thoughts for a Quiet Hour

THOUGHTS FOR QUIET MINDS Surely the only true knowledge of our fellow man is that which enables us to feel with him—which gives us a fine ear for the heart-pulses that are beating under the mere clothes of circumstances and opinion.—George Eliot. • * • # Treat your friends for what you know them to be. Regard no surfaces. Consider not what they did, hut what they intended.—Thoreau. * • * * We rejoice in the joy of our friends as much as we do in our own, and we are equally grieved at their sorrows. Wherefore the wise man will feel towards his friend as he does toward himself, and whatever labour ho would encounter with a view to his own pleasure, he will encounter also for the sake of that of his friend. — Cicero. • * « • More precious far than gold refined Is friendship, knit with heart and mind: Gold may go its fickle way, But friendship tried will ever stay. —J-S. What more delightful than to have a friend to whom you can tell everything as you would to yourself ? No pains therefore must be spared to preserve what is so rarely found, a true friend, for he is a second self.—Seneca. SELECTED PASSAGES Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle ? Who shall dwell in thy hold hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and spoaketh the truth in his heart, He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour. In whose eyes a vile person is contemned ; but he lionoureth them that fear the Lord. He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not. He that puteth not his money out to usury, uor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved. ANYWHERE WITH JESUS Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go, Anywhere He leads ine iii this world below; Anywhere without Hitu, dearest joys would fade, Anywhere with Jesus I am not afraid. Anywhere! Everywhere! Fear I cannot know, Anywhere with Jesus I can safely goAnywhere with Jesus I am not alone, Other friends may fail me, He is still my own, Tho* His hand may lead me over drearest ways, Anywhere with Jesus is a house of praise. Anywhere with Jesus I can go to sleep, When the darkning shadows round about me creep; Knowing I shall waken never more to roam, Anywhere with Jesus will be home, sweet home. —JESSIE H. BROWN. * * * * A PRAYER Fill us, 0 bountiful Creator, with what we need, and let us not be dark and shameful in the world which Thou has made eo fair. Let us not be voiceless when all creation praises Thee; and void of good when all except ourselves are fraught with blessing. Use us, our Father,' for Thy purpose, even as water-bearers or love-bringers to those whose souls are parched and desolate here. Let us go forth upon our daily journey, knowing that Thou will help us to discern and to bring beauty and sweetness to those who know it not. Above all, touch our lives, we beseech Thee, with the love of Jesus Christ. Make us lowly and kind as He was, following His example in word and thought and deed. Guard us against all that embitters our relations with others. Fill our souls with true charity in judgment and in utterance. Let us seek good rather tha.i ill in the lives of those around us, that we may help' to sweeten the world for the day of the coming of Christ.—Amen.

THE CHRISTIAN HOPE \ (A One-Minute Sermon by Rev. W. Trotter.) What an iufinite mercy it is that, amid the bustle and excitement of thi* vain and fleeting world, any should have their attention arrested by eternnl realities 1 There aro realities both of sorrow and of joy, which never pas* away. And when the light of eternity shines into the soul, how solemn the conviction which presses the conscience, that not only has one’s life been wasted in pursuing that which satisfies not, but worse than wasted, as having been spent in sin and rebellion against God! As long as my thoughts are limited to time and sense, I may regard nothing but mvself—or, which amounts to the same thing, my own immediate circle, which becomes a kind of second self. But the moment eternity is seriously thought of, God must be brought in; and then I find that all my restless longings and searchings after something to satisfy and fill my heart, are the fruit of that heart having been alienated from God. When once this discovery ia made, tho question ceases to be. How? am I to be satisfied? 'Hie one all absorbing question becomes. How is God to be satisfied? How is His deserved wrath to be appeased? How is His favour to be secured? Happy the man whose attention is thoroughly aroused to such inquiries! Thrice happy ho who has had them all resolved, by the light which the gospel affords as to the person and work of Christ! Christian reader, you have not only had such questions awakened in your conscience, but you have had them satisfactorily answered. You have understood that, if you cannot satisfy yourself, it is vain to suppose you can satisfy God. Nor is it needed. You have been led to see that however angry—justly angry—God is with sin, and however solemn the deserved consequences to the sinner who lives and dies in sin. God has viewed sinners, yea a whole world of sinners, with such compassion and love, as to give “His only begotton son, that whosoever believed in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” In His bloodshedding on the cross, you have discerned how God can “be just, and the justifier of him who believed in Jesus.” And as to how God’s favour is to be secured, you understand fully, that it is not by your repentence or reformation, your obedience or devotion, your fastings, prayers or tears, “not hy works of righteousness which you have done,” or hope to do, but of His mercy hath He saved you. No, vou read your title to forgiveness and acceptance, in the glorious person, the perfect obedience, the atoning blood of God’s holy lamb. The assurance of God’s infinite satisfaction with Him, and with all who believe in Him,'vou see in God raising Him from the dead, and placing Him at His own right hand in heaven. And conscious as vou are of clinging to Christ as. vour sole trust and confidence in God’s presence. how sweet the peace which Ho breathes into your spirit, as He gently with His own lips assures vou, “Because I live, ve shall live also.” You, at least, need no longer to go hither and thither, restlessly inquiring, “Who will show us any good?” You have found the true and everlasting good. The light of God’s countenance —acceptance in Jesue—peace through the blood—a conscience purged from sin—the privilege to enter boldly into the holiest by the blood of Jesus; these with the love of God shod abroad in your heart by the Holy Ghost, so that you joy in God Himself through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we now have received the atonement, are blessings of such a character, that your heart is effectively weaned from the ten thousand objects on which it once was wasted. The secret of happiness -—time, satisfying, unfailing enjoyment—has been disclosed to you. THOU THINKEST, LORD, OF ME Amid the trials which I meet, Amid the thorns that pierce my feet, One thought remains supremely sweet. Thou thinkest Lord, of me! The cares of life come thronging fast, Upon my soul their shadows cast. Their gloom reminds my soul at last. Thou thinkest Lord, of me! Let shadows come, let shadows go. Let life be bright, or dark with woe, I am content for this I know. Thou thinkest Lord, of me!