THE SABBATH.

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20266, 7 August 1937, Page 20 (Supplement)

THE SABBATH.

BECAUSE | LIVED TO-DAY. Let me to-day do something that will take A little sadness from the world’s vast store, And may I he so favoured as to make •Of joy’s too scanty sum a little more. Let me not hurt by any selfish deed Or thoughtless word, the heart of foe or friend; Nor would I pass unseeing worthy deed, Or sin by silence when I should defend. However meagre be my worldly wealth, Let me give something that shall aid my kind— A word of courage, or a thought of health Dropped as I pass tor troubled hearts to find. Let me to-night look baok across the span ’Twixt dawn and dark, and to my conscience say— Because of some good act to beast or man—- " The world Is better that I lived to-day." —Ella Wheeler Wilcox. DAILY TEXT. Bunday. What think ye of Christ? —Matthew 22:42 By Him all ye that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. —Acts 13:39. Ye are complete In Him . . . who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctiflcatibn and redemption.—Colossians 2:10; 1 Corinthians 1:30. Monday. Wherefore then serveth the law Matthew 22:42. The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be Justified by faith . . . and being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.—Galatians 3:24: Romans 5:1. Peace be to thee and love with faith. —Ephesians 6 :23. Tuesday. What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith and have not works? Can faith save him? —James 2:14. Faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. —James 2:17. But whoso looketh with the perfect love of liberty and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of tbcf work, this man shall be blessed In his deed.—James 1:25. Wednesday. Hast thou faith?—Romans 16r22. I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me . . . gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from the present evil world, according to the will of God.—Galatians 2:20, i :4. This is the will of God, even your sanctification.—l Thessalonians 4:3. Thursday. What arest thou? —Ezekiel 12:9. I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. —Romans 7 :22-23. If thou return unto the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, He will turn thy captivity . . . and sin shall not have dominion over thoe. —Deuteronomy 30:2-3; Romans 6:10. Friday. What profit hath he that worketh on that wherein he labourest? —Ecclesiastics 3 :9. Refrain thy voice from weeping and thine eyes from tears, for thy work shall be so rewarded, saith the Lord. —Jeremiah 31:16. God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love which ye have showed toward His name.— Hebrews 6:10. Baturdayt. Why go I mourning?—Psalm 63:2. Though nof for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations ... if thou prepare thy heart and stretch out thy hands toward Him, thou shalt forget thy misery or remember it as waters that pass away.—l Peter 1:6; Job 11: 13-16. Return unto thy rest, 0 my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. —Psalm 116:7.

CONSCIENCE. Every man has a conscience—a natural sense of the difference between good and evil—a principle which does not concern Itself so much with the true and false In human ethics, or with the painful and damaging in human fortunes, as with the right and wrong in human conduct. Call it what you will, analyse it as you may—a faculty, an emotion, a law —it is the most important principle in our nature, because by It we are brought into sensible connection with the moral government of God. It has been defined sometimes as a tribunal within a man for his own daily and impartial trial. It is the bar at which the sinner pleads; it prefers the accusation of transgression; it records the crime; it bears witness to guilt or j innocence; and, as a Judge, acquits and condemns. Thus, taking cognisance of moral actions, It is the faculty which relates us to the other world, and by it God, retribution, eternity, are made abiding realities to the soul.—W. M. Brook. CHRIST’S COURTESY. Another Interesting point in the social life of Jesus is His courtesy. There is, perhaps, no part of our life that is so unreal and unsatisfactory, none of which we find it so hard to give an account to ourselves, as the courtesy which we pay to one another. And there is none which, in the life of Jesus, is more thoroughly satisfactory and perfect. I find the secret of it in the clear perception and value of the personal life behind the class condition of which we have Just been speaking. True courtesy gets its essence from honour of the individual, while it gets its special form from consideration of the class condition. —Phillips Brooks. THE PHOENIX. Phoenix Is the only one and lives for himself, alone and is bound by no espousals. He journeys to the land of Egypt each five hundredth year and is seen by the priest high above the altar coming from the East. And when he comes, he brings under his win|gs sweet'-smelllng cinnamon and other spices; and he collects wood, and heaps it upon the altar, and lays himself on his back on the burning wood, and becomes burnt utterly to ashes. And out of the ashes rises a worm, which grows into a young bird, and achieves wings; and on the third day resumes his full form, and becomes tfte Phoenix complete and perfect as he was before. Thereupon he departs on his way and flies to India, where he lived before. What an image and symbol is here pictured by tho Creator for the instruction of mankind I For God, the Creator of the mystery which was fulfilled In Christ, did hereby Inform us .of that which He had decreed. Christ came for our salvation, like the Phoenix, after a long period of years, and, taking on our nature, (He brought the sweet spices of life and salvation, as Isaiah had prophesied. And He strengthens us through this same sweet odour until we also become sweet smelling. And Pie willingly raised his Cross on Golgotha in the town of Jerusalem, as also the Phoenix prepared and laid himself on the altar of the City of the Sun in Egypt. And Christ suffered death and parted His soul from His body, as also the Phoenix lays himself down on his back and burns himself to death. And as on the third day the new-risen worm takes the form of the Phoenix, through that same mystery God the Word caused His body to rise again the third day, beoause It had suffered no corruption in the grave. And as the worm of the Phoenix on the third day took its full and perfect form, so in the same manner the body of Christ, when He arose from the grave on the third day, became immortal and unchangeable. And as at length the Phoenix returns to India, his former dwelling-place, so did Christ, after He had arisen, carry His body to His eternal dwelling place.—From "The Sermons of Physiologus.