“Devotional Period"

White Ribbon, Volume 21, Issue 4, 1 May 1949, Page 3

“Devotional Period"

Hymn 102 “ Lord, when we pray, ‘ Thy Kingdom come,’ Then fold our hands without a care Eor those who Thou hast died to save We do but mock Thee with our prayer. “Thou could’st have sent an angel band To call Thy straying children home; And thus through Heavenly ininisstries On earth Thy Kingdom might have come. “ But, since to human hands like ours Thou hast committed work divine, Shall not our eager hearts make haste To join their feeble powers with Thine? “To word and work shall not our hands Obedient move, nor lips be dumb, Lest through our sinful love of ease Thy Kingdom should delay to come ? ” J Scripture Reading: Matthew V, verses 2-9. % “The peace of which Jesus speaks is not a negative tiling. It is not dearth of trouble, or the absence of pain. It is an achievement of creative minds, the triumph of the human spirit over discord, confusion and strife. From the man whose mind ; s at rest, whose conscience is at peace, whose will is one with the will of God, whose affections are satisfied through communion with the Eternal Joy, there emanates a beneficent and healing influence x which creates a new atmosphere, and raises the life of those about him to a new level of harmonious co-opera-tion. With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we -*re in, to hind up the nation’s wo.inds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace." Prayer O God, \YTio art peace everlasting, * whose chosen reward is the gilt of peace, and Who hast taught us that the peacemakers are Thy children, pour Thy peace into our souls, that everything discordant may utterly vanish, and all that makes for peace he sweet to 11s for ever. Amen. —From "A Devotional Diary.” J. H. Oldham, D D.