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January 13, 1909. THE PRESBYTERIA
in the Synod of Virginia. Mr. Brown was in Nashville
on his way to Texas, where his work has been assigned
for the next few months.
The Secretary was instructed to express to Mr. Brown
Mr. Pratt, and Mr. Coit, the three young men who have
been specially engaged in this work during the past
year, the Committee's grateful appreciation of their
faithful and efficient labors.
i?^.. i? T4 4 '
?vv. ix. a. was auuionzeu to make 111s arrangements
to sail for Korea during the month of January or
February, as he might find convenient.
The treasurer reported receipts for the month of December,
$25,349.15, a loss as compared with December,
1907, of $683.31.
The Committee adjourned to meet on Friday, February
19, following the Laymen's convention to be held
in the city of Birmingham, Ala., February, 16 to 18.
S. H. CHESTER, Secy.
Nashville, Tenn., January 5, 1909.
PRAYER.
Our Father in Heaven, Thou art crowning our lives
with Thy kindness and mercy. Thy kindness to us is
loving kindness and Thy mercy is tender mercy. And
yet, like thoughtless and ungrateful children, we often
receive Thy richest gifts as a matter of course, and
our hearts are not lifted up in joyous thanksgiving.
We remember the time of trial and forget the unnumbered
blessings that have been showered upon us from
Thy bountiful hand. Enable us to cultivate the grateful
spirit; help us to see Thy loving hand in all the
manifold exnerienrp<s nf lifo ->< 'ni?
J ?><U IU avv nwn ail Any
loving kindness finds its highest expression in the gift
of Thy Son. As we look into His face and see Thy
great love to us, may it awaken a responsive love to
thee, and may our gratitude be manifested in lives of
consecrated service. Amen.
TRUSTS FROM GOD.
Every burden laid upon us is a compliment from God.
An employer does not commit great responsibilities to
incompetent workers. The more important the work
is, the more careful he is to select only those who can
safely represent him in the way they should while carry
ing that responsibility. So with the affliction and sorrow
and business and household cares that are bearing
down today upon many of God's children. The Father
believes in those to whom he is entrusting such burdens,
and lie is showing his confidence in their ability
to represent him by the way they meet such responsibility.
To bear nobly the part lie gives them, trusting
all the rest to him, that is his charge to each.
His time is like the time of the tide; all the art and
power of man can neither hasten nor retard its moment;
it must be waited for; nothing can be done without it,
and when it comes nothing can resist it. The only
reason why the Lord seems to delay what he afterwards
grants is that the best hour is not yet come.?John Newton.
i
vN OF THE SOUTH. 15
Prayer Meeting
Wednesday, January 20.
TOPIC?SELF SACRIFICE..
John 12:24-25.
Self-denial does not mean impoverishment of soul. On
the contrary, the principle, wisely applied, produces spiritual
enrichment, strengthening and refining every noble faculty
of one's nature. Meyer says, "All our outgoings into wider
ministry, nobler life, greater responsibility of blessedness,
are due to the precious action of sorrow, self-sacrifice and
pain. There is no gate into the life, which is life indeed,
which has not cost us dear." There is indeed a surrendering,
or a repression of that which has been counted dear, but
this very surremlprtmr ic fn.,?' 4? v
. iuuiiu iu ue a process or transmutation
of the less fine into the finer metal. It is not a peculiarity
of Christian attainment that the higher is reached by
rising superior to the lower, or the more precious is secured
at the cost of the less; it is a law that pertains to man as
man. The higher is rooted and nourished in the decay of
"the lower. The purest joy flourishes in the atmosphere of
self-renunciation.
11 is a perfectly fan iliar fact that mental vigor and alac.rity
are attained by rising superior to the conventional or
superficial thought of earlier years, and that moral integrity
ds maintained by vigilant warfare against tendencies toward
self-indulgence and the many promptings of a self-seeking
nature. There is another and higher part of our being that
/we call spiritual which is yet not apart from the mental and
moral, but involves and uses these, and is subject to the
same law of growth. Inferior interests and conditions in
tthe spiritual life must yield to the claims of the superior and
must be surrendered. Thf? h*??i?h ??-? ? -* ?*
?mu lUMUoiucaa UL iue SOU I
is maintained by the frequent offering up of minor treasures;
some of them in a high sense sacred, many of them purely
natural. The luxurious Christian is not the strongest nor
yet the happiest.
McLaren says: "Religion gives no screen to keep the
weather off us, but it gives us an insight into the truth that
storms and rain are good for the only crop that is worth growing
here." So that it is altogether rational to meet the demands
of self-restraint and sacrifice with "the light which
never was on sea or land" shining in the soul, and a heart
lull of love and a song of joy on the lips at the very moment
that we are bending to take the cross which infinite
wisdom imooses. Tt. wn? "fho <v.o* ? ?- ?? *?*? L' "
_ , ?W JUJ turn, nas 9CI UCIUie II1 111
that impelled the Master to endure the cross, for with him.
as with us, it was the way to the crown. The conscious certainty
that wo are treading an upward path will bring
quite assurance at every step and render the faithful one
ever stable and serene amidst the changefulness of mere
circumstance. If higher purposes are prospered and paths
are illumined by a strange, sweet light, the life must be
serene, for wisdom's "ways are ways of pleasantness and all
her paths are peace." If our treasures are stored safe above
the cloudland of change or loss, privation of lesser interests
will neither purturb or depress the mind. "When thy paths
are made low thou shalt Bay, Up."
A ffor oil fKnn n#~ ?? --1' J 1 -1 *- *
....v. ?. , tuou, iuc me hi sfu-cifuiai is yei one or everaccumulating
gain. Forsaking all and following Christ is
the very embodiment of wisdom. Daily confidence in the
divine favor, the bestowment of His grace, the light of His
smile, the bouyancy of a living hope, an ever enlarging and
Intensifying perception of spiritual beauty?these are the
compensations of those who love not the world, neither the
things of ihe world. And then, "a heaven of endless blessedness
and close communion with God is the only possible ending
to the facts of the devout life on earth."