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14 THE PRESBYTERI,
Devotional and Selections
LIVING AT OUR BEST.
Do not try to do a great thing; you may waste all
your life looking for the opportunity which will never
CCmC. But since the little thinp-^ are nlwnvs rlnimincr
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your attention, do them as they come, from a great moth
c, for the glory of God, to win his smile of approval,
and to do good to men.
It is harder to plod on in obscurity, acting thus, than
to stand on the high places of the field, within the
view of all, and to do deeds of valor at which rival
armies stand still to gaze. But no such act goes without
the swift recognition and the ultimate recompense
of Christ. To fulfill faithfully the duties of your station
; to use to the uttermost the gifts of your ministiy;
to bear chafing annoyances and trivial irritations
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one noble trait in people who try to molest you; to put
"lie kindest construction on unkind acts and words;
to love, with the love of God, even the unthankful and
evil; to he content to be a fountain in the midst of a
wild valley of stones, nourishing a few lichens and
flowers, or now and again a thirsty sheep; and do
tnis always, and not for the praise of man, but for the
kve of Jesus?this makes a great life.?F. B. Meyer.
IRREVERENT PRAYING.
My brother, take heed to that for which thou praycst!
There lies the difference between the pious and the impious
mind. It is not thy praying that makes thee good
?not even thy sincerity in prayer. It is not thy sense
of want that makes thee good?not even though expressed
in abjectness. It is not thy feeling of dependence
that makes thee good?not even thy feeling of
dependence on Christ. It is the thing for which thou
prayest, the thing for which thou hungerest, the thing
for which thou dependest. Every man cries for his
grapes of F.shcol; the difference is not in the cry, but
in the grapes. It is possible for thee to ask from thy God
three manner of things: Thou mayest ask thy neighbor's
vineyard; that is bad. Thou mayest ask thine
own riches; that is neither bad nor good; it is secular.
Or thou mayest ask to be made unselfish ; that is holy.
It is not thv oraver that thv Father nrizes! it is the
direction of thy prayer. Dost thou deem thy child a
hero because he asks thee for a holiday? Nay, though
he sought it sorrowing and with tears. But if he asks
thee to let him share his joy with a brother or sister,
then thou art exceeding glad; then thou sayest: "Thou
art my son; this day have I begotten thee 1" So with
thy Father. He waits till thou cryest for a crown?till
thou prayest for his presence, longest for his light,
sighest for his song, hungerest for his home, faintest for
his footfall, callest for his company, tarriest for his
tread, seekest for the sign of his coming. That will be
thy Father's highest joy.?Rev. George Matheson.
AN OF THE SOUTH. January 20, 1909THE
PHILOSOPHY OF YIELDING.
He who cannot yield a point is a constant menace tothe
harmony of his circle of associates. He is as nearly
a perpetual bore as the chances for a difference of opinion
are constant. Such a man in his sober moments
must be a burden to himself, provided he has any sober
moments. Any one who realizes the fact that he is in a
system and, who, at the same time, has any regard for
that system, must understand the neccssitv for
up a point occasionally. He who will not yield declares
that no one else has any rights which he is bound to
respect, but that he himself has many rights, and many
other things which lie classes along with persona!
rights, which he is determined to make every one else
respect.
Yielding may be an evidence of weakness or of
strength. To have no personal opinion, to maintain no
position on any question, to agree with everything any
one says simply because some one does say it, are so
many proofs of an unstable character. There is no
poise, no equilibrium; this is weakness. The yielding
which implies strength is the ability to manage oneself.
There is a spirit which protests against forsaking
a position that has been assumed, even thoucrh it is
ascertained that the stand is wrong. To be able to
yield means, first, the mastery of self.
Yielding, then, in its nobler form, is but the other
side of rulership. He who cannot rule cannot yield in
this better sense. To show due deference to others,
to acknowledge one's error, to entreat forgiveness for
sin, all are subsequent to the firm grasp upon one's
own nature, and compelling it, as it were, to obey the
dictum of right and duty. Such yielding is commendable,
because it implies a self-government worthy of
approval.?Keiigious Telescope.
LO, IT IS NIGH THEE!
The surprise of life always comes in finding how we
have missed the things that have lain nearest us; how
we have gone far away to seek that which was close by
our side all the time. Men who live best and longest are
apt to come, as the result of all their living, to the conviction
that life is not only richer, but simpler, than it
seemed to them at first. Men go to vast labor seeking
after peace and happiness. It seems to them as if "it
were far away from them, as if they must go through
vast and strange regions to get it. They must pile up
wealth, they must see every possible danger of mishap
guarded against, before they can have peace.
Upon how many old men has it come with a strange
surprise that peace will come to rich and poor onlv with
contentment, and that they might as well have been
content at the very beginning as at the very end of life!
They have made a long journey for their treasure, and
when at last they stoop to pick it up, lo, it is shining
close beside the footprint which they left when they set
out to travel in a circle!?Phillips Brooks.