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January 20, 1909. THE PRESBYTERI/
CHRIST AND THE FAMILY.
The law of the cross must control the family. Love,
which is a natural passion and principle of life, will always
insure the institution of the family and the ministrations
of motherhood and the protection of fatherhood
in the lower rancrec /-?f 1-1.1 D.-* ^ ? *
? Ja-w, w? i.uuian ?nc. 1>UI UHUirUi love
needs to be inspired with divine emotion in order to insure
the holiest ministrations and the highest service.
Hence the Christian man is commanded to love his wife
as Christ loved the Church?thoughtfully, considerately,
tenderly, and with willing sacrifice?and the Christian
wife is commanded to reverence her husband as the
Church reverences Christ?with such faith and devotion
as will seek his success and his honor. And parents
are commanded to bring up their children in the
nurture of the Lord?in that atmosphere of love and
kindness and faithful training which will tend to promote
a character worthy of continuance by virtue of
its likeness to the character of Christ.?The Homiletic
Review.
SUGGESTIVE.
It is the inner life that makes our world. If our
hearts are sweet, patient, gentle, loving, we find sweetness,
patience, gentleness, and love wherever we go.
But if our hearts are bitter, jealous, suspicious, we find
bitterness, jealousy and suspicion on every path. If
we go out among people in a combative spirit, we find
combativeness in those we meet. But if we go forth in
a charitable frame of mind, with good-will in our hearts
toward all, we find brotherliness and cordiality in every
man we come up to in our walks and associations.
"In ourselves the sunshine dwells;
In ourselves the mu^ic swells;
Everywhere the heart awake
Finds what pleasure it can make;
Everywhere the light and shade
By the gazer's eye is made."
This is the secret of that fine art which people possess
of always finding good and beauty in others. They
have goodness and beauty in themselves. There are
such people, and there is no reason why we should not
set this ideal for our lives.?Dr. J. R. Miller.
GOD ANSWERS PRAYER.
Jehovah, the loving God, distinctly promises to answer
the prayers of his children. He that gave parents
a love for their children, will he not listen to the cries
of his own sons and daughters? He has wonders in
store for them. What they have never heard of, never
seen, or dreamed of, he will do for them. He will invent
new blessings, if needful. He will ransack sea and
land to feed them; he will send every angel out of
heaven to succor them if their distress requires it. He
will astound them with his grace, and make them feel
that it was never before done in this fashion. All he
asks of them is that they call upon him.?Spurgeon.
lN OF THE SOUTH. 15
The Quiet Hour
IT IS THE SAME NOW.
UU ' ?
iicn we read tne Scriptures we are again and again
filled with surprise and sorrow to see that our Savior
had so few friends among all those that pressed about
him, to hear his gracious words and see his divine
power exercised in behalf of the suffering and the sorrowful,
but had so many enemies. Pitiable indeed does
it all seem. In all his life, so ready to do good, so
ready to save from the power of sin and the grave, and
yet had so few to love and reverence him, earnest and
anxious to give life and immortality to all that would
accept, and yet so few were willing to receive him as
"the way, the truth and the life." Could any one ever
doubt the willingness of Jesus to save? And yet some
pretended to do this very thing. Ah, the trouble was
not with the blessed Savior; no, not at all! Jesus was
willing to save, but men were unwilling to be saved.
Does he not say, "Ye will not come unto me that ve
might have life?" This was his sad lament 1900 years
ago as he stood and looked into the faces of the men
and women that thronged him to both hear and see.
It is still the same. Circumstances have changed, but
men never change; are the same today as they were
then, and Jesus still laments their unwillingness to be
saved. So earnestly and so powerfully does he set
forth in the Scriptures this trim mnHitinn u*. ? -r
, xjj itaauil UI
sin, and pleads with all his great loving heart that men
should come to him and live, "believe and live." Yet
now, as then, he sorrowfully says, "Ye will not come
unto me that ye might have life." Is it not strange,
passing strange? Shall a judge offer pardon to the condemned
and he reject the gift? Shall a sovereign offer
to a rebel guilty of treason against the State, a free
pardon for his grave offense, and the rebel refuse? So
it seems Jesus Christ says, "Ye will not come unto me
that ye might have life." Quaint old Matthew Henry
says the only reason why men die is they will not come
to Christ for life. Not because they cannot, but because
they will not. This puts the matter in an alarming
light. "He is able to save unto the uttermost all that
come unto God by him." Man alone is the unwilling
party.
inn, 1KU?.K?.L1U1UN.
The world has small need of a religion which consists
solely or chiefly of emotions and raptures. But
the religion that follows Jesus Christ, alike when he
goes up into the high mountain to pray and when he
comes down into the dark valley to work; the religion
that listens to him, alike when he tells us of the nesre
and joy of the Father's house and when he calls us to
feed his lambs; the religion that is willing to suffer as
well as to enjoy, to labor as well as to triumph; the
religion that has a soul to worship God, and a heart
to love man, and a hand to help in every good cause?
is pure and undefiled.?Henrv van Dyke.