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February 10, 1909. THE PRESBYTERI
Devotional and Selections
DEUS EX MACHINA.
By Dr. W. L. Watkinson.
I noticed a little while ago in an American paper a
story of an engineer in one of the electric-power companies.
It seems that during the night he was oiling
the machinery, and in the act of oiling the machinery
he must have been killed. His corpse was found the
next morning when the dairyman came on the scene ;
but the singularity was that all night long that wonderful,
truthful, precise mechanism proceeded without a
mishap attended only by a corpse. Such has become
the human-like character of mechanism that it pursues
its way without the intellectual master. The mechanism
proceeds; the engineer has passed away. There
are great numbers of men who look at nature like that.
They have been greatly impressed with its balancings,
its reciprocations, and they have come at last to believe
that it is self-sustaining, that all its movements are
automatic, and that all its consequences are inevitable
and necessary. Great Pan is dead; but the music pro
ceeds. The great builder and architect has become a
myth, but the structure stands. The special organism
is undisturbed. Let your poets find scarlet for the
corpse of the dead Deity; let your saints bury him, and
your theologians bewail him. But let practical men rejoice
in the self-sustaining, .self-developing, and selfsufficing
universe.
Now that is the position of a good many men today.
But the truth is that the more complex a thing is, the
more it demands a creator; and as we perceive the wondrous
constitution of things, the arrangements and articulations
and movements of the world, it is more im
perativc than ever that we believe in a wise Creator, in
an omnipotent Ruler, and in a King who moves all
things to one distinct and splendid issue.
"OH, FOR THE GIFT OF VISION!"
Oh, for the gift of vision, that we might behold the
teeming marvels and delights of this fair earth, whose
most modest shapes are rich in bloom and beauty!
Oh, for the gift of faith and love, that we might interpret
truly the events of life, and find in each a theme
for delectable song! Oh, for the heavenly charity
which can recognize in our brethren patience, kindness,
and heroism, where a niggling intellect can see nothing
but imperfection and failure! Oh, that we might behold
with open face the goodness of God in Jesus
Christ, and live in the spirit of adoring wonder and loving
consecration! If we do not grow in grace, let us
turn over a new leaf; let us try the focus of appreciation
instead of that of criticism; let us be freer to see
the beautiful, to appreciate the good, to praise the high;
and if we are only humble, sympathetic, and pure, the
1 glory and joy of life will stand freshly revealed in
everything, the law of praise will be on our lips, and in
the genial glow we shall grow as flowers and palms in
AN OF THE SOUTH. I5
"PRESERVE ME FROM MY CALLING'S
SNARES."
The need of this prayer of Charles Wesley outlasts
his day and generation. Each of us has a calling of
some sort, and it is comforting to feel that the "call
of the ministry" is not th only effectual call to service.
The one who felt that he was "called of God to be a
cobbler" and to mend shoes to the best of his ability,
translated the thought of high calling into common
speech. When it is once settled for us, and "we know
our calling," we must "therein abide with God." But
sacred as this is, and secure as we are of the blessing
in the tulhllmcnt of the calling, whatever it may be;
eager as \vc must be to be found faithful, whether successful
or not, we are beset with snares even here. We
should not think it strange, so long as we are human
and not angelic beings. The very fact that we are called
of God and ought to magnify our calling, and discharge
it the best of our ability, may beguile us into overestimating
our own particular business or burden. A
passion for finishing may tempt us to pursue our special
work with an energy that drives all before it, and
crushes many a blossom of opportunity by the way.
Too narrow an interpretation of "This one thing I do"
may lead us to overlook the interlinked and wayside
services that belong also to us. .We may miss a blessing
as well as lose "it, and absorption in our individual
calling?in the house, the store, the office, anywhere?
may cost us dear and defraud others, which is worse.
Another snare of the calling diligently pursued till practice
makes Derfect to a dearer. is nnrlne infl5it inn
at. A subtle self-confidence unconsciously gained may
swell into self-glorification and gloating over others.
It is not premeditated, not even acknowledged to ourselves,
but the snare is there, and it is spread in the
daily path of downright duty. Another possibility is
the danger of perfunctory service when duties themselves
become "vain repetitions," no more instinct with
life and love than idolatrous oblations perhaps. When
the calliner has to dn with narrrd thinorc familiarity nnA
a certain facility may tend to make them common and
mechanical. By intricate and unseen ways unwary feet
approach the net spread. No one besides God and ourselves
may know when we are "snared and taken." All
the more we need to pray "Preserve me from my calling's
snares," for in and above all else we are "called
to be saints."?Julia H. Johnston, in The Interior.
A QUIETING FACTOR.
These busy, rushing lives of ours need often to be
tranciuillized bv this thought of the Sleenles* Watcher
When perplexities and irritations multiply, when our
hands seem too full of urgent duties, when the temptation
is fierce, when we are disappointed in others or
alienated from them, when we have lost the zest of existence,
the thought of his all-encompassing, brooding,
tender care and watchfulness comes in to quiet and
uplift our spirits. All we have to do is to stop the
wheels for a few short minutes and lift our thoughts
humbly and earnestly to the great Companion by our
side. And we shall know that he is there.