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March 24, 1909. THE PRESBYTERI
old, bleak, brown, barren mountains, hills and valleys,
while on the other are splendid groves of orange, lemon
and other fruits, large and fruitful vineyards, and beautiful
fields of green alfalfa, with here and there pretty
cottages or country villas surrounded by yards, gardens,
lawns, and flowers, flowers everywhere of beautiful variety
and rich profusion; then let him remember?as he
will?that the difference between this and that is simply
the presence or absence of water. Where the waters
como thorn i<s fortilitv fmiti ' -"" ^: -1 ?
? , .tunagv., iiliics ana lite;
where no water is, there is only bareness, barrenness,
poverty, ugliness and seeming death. Life is in the
waters. To such an one ever after there will be new
meaning in the words, "As rivers of water in a dry
place"; a strange beauty and power in the prophet's
illustration. "The wilderness and the dry land shall be
glad, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the
rose"; and wondrous significance in the Savior's promise,
"He that believeth on me, . . . from within him
shall flow rivers of living waters." For the Gospel is
this water of the river of life: "And everything shall
live whither the river cometh "
Arlington, California.
THE REAT. PTTPPn<J17 OT7 t tt?r
w vri- iiir JD.
This be our thought of life, then. It is not for what
we are that we are living, but that something of what
God is may become evident and effective in the world.
There is a purpose of life which we can never outgrow.
We shall go up to heaven some day, and as we stand
before His throne, still there will be witness of God
> for each of us to bear?some witness, I believe, which
no other soul in all the universe could bear but us.
The heavens will be telling the glory of God forever;
and though our star may be indistinguishable, somewhere
in all the flood of radiance shall be the light it
sheds?a witness suecial and differpnf in -11
... WIUI 11U11I cl 1 I
the others which are reflecting that Light which is to
lighten every saint.
Until that comes, the same truth is here on earth.
To every poor sufferer, to every discouraged worker,
to every man who cannot think for himself and yet is
too brave to despair, this is the courage that the Gospel
gives. Not what you can do, but what He- can do in
you; not what you are, but what you can help men to
see that He is?that He is the power by which you are
to work. I beg you to think, in the light of this truth
we have been studying today, of the deepest meaning
of these words of St. Paul: "Ye are not your own. Ye
are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your
body, and in your spirit, which are God's."?Phillips
Brooks.
1 he chief duty of a Christian lies in the quiet, unseen
life of his own home, and if he does not learn
there to practice that noble virtue of unselfishness?
that highest type of charity which consists in daily
and hourly considerateness for the feelings of others,
he will have lost one of the strongest resources and
one of the most healing memories for all his future
life.?F. W. Farrar.
AN OF THE SOUTH. n
The Quiet Hour
Clear, O Lord, our inward vision, that we may see
through the false shows of life, and he kept quiet and
true by thy great realities. Waken us all from the
dreams of the earthly mind in its forgetfulness of thee.
Reveal to tho ^ 0
_ w uiuu supreme inspirer, what it
is to live this great life of opportunity; and fill them
with the pure and undefiled religion which will keep
them unspotted from the world. And in the hearts of
elders let not the fires die or their work linger, till they
are overtaken by the fading light and lengthening
shadows of their set time. Knowing nothing of the
morrow, may we rejoice to be faithful today, gladly
accepting the humblest task that waits for us by thy
will and shines with the holy light of thine approval.
Amen.
ON THE HEIGHTS
If Christian people want to have the bread of God
abundantly, they must climb. It is to those who live
on the heights that provision comes according to their
need. If you would have your Christian life starved,
go down into the fertile valleys. Remember Abraham
and Lot, and the choice which each made. The one said:
"I want cattle and wealth, and I am going down to
Sodom. Never mind about the vices of the inhabitants.
There is money to be made there." Abraham said, "I
am going to stay up here on the heights, the breezy,
barren heights," and God stayed beside him. If we go
down, we starve our souls. If we desire them to be
fat and flourishing, nourished with the hidden .manna
then we must go up. "Their pasture shall he in all high
places."?Alexander Maclaren.
UNION WITH GOD'S WILL.
Man's will alone can do great things. God's will can
do greater. When the two are joined together, limitations
are swept away. Every man knows by experience
something of the possibilities of his own unaided willpower.
There have been times when, in estrangement
from God, and without prayer, we have depended upon
our own will alone in the accomplishment of a certain
matter, and by sheer determination have succeeded. It
may have been only a small accomplishment, but it was
enough to prove the existence and the working- value of
u wiH. What God asks of us is that we use that same
will, and in that same spirit of determination, in working
with him and with his will. If we would try as
hard with him as we sometimes try without him, life
would begin to show results.
Only by degrees, and with much nractirp Hope
i > grow
spontaneous and habitual. But when once it has
become habitual it profoundly affects our entire character;
for it accustoms us to associate God with all the
greatest joys of our life, and thereby not only makes our
fundamental thought of God a thought of gladness, but
intensifies our whole apprehension of his being and relation
to ourselves.?G. R. Illingworth.