Newspaper Page Text
Sept. 22, 1909. THE PRESBYTERIAN
worship are stumblings upon an unfamiliar road. In
England we call them 'the preliminaries.' Anybody
can take the preliminaries. The people are irritable
until the sermon begins. We are trying to lead
people near to God who are nearer to God than those
who lead them. Every day I feel that I need spirituality
and the passion of devotion. If we have lost
our close relationship with God the problem is how
can we recover it, recover our intimacy with God?
The first thing we have to do is this?I have got
to hold fast firmly and steadily to the principle that
of all things that need doing by me this thing is supreme,
to keep near God.
"We cannot allow ourselves to drift. We cannot
leave the matter to chance or accident. I have got
to affirm to my soul, 'Now, my soul, thou hast this,
Minf o.irl T-t? ....
v..Uv, ??u iuv umv.1 lu uu njucty. i nou nasi tnat
work to do. But, my soul, thy supreme work is
to live near to God.'
"In presence of the details of work you lose the
sense of the value of things. Use ten minutes every
morning to write down the program of the day. Then
take the size of those things. Use the quiet moments
to take an estimate. Set everything in its place and
hold God supreme.
"I say, 'My soul, everything on that program will
be futile and ineffective unless thou shalt live near
God.' Second, when you have nerved yourself by that
resolution and that affirmative, then seriously discipline
your soul. Of all people whose soul-culture becomes
a matter of chance ours has the greatest peril.
Have a fixed season of communion with God. The
early morning is the time for me: 'My voice shalt thou
hear in the morning.' Alexander Whyte says he has
to wait until everybody has gone to bed. Have a
time and stick to it. Put the newspaper aside, and
jo into thy closet and pray. Use every help to make
your devotion real- Dr. Horton says that in his
. private devotions he never uses a book, not even a
Bible, that smells of the workshop. Since Dr. Horton
gave me the suggestion 1 have found it very
usefpl.
"Practice the tremendous art of praying without
ceasing. My organist one day played a very beautiful
air which remained with me as a permanent background
for days afterward. I wonder if we could
have God like that? I wonder if we could have God
interpenetrating our lives? If we had that sense
of God the world would call in vain, the bubbles and
baubles would lure us in vain, and the stupefactions
of the priestly office would not affect us. Our lives
would be fragrant with God. We should be luminous
with power and cleansing. Our speech would be
impressive, and our prayers would be laden with
grace.
"Let us stagger our people. The Lord help me
that when my people see me in the pulpit again they
may be staggered with the presence of God."
"Sir, I hope to carry my repentance to the very
gates of heaven. Every day I find I am a sinner;
ana every day 1 need to repent. I mean to carry
my repentance, by God's help, up to the very gates
of heaven."?Philip Henry.
1
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[ OF THE SOUTH. 9
Quiet Hour
PRAYER.
Our Father in Heaven, we lift up our hearts in
gratitude to Thee for all the manifold mercies wherewith
Thou hast enriched and gladdened our lives.
Surely we may say that the lines have fallen to us in
pleasant places and ours is a goodly heritage. Thou
hast blessed us in basket and in store, Thou hast
given us strength to do, and skill to devise, Thou
hast blessed the efforts of man so that the land is
filled with bounty and there is prosperity on every
hand. Let not the very abundance of Thy gifts prove
a snare to us to blind us to Thee and to the deeoer
and holier things of life. May Thy great love, manifested
to us on every hand, awaken in us a deeper
love and lead us to a fuller and more unreserved surrender
of ourselves to Him who is the highest expression
of Thine unspeakable love to us. AmenON
GROWING OLD.
j.u grow oia is sad indeed, it what you want is to
hold back the receding years, to keep your hair from
growing white, your eyes from becoming dim, and the
wrinkles from chiseling their way across your brow.
But if from all these vicissitudes to which life subjects
you, you draw a bit of wisdom, or profit, of
goodness, to grow old is to become free and large.
One of the most beautiful things in the world is an
old person who, made better by experience, more indulgent,
more charitable, loves mankind in spite of
its wretchedness and adores youth without the. slightest
tendency to mimic it. Such a person is like an old
Stradivarius whose tone has become so sweet that
its value is increased a hundred fold, and it seems.
most to have a soul.?Charles Wagner.
Take life like a man. Take it as though it was?
as it is?an earnest, vital, essential affair. Take it
just as though you were born to the task of performing
a merry part in it?as though the world had
waited your coming. Take it as though it were a
grand opportunity to achieve, to carry forward great
and good schemes, to hold and to cheer a suffering,
weary, it may be heart-broken, brother.?Charles H.
Spurgeon.
The dav VPtnrna on/-1 * " ? ?' *? J r
_ u..u uiiuga no Luc petty ruuna 01
irritating concerns and duties. Help us to play
the man, help us to perform them with laughter and
kind faces, let cheerfulness abound with industry.
Give us to go blithely on our business all this day,
bring us to our resting beds weary and content and
undishonored, and grant us in the end the gift of
sleep.?Robert Louis Stevenson.
When you are asked where and how is little achievement
going into God's plans, point to your Master,
who keeps the plans and then go on doing your little
services as faithfully as if the whole temple were
J Tit T?
7<jui3 iu uuuu-?rriiiiip urooKS.
Without faith it is impossible to please man.?Bert
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