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December 20, 1911] THE P
notwithstanding bis dissolute life and wretched
state, Byron had vision sufficient to see and
faith enough to affirm, "If ever man was God,
or God was man, Jesus Christ was both." Taking
his stand in the presence of Christ, Jean
Paul Ricliter, exclaims, "The holiest among the
mighty and the mightiest among the holy, lifted
with his pierced hands empires off their hinges,
turned the stream of civilization out of its
channel, and still governs the age."
Enter, now, into the warmer zone of personal 1
experience and listen to the voice of those who
know and commune with Christ. On one oc
casion, a friend, while walking with Tennyson
in his garden, asked liini the question, "What
do you think of Christ!" Instantly the poet
pointed to a beautiful flower which sent forth
a sweet perfume, and replied, "What the sun
is to that flower, Jesus Christ is to my soul."
And thus he wrote in his prologue to "In Memoriam"?
"Strong Son of God, immortal Love
Whom we, that have not seen thy face,
By faith, and faith alone, embrace,
Believing where we cannot prove."
Turn to the Epilogue to Browning's poems
entitled, "Dramatis Persouae," where David
appears singing the old Hebrew Psalm, which
proclaims how the glory of God fills his Temple.
Ah, but things change, advance and recede. Yes;
but why mourn when the loss means gain,
when the lesser gives place to the greater, the
transient to the eternal, the vanishing Temple
to a vaster worship! the Face of everlasting
Love is not lost because things change:
"That one face, far from vanish, rather grows,
Or decomposes but to rccompose,
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That Face is the face of Christ.
That is how I feel Him."
"And yet sometimes," says Joseph Parker,
"men call upon us with slate, pencils, sponges,
for the purpose of showing us that Jesus fihrist
cannot be Qod. I have lived long enough to
know that he is God enough for me. What
more can I wantt He raises the dead! he redeems
my life from destruction; he numbers
the hairs of my head, he carries me up the hill
when I am weary; he visits me in my distress
and affliction. His wnrrts #ro
Music in the sinner's ear,
And life and health and peace.
My Lord! My God! I will not receive thee
merely through grammars, technical discussion
and 'various readings.' I will receive thee because
when thou dost come into my heart, I
know that all the heaven I can contain is already
within me when thou art near. My Lord!
My God!"
There are some voices from the rolling ages.
The unbeliever may stitle his heart, the enemy
may reproach, and foolish people may blaspheme
his name, but his name shall be exhalted
forever above every name, 0 Christ!
"The glorious company of the Apostles praise
Thee.
The goodly fellowship of the Prophets praise
Thee.
The noble army of Martyrs praise Thee.
The Holy Church throughout the world doth
. acknowledge Thee.
Thou art King of Glory, O Christ; Thou art the
Everlasting Son of the Father."
Instead of longing for something easy, make
your own work easier by putting earnestness
and energy into it and leaving worry out.
RESBYTERIAN OF T ? ? 8C
NOTES HERE AND THERE.
BY E. n. H.
Nothing can give more elevation to thought,
more depth of feeling or richness of imagination
than constant study of the Bible. It brings us in
contact with the grandest reality. May, God,
eternity. However great the countless worlds
that constitute the universe the Bible carries us
back of all this to meditate on Ilim who created
all these worlds and who himself from everlasting
to everlasting is God.
Writes one: "I would rather have the intellect
formed by the Bible alone, by grappling
with its mighty questions, by communing with
its high mysteries, by tracing its narratives, by
listening to its matchless eloquence and poetry,
than to have that intellect formed by scientific
tracts and popular literature; and if these should
practically exclude the Bible on the part of the
young, instead of a blessing they would bring
only disaster. "We often find in an humble Christian
a breadth of mind looked for in vain in a
votary of literature. Perhaps one reason why
the Scriptures came to us through various authors
with different habits of thought and feeling
was that it was to be a Book for the construction
of the race, and therefore not stamped
with the peculiarities of any one human mind.
In order to do this it must embrace narratives,
poetry, proverbs, psalms, parables, letters, profound
reasoning, all harmonized in doctrine and
spirit, yet diversified as the hills and valleys of
the green earth.
I do not know anything which exhibits the
proof of Christianity in a more condensed and
powerful passage than this from Dr. Hodge:
"When the mind is enlightened so as to see
truly the holiness of the Bible, the correspondence
between all its statements respecting God,
man, redemption, of a future state, and all our
own right judgments, reasonable apprehensions,
and personal experience; when it perceives how
exactly the rule of duty prescribed in the Word
of God agrees with that enforced by conscience,
how the account which it gives of human nature
coincides with human experience, how fully it
meets our whole care, when it feels how powerfully
the truths there presented operate to purify,
console and sustain the soul, the belief of the
Scriptures as the Word of God is a necessary
consequence.''
"Though the mariner sees not the pole-star,
yet the needle of the compass which points to it
tells him which way he sails; thus the heart
touched by the load-stone of divine love, trembling
with godly fear and yet still looking to God
by fixed believing .points at the love of Election
and tells the soul that its course is heavenward.
He that loves may be sure he was loved first; and
he that choses God for his delight and portion
may conclude confidently that God hath chosen
him; for our love anl electing of him is the result
of his first loving and electing us."
What one word in the Scriptures gave more
joy than any other one word recorded there?
Was it not when the risen Lord said to the
weeping heart-broken woman?Mary? What
tides of joy swept through her soul!
What one sentence brought deeper peace to a
sinner than any other? "Thy sins are forgiven
thee, thy faith hath saved thee, go in peace."
How awe-inspiring must have been the words of
John as seeing Jesus coming to him, he said:
vuenoia tne L-amb ot uod which taketh away the
sin of the world.".
Just bring it home to ourselves. Behold, see
that man coming towards us! He is going to
take away the sin of the world, to do the most
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wonderful thing ever done in our world- How
strange and startling the words of John must
have seemed; with whut wonder and awe they
must have looked upon Jesus.
Says St. John: "Now are we the sons of God
and doth not yet appear what we shall be, but
we know that when he appeareth we shall be like
him, for we shall see him as he is."
Here are three great realities, three exalted
privileges, three inestimable hlessincrs. "We
now soils of (Joel. Shall be like (Jlirist when he
appears. Shall see him as lie is.
Can this earth show any thing or give any
thing, or promise any thing to compare with
these great blessings.
Did anyone ever read anything more pathetic
that this from the old Puritan Cotton Mather
when his wife was on the death bed: "When I
saw to what a point of resignation I was now
called of the Lord, I resolved with his help
therein to glorify him. So two hours before my
lovely consort expired, I kneeled by her bedside
and 1 took into my two hands a dear hand,
the dearest in the world (ah me.) With her
thus in my hands I solemly und sincerely gave
her up unto the Lord; and in token of my real
resignation, 1 gently put her out of my hands and
laid away a most lovely hand, resolving that I
would never touch it more. This was the hardest
and bravest action perhaps that ever I did.
She told me that she signed and sealed my act
of resignation, and though before that, she called
for me continually, she after this never asked for
me any more."
But what a conception of our Father above
that he should require such an act of resignation
for a husband not to hold the hand of his
dying wife. How one's heart goes out to that
poor old man and his wife.
Religion is a life in the soul wrought by the
Holy Spirit and his truth. It ought not to surprise
us if men who reject that truth and disbelieve
that spirits work should be incredulous
about that life in others. Those who have physical
life know they have, so those having the
spiritual life know they have it. . How can the
unregenerate man know a life he has not experienced.
His denials of such life should not
disturb those who have experienced it.
If we expect to enter heaven when we die we
must begin the life of heaven while we are now
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is the continuance of the life here, whether bad
or good. A man passing from one room in his
house to another does not change his character
thereby. So death does not change our character.
It merely removes us from one room in
God's great universe to another. "We must find
grace here to have glory yonder. "The stones
appointed for the glorious temple above are hewn
and polished and prepared for it here, as the
stones were wrought and prepared in the mountains
for building the temple in Jerusalem."
Holiness, salvation, heaven, are inseparably united
together. The Christian has grace and peace;
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growing upon the root grace," and as the root
is vigorous the flower is large and beautiful,
strong rooted, splendid blossoms.
"Inward grace is too precious a liquid to be
poured into a filthy vessel. A holy heart that
gladly entertains grace shall find that it and
peace cannot dwell asunder."
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yjure ana consiaeration are the pet names by ^ . v
which more than one man calls his laziness. ^
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He that will not serve God except some- \ ^
thing be given him, would serve the devil if he
would give him more. *5\