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10 (32) I THE
estimate of the soul, his appraisement of the
longing to do more, so much more, and no man
has ever done a greater work than yours. For
it is not as it appears to the superficial eye of
man. Faithful work is always of the same size
by whomsoever done, and whensoever. "Be
thou faithful unto death, and I will give you a
crown of life" is the word.
What is the open door? The
Some Deeper answer our short sight and im
Meanings mature faith would give is that
every favorable circumstance,
every attractive opportunity, every friendly
voice calling us forward to easier living and
less strenuous struggling for a foothold is the
open door. But that would be a very imperfect
view of God's methods. Has he not said that
"all things work together for good to them that
love God," and does not that mean that to the
believing soul all things, whether pleasant or
unpleasant, whether grave or gay, whether
bright or dark, are equally the open door, each
one contributing to the end of our perfection?
1'aul said, "A great and effectual door is opened
unto me and there are many adversaries," and
the very adversaries were an opportunity. Is
not the rain as necessary as the sunshine to the
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night contribute as much to the welfare of man
as the'brightest hour of the day?
Take then, all God sends you this year, and
interpret it aright. Make up youi minds !bat
you will be as hospitable to the least atti netivi
and the most welcome of his providences 4"is
year, and behind that open door you will find
more of true happiness than you ever imagined
possible in this earthly life.
FAITH AND TRUE MANHOOD.
Paul had a wonderful power to express truths
in a compact formula. For instance, he packed
the whole plan of salvation into his answer to
the PhiHppian jailer's question, ""What must I
do to be saved?" "When he replied, "Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved,
and thy house." So again, he said, "We walk
hy faith, not by sight." A message he brings is
that faith is fundamental to the highest manhood.
It is not to be flouted, but to be coveted
as the noblest thing in life.
All through the New Testament, faith is set
forth as essential to Christian life. "Without
faith it is impossible to please God." Without
faith it is impossible to be a Christian. Without
faith life itself becomes a maimed and crippled
thing, and the soul is unable to accomplish
its mission. You may measure men by their
intellect, or by their indomitable will-power, and
call them great if they excell in these, but Jesus
Christ measures men by their faith. Tt is the
first thing he looks for in a human soul, and
when he finds it, it gives him great delight. He
began his ministry proclaiming, "Repent ye, and
believe the Gospel," and on the last night of
his life in that upper room he is still pleading
for faith, "Ye believe in God, believe also in
me." He knew that on the morrow faith in him
as the Messiah would perish from the earth.
How could a dead man be the Son of God ? Not
'till his resurrection was that faith revived
Had he remained in the tomb, Christianity
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wuuiu njive uiea rorever at tne cross.
All through his ministry Christ was looking
for faith. He said to the Roman centurion, "I
have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel."
To a woman he said, "Thy faith hath made thee
whole: go in peace." Christ asked no question
more earnestly than "Dost thou believe?" So
also Paul, Peter and John were equally with the
Master always insisting on the necessity of faith.
I . ' Read the Epistles and see how often and how
earnestly they insist that nothing is right with a
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PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SO
man 'till he believes in Jesus Christ. Evidently
then, the New Testament teaches the nesessity
of faith if a man would possess a royal manhood.
Is this New Testament view of the necessity of
faith correct? How is it then that there are
men to-day still proclaiming that it is weakminded
to have faith, and that educated, thinking
men have outgrown faith and Christianity as
they have outgrown their childhood? Is it man1?
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ij lu nave xaiin or noil is sKepticism, or at
least a tendency to doubt, a proof of superior
mental ability? God forbid! Jesus Christ, our
enemies themselves being judges, is the type for
all time of royal manhood, and he was preeminently
the Man of Faith. Renan said of
Christ, "Whatever may be the surprises of the
future, the character of Jesus Christ will never
be surpassed." This Christ, himself the object
of faith, and the enjoiner of faith, is the highest
type of regal manhood.
THE CHILDREN FOR CHRIST.
Every Cristian parent knows that the most important
endowment the child can possess is the
new life in Christ Jesus. We are wisely
solicitous that our children shall possess attractive
personalities, pleasant manners, refined
tastes, sound minds, warm hearts, amiable dispositions,
but there is one thing that must take
I reeedence over all others in the prayers, the
hopes, the training and parental ministry of
every believer whom God honors with the gift of
a child. The incomparable, supreme consummation
to be desired is that the child shall be
made free from the law of sin and death by the
Spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus.
Tender youth is the most impressionable period
of life; it is the period when principles are
easily wrought into the structure of the soul
where they become confirmed and dominant. The
young soul is confiding. It believes implicitly
the truths presented and lived by those whom
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II uuui lb iiao icaiucu tu rcij'. 11
has not formed perverse ideas of life and is all
the better qualified to see the reasonableness and
beauty of spiritual truth. The soul has not beeome
callous and the more readily drinks in the
freshness and purity of the heavenly message.
The eye is not dimmed and bleared by the deformed
images of the world and is all the more
radiantly illumined and gladdened by the
heavenly vision. But more than all this the
young spirit that is born into the kingdom of
grace is fortified against the suggestions of
doubt that are liable to come in after years. To
a regenerate heart the answer to skepticism under
whatever guise is, "One thing I know, that
whereas T was blind now I see." The renewed
spirit discerns spiritual truth, its excellence and
beauty, feels its power, appreciates its value, and
knows its reality because the truth lives in
the personal consciousness.
Do parents realize that their children are
often longing to have Christ commended to them
as their personal Saviour? Do they understand
that often a child is waiting to be told of the
privilege of confessing Christ and to be lovingly
advised to confess him? Do they realize that the
child is often under the impression that parents
think their child is not old enough to have an
intelligent interest in Christ's free salvation and
must accordingly be restrained from what they
consider premature interest in their Saviour and
his redeeming love? Such mistakes are sometimes
made and some may have discovered their
mistakes sadly in after years.
Childhood is the period for receiving the Lover
of their souls, who received little children when
hp was enjrapred in his prracions ministry on
earth. Shall we teach onr children that they
must he the property of Satan until they come
U T H (January 10, 1912
to a certain stage of experience and acquire a
certain capacity for discursive thought? Rather
let us tell them when they think at all that they
may think in the terms of the simple sentence
written by that master logician who said, "He
loved me and gave himself for me."
An attractive story is told of a little girl as
follows: Faith came home one day with a card
bearing these words: "They that seek me early
shall find me." "Does it mean, mama," Faith
asked, "that we are to get up early in the morn
ing to find Jesus?" "It means, dear, that when
we are small we are to give our hearts to him and
seek out ways to please him. We should lift up
our hearts to him when we rise in the morning,
and keep on trusting him all through the day."
Then Faith said, "I'll seek him now."
V .
It is a trite statement, but it must be remembered,
'' The children are the hope of the
Church." If they acquire the priciples of godliness
in their youth these principles will make
intelligent, strong, active characters. They will
not yield readily to temptation. They will not
tolerate doubt. They will be religious from
conviction and not merely from sentiment.
They will appreciate the dignity and nobility of
Christian service. They will be witness-bearers
for their Lord, not ashamed of the Gospel of
Christ. Their whole life will be given to him
from infancy. They will grow up into symmet.rie.nl
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strong, possessing attractive personalities, pleasant
manners, refined tastes, sound minds, warm
hearts, amiable dispositions, happy and useful
?blessing society and being blessed.
SEEING OURSELVES AS GOD SEES US.
It is said that there are three opinions of
every.man: the one he lias of himself, the one
that others have of him, and the opinion that
God has of him. It is well to see ourselves
as others see us, but better still to see ourselves
as God sees us. We must know what
we are, before we can be what we can. We
must humble ourselves before we can be exalted,
must see ourselves from Calvary, that
we may see as God sees. We must see our
duty with a clear vision, the duty that we owe.
to ourselves as men, the duty we owe to the
world as citizens, the duty we owe to God as
his servants. The man without strong convictions
of duty will never take his place among,
the world's noblemen. ....
We must pray for a clear vision of our opportunities
that they may not come to our
doors and pass on, because we do not recognize
them as God's messengers. God sends
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.. ...wwr ux <iuKci uppuriuuiiies to every man,
hut often like the rich man we step over Lazarus
anil do not recognize God's message-until
too late when we see Lazarus in Abraham's
bosom and we in a hell of regret, or like Lot
who, with twenty years full of opportunity
and privilege, must leave Sodom with fewer
souls than when he entered and escape in
poverty with the smell of fire on his garments.
Those who resist God and fight against his
purposes will have their understandings darkened
and God will give them over to spiritual
blindness. The Syrians knew Elisha to he?
God's servant, nevertheless they deliberately
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agoiusi nun ami yoa minded their eyes.
We find it hard to understand how men can
defend positions utterly opposed to what we
know to he God's will or to justify open wickedness.
"We attribute it to love of wrong doing;
it is rather that they can see no other
course. So long have they closed their eyes
to all that is holy, that now, having eyes, they
see not; the passions of an evil heart have
paralyzed the optic nerve. Unless the facul>