117
March, 1944
Daily Devotional Readings
thing that could be desired. He was tall and (I thought) very handsome, aft easy conversationalist and a better- than-average musician. In the young crowd and among older people as well, he was the life of the group. He al ready had done well as an actor in certain Shakespearean plays, and I reveled in the glamour of his choosing the stage for his life work. Jim was eighteen when. Evangelist Wirt came to Sydney. On one particu lar night, I had left the house, prob ably to take up my duties as a torch- bearer on the street, when Jim began his customarily fastidious preparation for going out in the evening. To be well-groomed was a fetish with him. We used to joke about it. That night, I have been told, the gas Jet cast an eerie glow upon the mir ror as Jim struggled with an elab orate cravat, and he was in no mood for conversation with the twelve-year- old brother who b o u n d e d into the room. ‘Well, Romeo, where are you going tonight?" Hubert wanted to know. “Going to get converted!" Jim snapped. “Yes? Not you, surely!” “Oh, go on.” Jim brushed him aside. “I promised Mother I’d go to that man Wirt’s meetings once, to please her, and I’m getting that over with to night.” He did not know that those first sharp words were prophetic. That night, in the evangelistic meeting in the church to which I had not gone, Jim did an about-face with the old life, and he received Christ as his own personal, living Saviour. He came home a changed person, a .new virility in his naturally appealing nature. He and I met in our room, and I saw added brightness in the face I always had admired. He talked to me', earnestly. But I cannot recall what he said. I know there was nothing senti mental or pedantic about it. He spoke as man to man, with leashed intensity, and I can feel, even now, the pressure of his hard arm against my shoulder. Jim had the Light; I knew it; and that Light was Christ. I began to real ize, if Only dimly, that I had been holding up to God, in proud self-suf ficiency, the feeble brightness of my own inadequate torch, foolishly pre ferring it to the splendor of God’s eternal Son. Here I was—likb so many others who have echoed the old question, “What must I do to be saved?”— clinging to-my supposed importance, and not yet ready to acquiesce •when God said plainly, “For by grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.” I remember thinking, “Jim has some thing. And oh, I wish I had it too.” (To be continued)
great. . . Just to be good,.to keep life pure from all degrading elements, to make it constantly helpful in little ways .to those who are touched by it, to keep one’s spirit always sweet and to avoid all manner of petty anger and irritability: This is an ideal as noble as it is difficult. But it is an ideal which God will let us all reach if we daily go to Him in prayer. —T. De Witt Talmage. 4. Armed “And take . . . the sword of the Spirit, which is1 the word of God” (Eph. 6:17). Victory over Satan does not de pend on our own wisdom; it does not depend on our skill in debate. It takes more than logic to defeat Sa tan. Our conflict with him is not a conflict of wits. The weakest believer in the world who could not stand against Satan for a moment in argu ment, may arm himself with the Wis dom of God. God has spoken, and His Word is preserved. He puts an answer in your mouth; He puts a sword in your hand. You can answer every temptation of Satan with “It is written.”—R. L. Moyer. 5. Answered By Silence “Then call thou, and I will answer” (Job 13:22). My soul, be not afraid of God’s silence! It is another form of His voice. God’s silence is more than man’s speech. God’s negative is bet ter than the w o r l d ’ s affirmation. Have thy prayers been followed only by a calm stillness? Well, and is not that God’s voice, a voice that will suf fice thee in the meantime until the full disclosure comes? Wait for Him in the silence, and ere long it shall become vocal!—George Matheson. 6. Love Demonstrates “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13:34, 35). There are thousands of people who have never accepted the gospel of Christ, simply because we Christians did not obey that injunction of Christ . . . A humble, Christlike life is dem onstrated .through our lové, and in no other way. Not even our right eousness, our wisdom, or any other good' trait, apart from love, can ever make men see the Lord Jesus Christ. —War Workers' Weapons.
1, Through His Finished Work “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God jn him” (2 Cor. 5:21). We marvel that this can be true. We look at our garments,' often soiled and spotted With the stains of earth, and wonder how we can ever stand in the presence of the Almighty Gne and have Him look upon us. We are often troubled by our smallness, our nothingness,- our inability to offer Him anything of our own that seems great enough to give to Him . . . We have no fitness at all that will com mend us to Him. Must, we not hang our heads in shame? Ah, no! If we have believed on Jesus Christ, and have received Him into our hearts by faith in His fin ished work upon the cross, and if we are trusting Him, we may look up with assurance to our blessed Lord, to whom our sin has been imputed for His righteousness. —Frances E. Burkey. « 2. All the Doys “And, lo, I am with you alway” (Matt. 28:20). Yea, I am with thee when there falls no shadow Across the golden glory of the day, And I am with thee «when the storm clouds gather, Dimming the brightness of the on ward, way; • In days of loss and loneliness and sorrow, Of care and weariness and fretting pain, In days of weakness and of deep de pression, Of futile effort, when thy life seems vain; .When courage fails thee f o r .the un known future, And the heart sinks beneath its weight of fears; Still I am with thee—Strength and Rest and Comfort, Thy Counselor through all earth’s changing years. Whatever* goes, whatever stays, Lo, I am with thee all the days. —Annie Johnson Flint. Prayer Is the Key “Neither be partaker of other men’s iins: Keep thyself pure” (1 Tim. 5:22). Remember that in the influence of the gentle life in the home, we can serve God just as truly in the small things and ,the little duties as in the 3.
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker