The third fact which may prop erly be stated, is, that God seems always disposed to bless labor. The fields yield their annual harvests because of divine power, but it is the will of God that human efforts should be combined with the divine energy. Men plough and plant and cultivate and gather in as a condition of harvest. All their efforts would be vain and useless without the divine blessing. On the other hand, the divine blessing would not be bestowed if through carelessness, indifference, or idle ness the effort of the human mind and heart and hand were kept back. Variety in unity is a divine law. We are oftentimes reminded that this is the order in which the uni verse proceeds. The plan is one; the great purpose of God is to purge out from this world which He made very good all things which have marred and hindered. This He is doing day by day, and will continue to do until the very rocks give up the record of the sins of men, and we have a new heaven and a new earth in which right eousness alone will dwell. I often think of an illustration with which Dr. Joseph Parker of London, closed his great address on “Man ner in the Pulpit.” He said: “A little gold watch was one day crossing Westminster Bridge at the time when Big Ben tolled out the hour of noon from the clock-tower in the Parliament Buildings. The little watch looked up at the big clock, and said, ‘I do not like you; your face is too broad, your hands are too big, your voice is too coarse; I do not like you.’ “And the big clock said to the gold watch, ‘Come up here, little sister; come up here.’ “So the little watch toiled pain fully up the stone steps, and at last stood by the big clock, and, looking out over the surging millions of London, the big clock said to the watch: ‘Little sister, there is a man down there on Westminster Bridge who wishes to know the hour. Will you tell him, please?’ And the little watch said: ‘Oh I could never make
him hear. My voice is so small it never could begin to carry in such a whirlwind of noise as this.’ “The big clock said: ‘Oh yes, little sister, I had forgotten; yet the man wishes to know the time, he requires to know, and you cannot tell him; but I can and will. So let us henceforth not criticize one an other. You will not find fault with me nor I find fault with you; but each of us in our own place, you for your mistress and I for the great city, will teach men every where to redeem the time.’ ” How should we pray? My father was a wonderful man of prayer. My earliest recollections are of hearing him pray at night in his study, which was next to the bed room where my brother Willie and I slept. I have known him time and again to rise in the middle of the night, and dress or wrap himself in
a quilt, and then kneel and pray. These prayers were sometimes continue.d very long; and in my own prayer life, which has been differently directed, there were years when I felt distressed that I was not led to do as my father did. I sometimes thought that I ought to do so irrespective of feelings, and sometimes that I ought to pray God to make me pray as my father did. But one day He said to me, “Do you wish to pray the way your fa ther did, or do you wish to pray the way I want you to?” I said, “Of course, I wish to pray the way you would have me; but it s eems as t h o u g h m y f a t h e r ’s prayers were more self-sacrificing, and, because they were, must be more pleasing to you.” And He said to me, “I am well able to tell you how I wish you to pray. You have nothing to do ex cept to be watchful and obedient. When I tell you to pray standing, stand and pray; and, when I tell you to rise from your bed, kneel, and pray, do that. Always do the thing I tell you to do, and you will be right in my sight.” This mes sage released me from bondage, and I have since been joyously free in this as well as in many other mat ters. I am sure that we have not at tained to even a small part of what God would be glad to do for us. I know that there are tens of thou sands of burdened hearts, men and women troubled with temptations of the adversary, troubled by the failures and defects of other peo ple, troubled by the lack of world ly resources, troubled by aches and pains in their bodies, troubled by failure to comprehend things which they need to know in order to carry forward their life-tasks success fully. And to all of these dear chil dren Jesus is saying now, just as He said long ago, “Ask, and you shall receive; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one who asks receives, and he that seeks finds, and to him that knocks it shall be opened.” END.
Deack We to Dell a S t
Thou who talked of lilies, Of sunshine and of rain; Of fishes and of ravens,
Of nettles and of grain . . . Thou who spoke of bottles, Of garments old and frayed, Of pearls and of pennies, Of foolish sheep that strayed . . . Thou who uttered stories About the things of earth Till men were turned toward heaven, From high and noble birth . . . Thou who talked to people Till truth was understood; Teach me to tell a story To wake men’s faith in God!
— Lon Woodrum
SEPTEMBER 1956
19
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker