The Penn's Grove record., 1904-01-22

plration, out to whom all our energies run
and upon whom all our ambitions and ac-
tlvities terminate.
Lord, let me not he too content.
With life in trifiing service spent,
Make me- aspire.
When days with petty cares are filled,
Let me with holy thoughts be TIL lied
OF something higher"
This must be our constant prayer, If we
are t. run the hurried and hurrying race OF
modern life and preserve our equipoise
through it all; and that something high
er" to which we must aspire is the service
OF Christ. Let a man begln to 1--we his LIE
in devotion to Him. for His sake and unto
His honor, turning all the intensity and en-
terprise of his strenuous existence toward
that as his goal, and his life will speedily
lose its feYerish heat and grow calm and
steadfast and serene. He ICED not slacken
his pace a bit. If that be its goal, be may
continue to run and on to its close he will
remain patient despite his e~nviroLing con-
dltions. He may make haste to get rich
to acquire leadership, to attain success, to
exait Jesus Christ instead of sell, if the un-
seen be his chief aim and aspiration, and
the material but a means thereunto, he
will go through life p~atient-proof. and the
tumult and fever of the lge will never get
into his soul.
For this is peace-to lose the lonely note
OF self in loves celestial-ordered strain;
And this is joy-to find ones self again
In Him whose harmonies forever float
Through all the spheres Of song, below,
above,
For God is music. even as God is love-"
OH this is what our hard-headed BUSH
ness men need, this is what our nervous,
seif-centered society women need, this 10
the great need Of our ambitious and eager
youth, to make Jesus Christ, His glory and
service the SOLDERING, absorbing, controlling
ambition of their lives. Is this not the
first great look our author commends to Us
looking unto Jesus, as our supreme pur-
pose? And what is the second.
Second-Looking unto Jesus for power in
our lives, as our great emancipation from
the bondage of this materialistic age.
'Have you ever thought, my friend,
As you daily toll and plod
In the noisy paths of men,
How still are the ways Of God2
Have you ever paused in the din
Ot trafic3s lnslstent cry,
To thin of the calm in the cloud,
Of the peace IN your glimpse of the skyg
Go out in the quiet fields,
That quietly yield you meat,
And let them rebuke your noise,
Whose patience is still and sweet"
Jesus Christ alone can bring the quiet
ness of the fields and the calmness of the
cloud in+o our-being. TO Him we turn, as
t. its first great source, would we have the
same atmosphere blowing through our
souls. You know Nine. Guyon's definition
of prayer: "'The silence of a soul absorbed
in God" And Tennyson's, If possible, was
even better: prayer is ike opening 4
sluice between the great ocean and our ~
tie channels, when the great sea gathers IT
| self together and flows in at full time IL
| xTca1 and nronid RIM with naEQnQo we
too, must let this tide flow into our lives,
and that can never be until we live in close
touch with Jesus Christ, seek His help at
every turn, draw upon Him for our
strength and depend upon His grace for
sustaining and transforming power. Henry
Drummond once said: Five minutes in
the morning alone with Christ will change
for us the whole day" What then would
all the minutes of all the days in union
with Him do for US?
"Have you and I to-day
Stood silent as with Christ, apart from JOY
or fray
OF life, to see His face;
To look, if but a moment, in its grace,
And grow, by brief companionship. more
true,
More nerved to lead, to dare, to do
For Him at any cost? Have we to-day
Found time, in thought, our hand to lay
In His, and thus compare
His will with ours, and wear
The impress of His wish? Be sure
Such contact will endure
Throughout the day; will help us walk
erect
Through storm and food; detect
Within the hidden life sins dross, its
stain;
Revive a thought of love for Him again;
Steady the steps which waver; help us see
The footpath meant for you, and me-"
Forever true it is that those who run
LIES race patiently are pre-eminently men
of prayer.
Third-What is the third look? Look
ing unto Jesus as 4 pattern for our lives
There is something about this pattern Pc
culiar to itself. Expressed IN a word, it
has the perspective OF eternity. Christ
lived His life not to crafty a aeeting,
temporal, selfish sense. like a~varice, fame,
success, pleasure, but to fulfill a God-glven
mission, to reach up to a divine standard,
and work out an eternal equation. Put to-
gether three heart utteranees of His and
the full pattern will be before you: Il do
always the things that please Him"-duty
to His Father, His will ever yielding itself
to the will of God. "I am come that they
might have life and that they might have
it more abundantly"-duty to men and
complete dedication of Himself to the full
hllment of that duty. Z must work the
works of Him that sent Me"-duty to Him
self as "the sent of Cod whose one pas
sion was to make His life justify its high
purpose. As some one has phrased it.:
"0n one great mission bent,
He sped for God, forever u~nencumbered
Of earthly clogs whereby our souls are
numbered,
In glory excellent"
Keep this pattern before you. my fellow
runners, consult it the first thing in the
morning, turning to it often through the
day, and let it be the last thing you look
upon at night ere your eyes forget to see,
and you will be too serious to be otherwise
than calm of soul; too much in earnest to
lose your poise, too set upon linking oery
moment of time with eternity and va
ing out the answer of your life to God to
let temporal aim command you or sordid
things enslave you. Then the weights shall
be lifted off the inner and laid hard down
Upon the outward life. and you viii con-
tinue to run-perhaps, your pace may
quicken-lfe viii be a prompt, an earnest,
eager, intense race, but you will run it
clean down to the end with patience. This
is the trinal secret / bring you: Christ the
purpose of our lives. Christ the power in
our livesi Christ the pattern for our hyesl
Common Days.