Milford chronicle., 1906-04-27

Of sacred devotion in which we should
hold secret communion with him. those
hours of secret prayer and Bible read
ing which are so essential for our own
spiritual life. You know that in that
discourse 9n prayer in which our Lord
describes that exercise he commands
us to pray in secret as well as to pray
openly. In Matthew we read, when
thou prayest enter into thy closet, and
when thou hast shut thy door pray to
thy Father who is in secret, and thy
Father who is in secret shall reward
thee openly" But. though God com
mands us to have our secret hours Of
holy communion with him and though
the Christian world thinks that we, as
protesting Christians, have those sa-
cred hours. yet how often do we steal
away from God these hours which
should be devoted to him. In other
words, We want to try to do spiritual
work and win spiritual conquests with
out first making the necessary spiritual
preparation for our own souls.
Want a short Cut.
| We are in exactly the same position
in a spiritual sense as is the young
man in a temporal sense who wishes
to leave the we'll beaten paths of work
and take short cut up the mountain
of fame. Here, for instance, is the
young man. He wishes to he a lawyer.
He goes to an old lawyer and says:
Judge. would like to be a lawyer.
What shall dO?" What do you know.
my boy?" is the natural question.
"Oh." says the young man, Il have
only been to school few years and
studied the common branches"
"Then," says the old lawyer, what
would do is to go back to school.
Study, study. study! Fit yourself for
college, Then go through the law
school. Sharpen your weapons first be-
fore you go into battle" "Unnecessa-
ry," answers the young man. What
is the good of spending the next ten
years of my life in rummaging through
musty tones? l do not care what the
Roman law was. What l wish to know
is what is the law of today" SO the
young man refuses to sit at the feet Of
the wise Gamaliels of the great law
schools. He goes at once into law Of
fee. He is coached along and stumbles
along, and in a couple of years, an un-
developed boy, or, rather, an immature
man, he is admitted to the bar. He is
like a cripple with two wooden crutch-
es and one good leg trying to win a
race in the Olympian games against
the finest athletes of all Greece. He is
like an old Chinese junk, with its long
banks of oars and antiquated javelins,
going forth to naval conflict with the
armor plated cruisers of the modern
navy Thus with us. We want to do
Gods work. We desire to win Gods |
victories. But we are not willing to |
make our necessary spiritual prepara- |
tions for the same. We are not willing |
to do what God commands us TO do.
We are not willing to regularly and !
systematically hold certain hours of
each day sacred for prayer and for Sc
cret communion with God.
Got Their Moneys Worth.
Sometimes it is religious work itself
that monopolizes the time. l remem-
Der dear classmate of mine who as
theological student was asked to preach
in a little church near TO where used
to preach as u student. This church
was not able to support a regular pas
tor. 1t was way back in the country.
So when it got a man to preach for a
Sunday it worked him as hard as some
people drive horse which they hire
from the livery stable for Il day. They
wanted to get the full worth of their
Thus they got this young man
up early to lead the Sunday school and
teach a Bible class. Then he conduct
ed a morning service: then after hur-
ried dinner they drove him back into
the mountains, where he had another
Sunday school to lead and another ser
mon to preach and u Christian Endeav-
Or society to address; then they ran
him back to the main church again,
where he had Young Peoples society
meeting at which to speak and then
another sermon to- preach. In other
words, from early morning until 10
o'clock at night he was speaking or
working all the time. l met him next
lay and said, "Well, Howard, how did
you get On?" "Get on" he answered.
Why. 1 had so much to do that when
crawled into bed that night / was
tagged out. l was so tired
hat I could not even say my prayers.
Just said, % Lord, have been pray
ng so much for other people that
I'M just too tired to pray for myself! " :
laughed. But for years and years
hat picture of that tired boy has al
ways been before me. All, l say to
myself, how often we get so tired with
Meeting the many engagements Of life
hat we do not take the needed hours
or prayer, for Bible reading and for
with God for our own
ouls! y
But. though you and 1 may have :
many engagements, have we any en- =,
,agements so important that we can !
.fford to neglect the sacred hours we
ught to take every day of our life for Y
ecret communion with Christ? You '
now that many and many a literary :,