Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-11-03

l NoiiiS. DiSSSOo jesus, i dul sun viii
Thee If you will learn for a time to put
aside other work and to get into this abid-
| Ing contact with the Heavenly Vine you
will find that fruit will come. What is the
| application to our life of this abiding COM
| munion? What does 1t mean? 1t means
close fellowship with Christ in secret
prayer. Close personal actual COM
munion with Christ is an absolute neces-
sity for daily life. Take time to be alone
with Christ. Oh, how many Chris
tians look upon this as a burden and a
much alone with God. tell you in
| the name Of the Heavenly Vine that you
cannot be healthy branches into which the
| heavenly sap can flow unless you take plen-
| you are not willing to sacrifice the time
| to get alone with Him, and to give Him
| time every day to work in you and to keep
| up the link of connection between you and
himself, He cannot give you that blessing
| of His unbroken fellowship. Jesus Christ
| asks you to live in close communion with
Him Let every heart say: oh. Christ
And He will gladly give 1t, YOU"
| F. B. Meyer says:
| Religion, re-lglo, Latin word meaning
! L bnd'-it is the binding of the heart to
| the Lord. No, I recall that it is better:
| He that Is joined to the Lord is one spirit
| o Christ, Thou art one with me, to make
me one with Thee, world without end!
| You know, of course, that an egg has in 1t
| a little embryo Of life, and the nutriment.
| the viscous fluid upon which it shall grow;
! and every day the little life germ pecks
| into this more and more and the chick Is
| formed in the she'll Until now there has
| in your life than of Christ, but from now
| the Christ is going to grow and increase
| and absorb into himself everything else
| and be formed in you. How can
| human words tell what Christ is prepared
| to be? In that day We shall know that
am In the Father, and We in me, and IN
you"
Henry Drummond in Natural Law In the
| Spiritual World" says:
Communion with God-can it be demon
| strated in terms of science that this Is a
/ correspondence that will never break? We
do not appeal to science for such teStl-
! mony. We have asked for it's conception OF
| eternal life, and we have received for an
| swer that eternal life would consist in
| correspondence which would never cease,
| with an environment which would never
| pass away. And yet what would science
| demand of a perfect correspondence that
| is not met by this, the knowing of God?
could satisfy one at least of the con-
| ditions. Not one could be named which
would not bear on the face OF 1t the
mark and pledge of it's mortality. But
| this, to know God, stands alone. To know
God, to be linked with God to be linked
with eternity-if this is not the eternal
! existence of biology, what can more nearly
| approach it?"
| And again in THE Changed Life: ITO
have lived with Christ must have made
one like Christ. Day by day we can
almost the first disciples grow. One
| day they find themselves. like their Master,
| going about doing good. To themselves
| it was unaccoun.able, but they cannot DO
otherwise. They were not told to do 1t,
| it came to them to do it, But the people
| who watch them know well how to ac-
count for it-They have been with Jesus,
| they whisper. Unparalleled phenomenon;
that these poor fishermen should REMIND
l - ;rff
modern men today make Christ, the absent
Christ, their most constant companion stlil:
The answer is that friendship is a spiritual
thing. Make Christ Your most con-
slant companion. Be more under His IN
fiuence than under any other influence. Ten
minutes spent in His society every day, ay,
two minutes if 1t be face to face and
heart to heart will make the whole day
different Every character has an inward
spring, let Christ be it. Every action mas
keynote, let Christ set 1t.
Applied Truth.
You go past the dwelling Of your neigh
| Dor. The door is closed that is wont hos
pitably to be opened. The windows are
all shut. The curtains are down. There
is no sound of pleasure in the yard. There
is no coming or going of industrious feet.
And you say, The master is gone. Did
you see him go? You did not. Have you
searched the house? You have not. But
! there were certain tOkeIS WHen Lc was
present by which you judged he was there.
| Tomorrow you go past the same dwelling
again, and the door stands open. the WIN
dows are no longer closed, the curtains
are rolled up, there are merry sounds rlng-
| ing in the house and in the yard, and there
| is smoke rising from the chimney. Now
there is quite different state of things;
and you say All! the father has got home
| because there many things that
| indicate it. These effects are evidences to
| you that he is present. Now the same thing
| is true of the chamber, the dwelling of a
| mans soul. When God is present certain
| things bear witness and the witnessing of
| these things is evidence of God present
with u.s. and it is to be taken as a mani
| festation of that presence. '-Beecher.
There was once young girl whose beau
| tiful Christian character was the wonder
| of all who knew her. Around her neck
| she wore locket which no one was ever
allowed to open, but once a dear friend
was given permission to touch the spring
and look within, and there she saw the
words written. Whom not having seen,
| love-" The secret Of her beautiful life
was that she was in constant communica-
| ton with Christ.
How to Help the Leader.
| Speak of your own experience in prayer,
and whether you have been able to feel
the presence of Christ. If all members
would speak freely in this way you might
Parallel passages.-I John, iii:27; Psalms,
xci:1; Psalms, civ:34; Psalms. Ncv:l;
Psalms, lxii:1; Psalms, lXxiii:2o; jeremiah,
xxXi:12; Pcalms, cxXxviii:17. IS.
Hints to the leader.-The Endeavor Hymn
| nal-1O, 80, So, AZ, "A, 81, 112.
If you have not had the sweet experience
of feeling Christs presence as you pray you
should first kneel and implOre Him to mani
fest himself to you in SINE way SO that
your heart may understand. Establish COM
! munication with heaven. Preparation for
this meeting should be made in prayer. 1t
is a solemn thing to try to tel of the Won
derful friendship all may have with Jesus,
unless you have experienced it yourself. 1t
is like trying to demonstrate to a guest the
workings of telephone when your own is
out of order. You must be able to say, Il
know this is true" and then with all your
heart try to make the others see the posi-
bilities for themselves in communion with
Christ If this one topic could be studied
by your society as it ought there would be
no more trouble about success. 1t is the
secret Of strong Christian lives.
Have much prayer In your meeting. En-
deavor to have every one present pray at
least one sentence.
IT'S only heaven that is given away,
TITS only God may be had for the asking.
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.
Hush. / pray you!