Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-05
Christian Endeavor Hour
Conducted by Grace Livingston Hill-Lutz.

Conducted by Grace Livingston Hill-Lutz.
For Sunday, January 6. 1907.
Tope: BEGINNING With God and Continuing With
Him." Genesis i'll; John i:l-4; John XVII.
Genesis i'll: In the beginning God Gre
ated the heaven and the earth.
From the Twentieth Century New Testa-
nlent.
John i1-14-
AT the beginning the Word already was:
The Word was with God;
| The Word God.
He was. with God at the Beginning;
1t was through Him that everything began,
And not a single thing began apart from
him.
That which began in him was Life itself;
That Life the Light of mankind
And that Light has been shining in the
darkness
And the darkness has never overpowered it.
There appeared, with a message from God,
man whose name was John;
He came to bear testimony-to testify to
the Light,
That every one, through him, might come
to believe in it.
Not that he was the Light,
But his part was to testify to the Light.
That Light was the true Light which en-
world.
He already in the world;
Through Him the world began,
Yet the world did not recognize Him.
He came to what was His own
Yet those who We're His own did not re-
ceve him;
But to all who did He gave the right to be-
come children of God
To those who believe in Him.
1t was not to natural conception, nor to hu-
man instincts, nor to any mans choice.
But to God Himself that they owed this
Life.
The Word then beanie man, and made
home among US,
eve saw the honor given Him-such honor
as an only son receives from his father,
And He abounded in mercy and truth.
From the New Testament in current
English. By Ferrar Fenton. John xv:4-7:
Remain Me, for I am with you. AS
the branch cannot be fruitful of itself I'M
less it remains upon the vine, so neither
can you, unless you remain on Me. l am
the Vine; you are the branches He who
remains on Me, and l with him. he pro-
duces plenty of fruit because, severed
from Me, you can produce nothing. Any
one not remaining Me, is at once thrown
away as a branch, and withers; they are
then collected thrown into the fire and
burned. If you remain on Me, and My
teaching remains in you, what you may
wish you shall ask for and 1t Will come
to you.
Did you ever get up in the morning with
an object in view to be attained before
night, some great undertaking which you
felt must be accomplished and in which you
took great pride and pleasure, and then
as you passed out into the day and found
at the very threshold of your chamber lit
tie minor affairs demanding your attention,
| which you gave, taking more time than
you realized. and you feeling that there
was plenty of time yet remaining for you to
accomplish your great purpose, on you went,
turning aside to every little affair, until
suddenly the light of the sun grew lower
with departure, and you all at once realized
that night was coming on and you had not
yet begun the principal undertaking of
your day? You have looked back over
that failure at night with bitter regret, and
told yourself again and again that you
should have let everything else go and
done the one thing needful to attain your
end.
1t is so with our Christian living The
one great first thing we leave until the
last. We resolve and resolve to do better
each day, to make a day full Of success
and right living rather than failure and re-
greet and yet the days doings crowd in and
| we forget, and night comes and we have
| lost our tempers over and over again and
| tailed at every point where we meant to
| succeed. The whole trouble lay in the
| fact that when we arose in the morning we
| did not make that one thing-the being
| good all day-the principal thing We for
got to claim Christ's help to begin with.
A missionary to foreign land once COM
| planned that though he arose at O'Clock
In the morning he found the natives abou,
| his door awaiting his orders; a little later
came breakfast and his hour at the dis
| pensary then visitors desiring spiritual as
| sistance; then his school and his various
meetings. and at last the sixteen hours Oh
| his day were over and he had had no time
| alone to commune with his Heavenly
| Father and gain strength for the day. He
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| spiritual life that he should take a little
| time alone with God before going out OF
| his bed chamber, else other things would
! be sure to crowd in and hinder
And now as you make your resolves fol-
| the New Year-to be better and all that
/ why not begin right away with God? Why
| not make 1t a rule-and carry 1t Quito
| pray the moment you awake and to read al
| least verse in your Bible before leaving
| your room? Why not decide to make all
| engagements bow before your regular Sun.
| day and midweek church engagements;
| Then If company comes on Sunday you car
| graciously excuse yourself and say II have
a previous engagement looking up to
your Father with an honest heart. Why
] not decide to let Gods will come first be-
/ fore your own? 1t is only In so doing that
| you will let Gods will come at all, for once
| give your own the lead and It will make
| you follow all the year 1t is necessary tc
make God first If you would have Him al
| the end. There is absolutely no spiritual
| life apart from Him.
Applied Truth.
! "Our life and service will be enriched be.
yond telling by enthroning Christ This. OF
| course, involves the breaking of all GU,
idols. for He will not share His throne
| with any. When Mahmoud, the conQuero1
of India, had taken the city of Gujarat he
proceeded, his custom to destroy
| the idols. There was one fifteen feet high
| which its priests and devotees begged him
| to spare. He was deaf to their entreaties
and Selling a hammer he struck 1t one
| blow, when, to his amazement from the
| shattered image there rained down at hi.
feet shower of gems. pearls and dia.
| monds-treasure of fabulous value which
had been hidden within it. Had he spared
| the idol he would have lost all the wealth
| Let us not spare idols. 1t is to oul
| interest to demoish them If we shatte,
| them there will rain about our hearts tn,
| very treasures of heaven, the gifts an6
graces of the Holy Spirit; but II we spare
our idol we will miss riches unsearchable
The consecrated life is Christ-centere6
life, the only truly centered life; every
| other life is eccentric; yet how often dc
we hear worldly people criticising some de
| voted spirit-flled man or woman as sc
eccentric simply because of their loyalty
| to Christ their King, when all the while Il
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