Part 24 (1/2)
=And coming into his own country he taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's son?
is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joseph, and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us?
Whence then hath this man all these things? And they were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country, and in his own house. And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.--Matt. 13:54-58.=
_Almighty G.o.d, our Heavenly Father, we desire to come to Thee in all humility and sincerity. We are sinful; pardon Thou us. We are ignorant; enlighten Thou our darkness. We are weak; inspire us with strength. In these times of doubt, uncertainty, and trial, may we ever feel conscious of Thine everlasting light. Soul of our soul!
Inmost Light of truth! Manifest Thyself unto us amid all shadows.
Guide us in faith, hope, and love, until the perfect day shall dawn, and we shall know as we are known._
_Almighty G.o.d, teach us, we pray Thee, by blessed experience, to apprehend what was meant of old when Jesus Christ was called the power of G.o.d unto salvation, for we stand in need of salvation from sin, from doubt, from weakness, from craven fear; we cannot save ourselves; we are creatures of a day, short-sighted, and too often driven about by every wind of pa.s.sion and opinion. We need to be stayed upon a higher strength. We need to lay hold of Thee. Manifest Thyself unto us, our Father, as the Saviour of our souls, and deliver us from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of G.o.d. Amen._--John Hunter.
Eleventh Week, Fourth Day
Not only is man's power to appropriate the divine blessing dependent on faith; in the experience of the New Testament man's power of achievement has the same source.
=Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast it out? And he saith unto them, Because of your little faith: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.--Matt.
17:19, 20.=
Mountains are symbols of difficulty, and the Master's affirmation here that faith alone can remove them is clearly confirmed in human experience. It may seem at times as though faith, compared with the obstacles, were like a minute mustard seed before the ranges of Lebanon, but faith can overcome even that disproportion in size. Great leaders always must have such confidence. Listen to Mazzini: ”The people lack faith ... the faith that arouses the mult.i.tudes, faith in their own destiny, in their own mission, and in the mission of the epoch; the faith that combats and prays; the faith that enlightens and bids men advance fearlessly in the ways of G.o.d and humanity, with the sword of the people in their hand, the religion of the people in their heart, and the future of the people in their soul.” In any great movement for human good, the ultimate and deciding question always is: How many people can be found who have faith enough to believe in the cause and its triumph? When enough folk have faith, any campaign for human welfare can be won. Without faith men ”collapse into a yielding ma.s.s of plaintiveness and fear”; with faith they move mountains. And when men have faith in Christ as G.o.d's Revealor--faith, not formal and abstract, but real and vital--they begin to feel about the word ”impossible” as Mirabeau did, ”Never mention to me again that blockhead of a word!”
_O G.o.d, our Father, our souls are made sick by the sight of hunger and want and nakedness; of little children bearing on their bent backs the burden of the world's work; of motherhood drawn under the grinding wheels of modern industry; and of overburdened manhood, with empty hands, stumbling and falling._
_Help us to understand that it is not Thy purpose to do away with life's struggle, but that Thou desirest us to make the conditions of that struggle just and its results fair._
_Enable us to know that we may bring this to pa.s.s only through love and sympathy and understanding; only as we realize that all are alike Thy children--the rich and the poor, the strong and the weak, the fortunate and the unfortunate. And so, our Father, give us an ever-truer sense of human sisterhood; that with patience and steadfastness we may do our part in ending the injustice that is in the land, so that all may rejoice in the fruits of their toil and be glad in Thy suns.h.i.+ne._
_Keep us in hope and courage even amid the vastness of the undertaking and the slowness of the progress, and sustain us with the knowledge that our times are in Thy hand. Amen._--Helen Ring Robinson.
Eleventh Week, Fifth Day
Faith in Christ has always been consummated, in the experience to which the New Testament introduces us, in an inward transformation of life.
=I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of G.o.d, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.--Gal. 2:20.=
Such conversion of life is the normal result of a vital fellows.h.i.+p whose bond is faith. For one thing, a man at once begins to care a great deal more about his own quality when he believes in Christ and in Christ's love. ”What a King stoops to pick up from the mire cannot be a bra.s.s farthing, but must be a pearl of great price.” To be loved by anyone is to enter into a new estimate of one's possible value; to be loved by G.o.d in Christ is to come into an experience where our possible value makes us alike ashamed of what we are and jubilant over what we may become. We begin saying with Irenaeus, ”Jesus Christ became what we are that he might make us what he is.” And then, faith, ripening into fellows.h.i.+p, opening the life sensitively to the influence of the friend, issues in a character infused by the friend's character. He lives in us. Such transformation of life does not happen in a moment; it requires more than instantaneous exposure to take the Lord's picture on a human heart; but time-exposure will do it, and ”Christ in us” be alike our hope of glory and our secret of influence.
_O Father Eternal, we thank Thee for the new and living way into Thy presence made for us in Christ; the way of trust, sincerity, and sacrifice. Beneath His cross we would take our stand, in communion with His Spirit would we pray, in fellows.h.i.+p with the whole Church of Christ we would seek to know Thy mind and will._
_We desire to know all the fulness of Christ, to appropriate His unsearchable riches, to feed on His humanity whereby Thou hast become to us the bread of our inmost souls and the wine of life, to become partakers of Thy nature, share Thy glory, and become one with Thee through Him._
_Give unto us fellows.h.i.+p with His sufferings and insight into the mystery of His cross, so that we may be indeed crucified with Him, be raised to newness of life, and be hidden with Christ in Thee._
_We desire to make thankful offering of ourselves as members of the body of Christ; in union with all the members may we obey our unseen Head, so that the Body may be undivided, and Thy love, and healing power, and very Self may be incarnate on the earth in one Holy Universal Church. Amen._--W. E. Orchard.
Eleventh Week, Sixth Day
With faith in Christ so seen as the secret of divine forgiveness and a.s.sistance, of achieving power and inward transformation, there can be little surprise at the solicitude which the New Testament shows concerning the disciples' faith. We find this urgent interest in Paul:
=Wherefore when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left behind at Athens alone; and sent Timothy, our brother and G.o.d's minister in the gospel of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith; ... night and day praying exceedingly that we may see your face, and may perfect that which is lacking in your faith.--I Thess. 3:1, 2, 10.=