Gems for the Week
August 1
"God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)
A young man, the son of a wealthy Christian gentleman, had become wayward and extravagant in his habits. Finally, after quarreling with his father because he refused him the money he demanded, he left home in anger, and gave himself to a reckless life. For a long time he continued an abandoned wanderer, eventually finding himself in financial straits. Being brought to the verge of desperation, he determined to break into his father's house in the absence of the family, thinking that he could find means to relieve his necessity.
He succeeded in entering the house and breaking open the safe. He searched among some valuable papers and found his father's will. With curious eye he began reading it, and to his utter astonishment he found his name among the heirs, and a large bequest set against it. At first he could hardly believe his eyes. The father with whom he had quarreled, against whom he had cherished such bitterness and hatred, loved him still!
"Can it be that in spite of all the dishonour I have brought upon him, he is still ready to treat me as a son?" And such was the effect of these thoughts, that it was the means of binging him to repentance and reconciliation with his father.
There are many whose thoughts of God have been just the same. But oh, if only you knew that He is longing to embrace you, and to cleanse you, and to assure you of full and free forgiveness of ALL your sins and to tell you of the inheritance which is waiting for you in heaven. (Selected)
N.J. Hiebert # 3418
August 2
"But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ." (Philippians 3:7)
When they buried the blind preacher, George Matheson, they lined his grave with red roses in memory of his love-life of sacrifice. And it was this man, so beautifully and significantly honoured, who wrote,
"O love that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in Thee,
I give Thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be."
"O Light that followest all my way,
I yield my flickering torch to Thee,
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
That in Thy sunshine's blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be."
"O joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to Thee,
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And know the promise is not vain,
That morn shall tearless be."
"O cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from Thee,
I lay in dust life's glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red,
Life that shall endless be."
N.J. Hiebert # 3419
