Gems for the Week
October 18
" . . . Keep thyself pure." (1 Timothy 5:22)
Sir Joshua Reynolds used to give a coat of white paint to all the canvas he used for his pictures before commencing to work. He said it gave luminousness and brilliance to the whole picture. That is a little parable for you. You are just beginning to paint a life picture. Let Jesus in to make the groundwork of your life white and pure.
Take the flower that hangs in the morning, impearled with dew, arrayed as no queenly woman ever was arrayed in jewels. Once shake it, so that the beads roll off, and you may sprinkle water over it as carefully as you please, yet it can never again be made what it was when the dew fell silently upon it from heaven.
On the frosty morning you may see the panes of glass covered with landscapes - mountains, lakes, trees, blended in a beautiful, fantastic picture. Now lay your hand upon the glass, and by the scratch of your finger, or by the warmth of your palm, all the delicate tracery will be obliterated! So there is in Youth a beauty and purity of character which, when once touched and defiled, can never be restored; a fringe more delicate than frost-work, and which, when torn and broken, will never be re-embroidered. (H.W. Beecher)
- The crimson of the sunset;
- The azure of the ocean;
- The green of the valleys;
- The scarlet of the poppies;
- The silver of the dewdrop;
- The gold of the gorse (spiney evergreen shrub):
- These are exquisitely beautiful
- God paints in many colours,
- But He never paints so gorgeously as when He paints in white!
(From - Mountain Trailways for Youth)
N.J. Hiebert # 3496
October 19
"It pleased King Darius to set over the kingdom 120 princes, which should be over the whole kingdom; and over these, three presidents of whom Daniel was first; and that the princes might give accounts unto them, and the king should have no damage. Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents, and princes, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm. Then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find none occasion or fault; forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him." (Daniel 6:1-4)
What a testimony! How truly refreshing to the heart! "No error or fault!" Even his most bitter enemies could not put their finger upon a single blemish in his character, or a flaw in his practical career. Truly this was a rare and admirable character - a bright witness for the God of Israel, even in the dark days of the Babylonish captivity - an unanswerable proof of the fact that no matter where we are situated, or how we are circumstanced, no matter how unfavourable our position, or how dark the day in which our lot is cast, it is our happy privilege so to carry ourselves, in all the details of daily life, as to give no occasion to the enemy to speak reproachfully.
How sad when it is otherwise! How humiliating when those who make a high profession are found constantly breaking down in the most common place affairs of domestic and commercial life! There are few things which more tend to discourage the heart than that. (C.H. Macintosh)
N.J. Hiebert # 3497
