1-7

EPIPHANY-GOD'S

THRONE

7

God reigneth over the nations: God sitteth upon His holy

throne. Ps. 47:8

God's on his throne,

All's well with the world.

-Robert Browning.

Now had the Almighty Father from above;
From the pure Empyrean where he sits
High-throned above all height, bent down his eye
His own works and their works at once to view;
About him all the sanctities of Heaven

Stood thick as stars, and from his sight received
Beatitude past utterance: on His right

The radiant image of His glory sat

His only Son.

-John Milton.

HERE is great comfort in this vision of God upon His throne. The throne stands for the symbol of government in the universe; it pre-eminently suggests power, personal and resistless power. The sight gives calmness to the mind and trustfulness to the heart. (Rising in a balloon all the discordant sounds of earth finally blend in a harmonious psalm. In like manner the vision of the throne suggests the unitive and harmonious dominance of God in a world of sin and sorrow. Amid all the trials and disappointments of earth, there is a sense of unbroken calmness and indescribable joyousness as our gaze rests upon this majestic throne; it is the revelation of a government unspeakably glorious and amazingly powerful. As we listen to the thunderings and the voices, holy awe fills our soul and responsive love moves our heart.

I will be glad and exult in Thee; I will sing praise to Thy name, O Thou Most High. For Thou hast maintained my right and my cause; Thou sittest in the throne judging righteously. Amen. Ps. 9: 1, 2, 4.

Seek and ye shall find. He that seeketh, findeth.

7:7, 8.

Matt.

Asleep, awake, by night or day,

The friends I seek are seeking me.
No wind can drive my bark astray,
Nor change the tide of destiny.
The waters know their own and draw

The brook that springs on yonder heights,
So flows the good in equal law

Unto the soul of pure delights.

-John Burroughs.

HE law of seeking in order to find is in harmony with the rule of life in every department of effort. If a man wants money he must seek it; if he wants learning, he must pay its price in hard study. Ignorance he may have without effort. Toil is evermore the standard of value. Cost and worth are ever close neighbors. Only by the rugged paths of toil do men reach the heights of great attainments; only by paying the price of heroic effort do they write their names high in the temple of fame. There is no road to heaven but that of sacrifice, that of cross-bearing. We must go on in this narrow way or not at all. You must not expect to become a Christian by accident. That blessed experience must be the result of deliberate determination, of intelligent seeking, and of faithful endurance.

When Thou saidst, seek ye My face; my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Jehovah, will I seek. Hide not Thy face from me; put not Thy servant away in anger. Amen. Ps. 27:8, 9.

1-9

SEEKING-FINDING-DUTIFULNESS

9

Fear God and keep His commandments; for this is the whole duty of man. Eccles. 12: 13.

W

What shall I do to gain eternal life?
Discharge aright

The simple duties with which each day is rife,
Yea, with thy might.

Ere perfect scheme of action thou devise
Will life be fled;

While he who acts as conscience cries,
Shall live though dead.

-John Christopher Frederick Von Schiller.

Duty wears one face, but a thousand masks,
Thy feet she leads to glittering peaks, while mine
She guides midst brambled roadways.

-Emma Lazarus.

E are to live in the faithful performance of all our duties to God. Duty to God includes all other duties. The word "duty" was once spelled duety; duty, therefore, is just what is due in one's varied relations-due to ourselves, due to our fellow men and due to God. We begin with our duty to ourselves; we move forward in the widering sphere of our duty to our fellow men, and now our sphere has still widened until it has reached beyond this to its utmost limit in duty to God. The apostle has told us that whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do, all is to be done to the glory of God. Personal and relative duties are to be performed with reference to God's commands and with an eye single to His glory; but there are direct duties which we owe to God, and which ought to be emphasized, such as repentance and faith, without which it is impossible to please Him.

As for me in the abundance of Thy loving-kindness will come into Thy house; in Thy fear will I worship toward Thy holy temple. Lead me, O Jehovah, in Thy righteousness; make Thy way straight before my face. Amen. Ps. 5:5,

Come up to me into the mount, and be there and I will give thee... the law and the commandment. Ex. 24:12.

R

I saw the mountain stand
Silent, wonderful and grand,
Looking out across the land;
When the golden light was falling,
On distant domes and spires;

And I heard a low voice calling,

66

Come up higher, come up higher,"

From the lowland and the mire,

From the mist of earth desire,
From the vain pursuit of pelf,

From the attitude of self,

"Come up higher, come up higher."

-James Freeman Clark.

ELIGION holds the body in high honor, and for that

very reason, religion teaches that our bodily life should be pure and holy. The lower place is the rightful place for the lower nature. Only as that nature usurps the higher place does it become dangerous. Self-control includes also a proper restraint even upon the more refined and esthetic elements of our nature. These rightly have a sphere of operation; and within that sphere they are to be properly indulged. Christ loved the beautiful in creation. To cloud and mountain, to flower and forest, God has given beauty not necessary for purposes of utility. Beautiful homes adorned with statuary and paintings and books, and all else that may minister to cultured minds, have their place within discreet limitations, and when used for proper ends; but the old-fashioned virtues of economy, simplicity and honesty need to be earnestly emphasized in our day.

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Ps. 51: A perverse heart shall depart from me: I will know no evil thing. Amen. Ps.

IOI: 4.

10.

1-11

LIVING UP HIGHER-CONTENTMENT

11

Be ye free from the love of money; content with such things as ye have; for Himself hath said, I will in no wise fail Thee, neither will I in any wise forsake Thee. Heb. 13: 5.

Let's live with that small pittance which we have;
Who covets more is evermore a slave.

-Robert Herrick.

I am content with what I have,

Little be it or much;

And Lord, contentment still I crave
Because thou saveth such.

-John Bunyan.

(XTRAVAGANCE is one of the crying evils of the hour. The fountains of benevolence are often dried up because of the desire to minister to self-indulgence. The spirit of self-sacrifice for the glory of God and the good of men needs to be earnestly cultivated in many churches and homes. When Christians forget that the highest aim in life is to advance the kingdom of God in the world they degrade themselves to the level of men and women who live for this world alone. Christians alone are able rightly to use all that God has made to minister to the beauty of character, the purity of Christianity, and the glory of earthly existence. But when they change the use of these gifts into abuse, they take the crown from their brows and consent to be the children of time rather than of eternity, the sons and daughters of the world rather than of God.

Remove far from me falsehood and lies; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me: lest I be full, and deny Thee, and say, who is Jehovah? Or lest I be poor, and steal and use profanely the name of my God. Amen. Prov. 30: 8, 9.