Time

Brrore the creation of the world time did not

exist. God lived in eternity in a way which we little understand. With creation, time began, and everything was placed under its power. God has placed —

all living creatures under a law of slow growth. Think of the length of time it takes for a child to become a man in body and mind. In learning, in wisdom, in business, in handicraft, and in politics, everything somehow depends on patience and perseverance. Hverything needs time.

It is just the same in religion. There can be no converse with a holy God, no fellowship between heaven and earth, no power for the salvation of the souls of others, unless much time is set apart for it. Just as it is necessary for a child for long years to eat and learn every day, so the life of grace entirely depends on the time men are willing to give to it day by day.

The minister is appointed by God to teach and help those who are engaged in the ordinary avocations of life, to find time, and to use it aright for the preservation of the spiritual life. The minister cannot do this unless he himself has a living experience of a life of prayer. His highest calling is not preaching, or speaking, or parochial visitation, but it is to cultivate the life of God daily, and to be a SS = a ee a witness of what the Lord teaches him and accomplishes in him.

Was it not so with the Lord Jesus? Why must He, who had no sin to confess, sometimes spend all night in prayer to God? Because the Divine life had to be strengthened in intercourse with His Father. His experience of a life in which He took time for fellowship with God has enabled Him to share that life with us.

Oh, that each minister might understand that he has received his time from God with a servitude on it! God must have for fellowship with Himself the first and the best of your time. Without this, your preaching and labour have little power. Here on earth 1 may spend my time for the money or the learning which I receive in exchange. The minister can exchange his time for the Divine power, and the spiritual blessings to be obtained from heaven. That, and nothing else, makes him a man of God, and ensures that his preaching will be in the demonstration of the Spirit and power.