by J. R. Miller
in ePub, .mobi & .pdf formats
"Come with Me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." Mark 6:31
In Wellesley College, a special feature of the daily life of the household is the morning and evening "silent time." Both at the opening and closing of the day, there is a brief period, marked by the strokes of a bell, in which all the house is quiet. Every pupil is in her room. There is no conversation. No step is heard in the corridors. The whole great house with its thronging life—is as quiet as if all its hundreds of inhabitants were sleeping. There is no positively prescribed way of spending these silent minutes in the rooms—but it is understood that all whose hearts so incline them, shall devote the time to devotional reading, meditation, and prayer. At least, the design of establishing this period of quiet, as part of the daily life of the school, is to give opportunity for such devotional exercises, and by its solemn hush to suggest to all—the fitness, the helpfulness, and the need of such periods of communion with God. The bell that calls for silence, also calls to thought and prayer; and even the most indifferent must be affected by its continual recurrence.
Every true Christian life needs its daily "silent times," when all shall be still, when the busy activity of other hours shall cease, and when the heart, in holy hush, shall commune with God. One of the greatest needs in Christian life in these days, is more devotion. Ours is not an age of prayer so much as an age of work. The tendency is to action rather than to worship; to busy toil rather than to quiet sitting at the Savior's feet to commune with him. The key-note of our present Christian life is consecration, which is understood to mean dedication to active service. On every hand we are incited to work. Our zeal is stirred by every inspiring incentive. The calls to duty come to us from a thousand earnest voices.
And this is well. There is little fear that we shall ever grow too earnest in working for our Master, or that our enthusiasm in his service shall ever become too intense. We are set on earth to toil for the world's good, and for God's glory. The day's heat is not to draw us from our active duty. Until death comes, as God's messenger to call us from toil—we are not to seek to be freed from Christian service. Devotion is not all—Peter wished to stay on the Mount of Transfiguration, to go back no more to the cold, sin-stricken world below; but no! Down at the mountain's base, human suffering and sorrow were waiting for the coming of the Healer, and the Master and his disciples must leave the rapture of heavenly communion, and hasten down to carry healing and comfort. It is always so. While we enjoy the blessedness of communion with God in the closet, there come in at our closed doors, and break upon our ears—the cries of human need and sorrow outside. Amid the raptures of devotion, we hear the calls of duty waiting without. We should never allow our ecstasies of spiritual enjoyment, to make us forgetful of the needs of others around us. Even the Mount of Transfiguration must not hold us away from ministry.
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Table of Contents
1. Silent Times
2. Personal Friendship with Christ
3. Having Christ in Us
4. Copying but a Fragment
5. Your Will—Not Mine
6. God's Reserve of Goodness
7. The Blessing of Not Getting
8. "Afterward"
9. The Blessedness of Longing
10. The Cost and Worth of Sympathy
11. Finding One's Mission
12. Living up to Our Best Intentions
13. Life's Double Ministry
14. The Ministry of Well-wishing
15. Helping Without Money
16. Timeliness in Duty
17. The Office of Consoler
18. Living by the Day
19. Habits in Religious Life
20. The Power of the Tongue
21. The Home Conversation
22. A Bible Portrait of Christian Motherhood
23. Sorrow in Christian Homes
24. Dealing with Our Sins and Errors