Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 213, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 September 1918 — An Hour a Day With Jesus [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

An Hour a Day With Jesus

By REV. HOWARD W. POPE

Moody Bible Institute, Chicago

TEXT—What! Could ye not watch With me one hour?—Matt 28:40. Never was the Master’s rebuke ter the disciples more pertinent than to-

day. We are living at a rapid rate. Every one seems to be in a mad rush to get there, and multitudes of business men are consciously violating the speed laws of health and safety. It is becoming harder all the while to secure time .for private or family worship, while meditat ion on the Word is, we. fear.

almest a lost art. Man and women too, are using up seven days’ strength in six days’ time, so that Sunday usually finds them completely exhausted. Let me suggest as a Remedy an hour a day with Jesus, emphasizing not so much the amount of time,as the fact of a generous period set apart each day for fellowship with the living and written Word. Our souls need it How much they need it we Shall never know until we adopt the habit. We need it both for our information and inspiration. We need to know God better that we may love him more. • We need to know ourselves better that we may take and keep our proper attitude toward him. And when we know his will we need the constant and constraining influence of the Holy Spirit to incite us to do IL A slumbering church needs it, for if it is ever awakened and set on fire for God it must be through the instrumentality of those who are already on fire, and whose earnest intercession gives God no rest until he establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth. A perishing world needs it—for never will it realize that it is dead until it comes in contact with those who pre alive in Christ Jesus. Formal preaching and feeble testimony will never disturb the sleep of the dead, but “the people that do know their God shall be strong, and shall do exploits.” When people hear about the victorious life and see it in their midst they will realize their own need. And Jesus craves it. We are not simply the servants of Jesus who go to him for orders, but he says, “I have called you friends.” and “all things that I have heard of my Father, 1 have made known unto you.” A business man may employ hundreds of women, and daily assign them their work and pay them their wages, but there is one woman whose relation to him is entirely different. He is not her employer but her husband. He did not select her for the work that she could do, but to be his wife and companion. Even so the church is the bride of Christ, and far more than the service that we can render, he prizes our fellowship and love. An hour a day with .Jesus gives deep, abounding Joy. “Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures?” It makes our testimony more effective. Some years ago I came in close touch with a ghrap of young people. I soon saw that one of the number was far superior to all the rest in the weight of her testimony and in her knowledge of the Bible. Then I found the secret. She was giving an hour a day to the Study of the Bible and prayer. Her life was beautiful and her influence unique, though her natural gifts were only ordinary. That hour a day with Jesus seemed to cast a halo over all that she said and did. It gives greater power in prayer. In Acts 4:31 we read that when the apostles had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. "And with great power gave they witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jssus; and great grace was upon them all.” And so we come back to our starting point, and leave with you the question, “Could we not manage our households, and carry on our business and accomplish more study, and make more money if we would spend an hour a day with Jesus and the Bible?” A little talk with Jesus, how it smooths the rugged road, How it seems to help me onward, when I faint beneath my load; When my heart is crushed with sorrow, and my eyes with tears are dim. There is naught can give me comfort like a little talk with him. I cannot live without him, nor would I if .1 could; - _ He is my daily portion, my medicine ana food. He’s altogether lovely, none with him can compare, . . . The chiif among ten thousand, the fairest of the fair.