Turn again to the parable. Mark the excuses. have bought a piece of land, I must needs go and see iL"...."I have married a wife, and therefore cannot come." The excuses are weak, that is the point of the story. And yet are they not strangely like the excuses we make ourselves? The reasons which actually operate and are most solid and real in keeping men and women from accepting the invitations to God's House, and to His Table? I wonder how many men and women listening to me now—some comfortably at home before their wireless, and losing so much of the fellowship and the inspiration of Corporate Worship—have satisfied themselves with excuses that are just as absurdly inadequate as those of the parable? How many there are who are so busy with their fields, and flocks and possessions that they have no time for the things of God. How many here are who in the joys of family life have not time to turn themselves to the one eternal lover of their souls.
Do not misunderstand me. It is not without good reason that all the excuses in the parable refer to legitimate duties. It is perfectly right that a man should go and see after his field. Perfectly right that the ten bullocks should be harnessed and tried; that the bridegroom should pay every attention to the bride.—But quite wrong that any of them should be put up as a reason for not accepting the invitation.
If Christ is Enthroned Now it is obvious to note that the alleged necessity is not necessity at all. The man himself makes the "must." The field would not run away if he waited until tomorrow. the providing of the oxen might be postponed. The must was entirely in his own mind. It is so easy to mask inclinations under the garb of imperative duties. The opposition between these things which are made the reason of the excuse—the legitimate work and responsibilities of every day life—and the acceptance of the offered feast existed only in ihe imagination of the men who made the excuse. And I would premise that God's summons comes into collision with many wishes, but with no duties or legitimate occupations, The field will be better tilled, the oxen will be better driven, the wife will Be-rөre wisely and tenderly loved, if in he heart Christ is enthroned, and all that we do, we do for him, and in the strength which he waits to give us.
The office duty, or the service in the home, will be better done if it has been prefaced by a half an hour before the throne of grace, whether that time be spent in our own room, or in God's House. Yes, and the golf will be the more enjoyable if it has come in a day begun on our knees before the God who has made all things bright and beautiful, and good for our use and enjoyment. For I am convinced that it is only excessive and abusive possession of God's gifts, and a wrongful absorbtion in duties and relationship that turns them into impediments in the The Noisy Boy:
An Assault on Sleep To the Editor of the "Nomru-CHiNA Dany News" the corner of Avenue Route des Sœurs and Route CERTIFIED Radio-Active by
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.