Article October 15, 1927 Issue

Signs of the Times

with contributions from James Reid, George B. Cliff, H. D. Ranns, H. C. Culbertson, Viscountess Curzon

[Rev. James Reid, M.A., in the British Weekly, London, England]

We are quite familiar with covenants or agreements between man and man; for example, a treaty between two nations, an agreement between two partners in business, a marriage, a compact between friends to help each other. These make certain promises to each other; these promises are the most sacred things in life. All such covenants for good objects are steps in progress. They prevent strife; they banish loneliness; they produce cooperation. They make for friendship, and help the world into becoming a family of His children. Whatever binds us to one another for right things is for the good of the world. It was a great discovery when Abraham found that God wanted to make a covenant with him. Before that He had been a great Someone, far off. Now Abraham realized that He sought to become a friend. Religion is just making friends with God. Abraham was called the "Friend of God." Note the nature of the compact, and think what new and wonderful happiness this would bring into his life.

It meant that God was pledged to help him, to care for him, to guide him across the desert. What strength it gives us in facing any difficulty to know that we have a big friend who is pledged to stand by us and see us through! "What if this friend happen to be—God?" All the finest things in the world, the bravest things, have been done by people who believed that God was behind them and that He would not fail. ... Real religion begins in a compact with God; His promise waits for our fulfillment of the bargain. God's best gifts all have their conditions. "Ask, and it shall be given you." "Seek, and ye shall find." "In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

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