Signs of the Times

with contributions from John Naton, Claire A. Nesmith, W. A. Cameron, Kelly O'Neall

Mrs. Senior-Major John Naton (R) in The War Cry Chicago, Illinois

Begin every day with God. A few minutes in the morning spent in prayer and Bible reading can set the pattern for the entire day. ...

The Bible is the surest guide to successful living and is adaptable to every age and condition of life. Children can learn many lasting lessons from its stories; young people can find the answer to their maturity; its words of wisdom and comforting promises become constantly more precious and shed light on our pathway. Even when the road ahead appears cloudy, we can say with John Bunyan's Pilgrim, "His candle shineth on my head, and by His light I go through darkness."

Rev. Claire A. Nesmith in a sermon in the santa Maria Times, California

One of the most beloved parts of the Bible is the book of Psalms. The Psalms inspire our faith and provide us with a beautiful means for expressing praise and adoration to God. To these hymns of Hebrew worship composed almost three thousand years ago we turn for comfort and for strength in trouble and for the means of expressing our praise and thanksgiving to God in times of joy. ...

The Psalmist ... was confident that life could be put in God's hands and that God would sustain him and guide him. The Psalmist had an unshakable faith in God and in His support of the righteous and an equally strong faith that evil was the way of destruction and death. We need the faith of the Psalmist, who could say, "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?" (Ps. 27:1.)

Rev. W. A. Cameron in a sermon in the Toronto Daily Star Ontario, Canada

Our education has scarcely begun unless we have learned to quit thinking about mere bigness in the sense of bulk as being particularly impressive or important. ... You could put the Holy Land into a Canadian province and still have plenty of room to spare. But Palestine is large enough in its significance to furnish the spiritual atlas for the whole human race. ...

The seventy-eighth Psalm recounts the story of Israel—their unfaithfulness and their backsliding. At the heart of the song is the wisdom and goodness of their God. The climax is reached with a dramatic contrast. "He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds: from following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance. So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands." God chose a simple shepherd and made a king of him. A man is taken from a little place, as we say, and suddenly brought into a large place. But is the contrast as sharp as appears upon the surface? Was the one place so little and the other so large, after all?

I am suggesting that the same qualities which made David great in what we call a little sphere, made him great in a large one. He was a great king because he had been a great shepherd. The character needed to succeed in the latter was essentially the character that had been developed by the former career. ...

I somehow think the greatest thing which life can possibly offer to any of us is that by the grace of God we should fill a kingly place in the spirit of a shepherd. When Jesus came to choose a name by which he might be known, he called himself the "good shepherd." His friends and followers would know what that meant. For in that day Jesus explicitly said a good shepherd would even lay down his life for his sheep. ... Here is ... the figure of the wisest, strongest, kingliest man who ever lived, mightiest among the holy, the holiest among the mighty, who had the same relation to all men that a good and kind and tender shepherd has to his helpless flock.

Kelly O'Neall in the Protestant Herald Denver, Colorado

A home where the hungers of youth can be satisfied has to be created by parents. ... It comes about through great effort, great conviction, much prayer, and strength of character. Furthermore, there needs to be ... holiness about a home. This may come about only through the sincere and sustained faith and spiritual efforts of parents. ... There is really no substitute for religion in the home.

A young person has a right to be recognized as a self-directing and self-motivating member of the family group. He has a right to make at least some of his own decisions even to the point of making mistakes. He has a right to be respected. But he also has a right to strong and dependable leadership. There are times when he really wants a firm decision from someone else whom he respects and whose word he can accept. And he has a right to the sense of security that comes from the certainty that whatever he does, whether on his own or his parents' decision, will be regarded as a shared experience. ... Sharing is the real keynote of a Christian home.

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