Baptist Missionary Training School - Beacon Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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---1 THE BEACON ll RELIGIOUS LIFE Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place and res! awhile. MARK 6:31 Jesus knew the secret of inner poise in the midst of tumult. We think that we live in the midst of crowds these days, and so we do, but how often, the Bible tells us, that the multitudes thronged about him. And in the far eastern part of the world it takes little time to bring together a great seething hetero- geneous mass of people. Living intimately with the multitudes as Jesus did, He had to build up His reserve power within. And He took time to do it. Sadhu Sundar Singh, a Christian holy man of India, goes about from one village to another telling the Gospel story as Jesus did. Even though unable to understand the language he speaks, one instinctively feels when in the presence of this saintly man that he has truly been with God. His poise and calm dig- nity bespeak a depth of untapped reserve, an inner source of happiness and peace. But this quiet power is not born of mingling with the crowds. For months each year he goes into ascetic solitude on the heights of the Himalayan snows. Few of us can spend months apart from our work, nor is it necessary, for What a change within us one short hour Spent in Thy presence will prevail to make. Thus we Hnd it in B. M. T. S. Amid the busyness of life we find renewed strength and power when we go aside and wait upon Jehovah. In Isaiah 40:31 we read, They that wait upon Jehovah shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. The Crawford prayer room affords just such an opportunity for quiet medi- tation with God -a place where we can go apart and listen for the voice of God even as Joan of Arc listened for the voices. And as she heard the voices so may we hear His voice speak to us. Be still and know that I am God. How often we think when we pray that it is definitely a time when we talk with God, but how much greater the message when we listen to His voice instead. O God and Father of us all, breathe upon us now Thy hallowed calm: lift the burden from our hearts, soothe the anxieties of our minds, and send peace into our souls. Forgive the disorder, the fever, the Vain purpose of our lives. We have made haste as those who believe not .... Our eyes have been fixed upon the earth and rarely lifted to the hills. We have not silenced ourselves to hear nor been patient to understand .... Help us now to stand awhile in the shelter of Thy shadowing wings, and to be still: to look out again upon life with new vision that we may understand. Amen. -W. E. Orchard. Other opportunities of quiet come to us when alone or with others We draw nigh to God and He draws nigh to us. Prayer does change things for the whole day seems different after spending a few minutes of Quiet Hour with Him at the beginning of the day. I-le sends the sunshine and the joy into life and makes it abundant and overflowing, and pours out strength for the new day. It is in the midst of the busy life that strength and power are constantly being given out, that more and more we realize that God is the source to whom we must go for a fresh supply. So we go aside. The brief half hour on Thurs- day night when a group of girls gather in Miss Brimson's room is a time of IContinued on page 452 30

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ACTIVITIES

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i?.-- THE BEACON --- IN THY PRESENCE Lord, what a change within us one short hour Spent in Thy presence will prevail to make! What heavy burdens from our bosoms take, What patched grounds refresh as with a shower! We kneel, and all around us seems to lower: We rise. and all, the distant and the near, Stands forth in sunny outline brave and clear: We kneel, how weak: we rise, how full of power! Why, therefore, should we do ourselves this wrong, Or others, that we are not always strong, That we are ever overborne with care, That we should ever weak or heartless be, Anxious or troubled, when with us is prayer. And joy and strength and courage are with thee! - Archbishop Trench 31