"To stretch my hand and touch Him, Though He be far away; To raise my eyes and see Him Through darkness as through day; To lift my voice and call HimThis is to pray! "To feel a hand extended By One who standeth near; To view the love that shineth In eyes serene and clear; To know that he is callingThis is to hear!" The Indispensable Christ HE closest of all relationships is that of Christ and the believer in him. Our Lord himself used the vine and the branches to illustrate The branch actually grows this relation. out of the vine. It cannot exist apart from it. There are some friends whom we might lose and be a little poorer. But to lose Christ out of our life is the greatest of all losses. There is a story by Henry van Dyke called "The Lost Word," which, in most striking way illustrates the irreparable loss of one who parts with Christ. It is a story of one of the early centuries. Hermas had given himself to Christ. He belonged to a wealthy pagan family. His father disinherited him and drove him out of his home when he accepted Christianity. In the Grove of Daphne one day Hermas sat down by a gushing spring, and there came to him a priest of Apollo, who saw his unhappy mood and began to talk to him. In the end the old man made this bargain with Hermas. He was to assure him of wealth, happiness and success, and Hermas was to give him only a word; he was to part with the name of Him whom he had learned to worship. "Let me take that word, and all that belongs to it, entirely out of your life. I promise you everything," said the old man, "and this is all I ask of you in return. Do you consent?” "Yes, I consent," said Hermas. So he lost the word. Hermas went back to Antioch to his old home. He found his father dying. The old man received his son eagerly. Then he asked Hermas to tell him the secret of the Christian faith he had chosen. "You found some thing in that faith that give up your life for it. made you willing to Tell me what it is!" Hermas began, "Father, you must believe with all your heart and soul and strength in it. "Where was the word? He had lost Happiness came. Sitting one day with his wife beside him and his baby on his knee, he thought of his old faith, and longed to thank Christ and seek his blessing. Going to an old shrine in the garden, he tried to pray, but could not. He had lost the Name in which alone prayer could be offered. One day his boy was terribly hurt and he wanted to pray for his life, but again, the Name was gone. Thus in three great hours of need, Hermas, forgetting that he had given up the blessed Name, turned to seek the help that could be got only through that Name, and found nothing but blankness and emptiness. This is only a little story, but it is one that has become true in actual life thousands of times. People have given up the name of Christ, sold it for money, pleasure, power, fame or sin. Then, when times of need came, and they turned to find help, they received no answer to their cries. "Without me ye can do nothing." Of course, there are certain things that men can do who are without Christ. There are people |