The Morning Watch by MRS. I. H. E.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 28, 1916

The Morning Watch

By MRS. I. H. E.

A NEW year is almost here, and 1916 will soon be history. The past we must leave with God, and the future is also his. But to us he has given the present; and though it is separated from the past and hidden from the future, it holds the key to all success.

How many good resolutions will be formed, how many new promises made, during these closing hours of the old year! We desire to make for 1917 a better record than the one we are now committing to the mercy of our heavenly Father. Many of us have determined to amend our ways, and more fully live the Christ-life during the coming days. Some will think of special weaknesses, such as impatience, intemperance, covetousness, and other attributes of the carnal heart over which they propose by the grace of God to gain the victory.

But it will take more than resolutions to enable us to win in the battle against sin, and live a victorious Christian life. Great victories are not often won without great battles. Some of us will have such conflicts as we have never before waged if we are to overcome, but every one of us has the assurance that we may gain the victory if we will.

I wish to suggest two things that will aid in obtaining this result: First, a daily study of the Word of God; and second, daily prayer. Without these, no life can be victorious.

No one thing will prove of greater help to a victorious Christian life than the Morning Watch. You may ask, What is the Morning Watch? It is not a thing, it is a habit,—the habit of daily reading and memorizing one or more Bible texts in the early morning hours, meditating upon their meaning, receiving their divine message to the heart, and then spending a few minutes in secret prayer.

This habit is the preparation that will often insure victory in the day's struggles and conflicts.

The Missionary Volunteer Department has a beautiful Morning Watch Calendar prepared for 1917. It contains selected Scriptures for memorizing for every day in the year. It also gives sunset tables, and suggests subjects for special prayer.

Many have received great help from the use of the Morning Watch Calendar in forming the habit of daily Bible study and prayer. The blessing this little booklet has proved to thousands can never be told in type and ink. It is an experience, and an experience so precious that those who have formed the Morning Watch habit would not willingly give it up.

Why not start the new year with a definite purpose to avail yourself of the blessings that may come to your life through the Morning Watch? And why not encourage the members of your family, especially the children and youth, to avail themselves of this spiritual help? Such a habit, formed in their early years, will follow them all their lives, and its influence can never be measured.

Let us form the Morning Watch habit. MRS. I. H. E.