LEARN TO TALK TO JESUS.
By John F. Bahler
MANY make grievous failures in their efforts to live a Christian life, simply because they have not learned to talk to Jesus. Who is there of us that does not know how to talk to our best earthly friend? And if we need anything how quickly, how gladly, we go to that friend to tell our need, knowing that if it lies in his power to supply that need, we shall not want long. But how slow we are to learn to talk to Jesus. He is our best friend, far better than it is possible for any earthly friend to be, and yet we are so slow to go to him and tell him of our sorrows and our needs. Sometimes I fear we get the idea that because Jesus knows all about us and our needs, we have only to go quietly along and he will supply them all. But he has said, "Ask, and ye shall receive." If there was no reason why we should ask, he would never have given us this assurance. Now there is a reason why, and that reason is an important one. It is not because he does not know our needs without our telling him, but it is the simple fact that the telling of our wants to a friend, especially to a sympathetic friend, will invariably bind us closer to that friend. It is for this reason that Jesus would have us come to him. The very act of coming and talking to him will bind us more firmly to him. It will not open up to him our needs, for God knows them all, and he is watching us with more than a parent's tenderest love; but it will open up an avenue of strength and light from him to our souls. The going to him and telling him of our joys and sorrows is simply accepting the help he waits to give. I can think of only one illustration that makes this clear to my mind; it is this, the sunlight may pour in floods of enlivening radiance all around our homes, but if we close the shutters and draw the curtains, it can give us no warmth. But just open the shutters, draw back the curtains, and how quickly the warmth is ours. Oh, let us learn to talk to Jesus, to open up our hearts to the glowing light of his sweet love. It will quickly radiate to every corner of the heart, and we shall sing because we cannot help singing. Now when I say talk to Jesus I mean just what I say. We can pray without talking. We can pray in our hearts. But let us as often as possible find some place where we can really talk to Jesus. Our words may be whispered words, but let the thoughts of the heart be developed in words. There is strength to the soul in the expression of the lips. Then if our enemy is lurking near, and he finds us talking, really talking, to Jesus, he will leave the ground much quicker than he otherwise would. This being true, whatever may occupy our hands, let the lips often breathe a few words, though they be only whispered words to Jesus. Let us learn to talk to Jesus. Talking to him much, we shall learn to trust him more, and "they that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed but abideth forever." Ps. 125:1. JOHN F. BAHLER.
San Jose, Cal.