The picture is of Bro. Paul Clark at the Messenger meeting of the American Baptist Association.From the Pastor:
Job 29:2 Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me;
Many Christians look back on the past with pleasure, while regarding the present with dissatisfaction. They look back upon the days which have passed which they spent communing with the Lord as being the sweetest and the best they have ever known. Their present circumstance, like that of Job in this text, may be gloomy and devoid of the glory of the past. Once they lived near to Jesus, but now they feel that they have wandered from him, and they say, “O that I were as in months past!” They complain that they have not present peace of mind, or that, as was the case with Job, those who surround them have no connection with the Lord of Glory. Christians may say, due to present circumstance, that they and those around them have not so much zeal for God’s glory. The causes of this sad state of things are varied. It may arise through a comparative neglect of prayer, for a neglected of private prayer is the beginning of most spiritual decline. Or it may be the result of idolatry. The heart and mind have been occupied with something else, more than with God; the affections have been set on the things of earth, instead of the things of heaven. In the case of Job, his longing to be as he was in months past was not due to these at all but to the workings of Satan and Job's so called friends. Christian, if you are not now as you “were as in months past,” do not rest satisfied with wishing for a return of former happiness, but go at once to seek your Master, and tell him your sad state. Ask his grace and strength to help you to walk more closely with him; humble yourself before him, and he will lift you.
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