RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 233, 1 October 1932, Page 2 (Supplement)

RELIGIOUS WORLD.

PRESENT-DAY OUTLOOK. ETERNAL VALUES. THE STEWARDSHIP OF LIFE. The following homily appeared in a recent of "The Times/ , (London): Much ingenuity of interpretation has been spent upon the Parable of the Unjust Steward; yet its lesson is surely both simple and plain. The Steward was praieed, not for hie fraud, but for his cleverness. He showed both foresight and resource in providing for his temporal future when he was dismissed from hie office. Here was one of "the children of this world" who proved himself wiser in his generation than many of "the children of light." These latter, professing to recognise the claim upon them of eternal things, too often fail so to use life that it shall yield them the spiritual riches which iV contains. The parable is a commentary upon the right use of life's opportunities. Life is a matter of adaptation to surroundings. The plant or animal which fails to adjust itself to its environment periehes. Man is aware of an environment richer and wider than that of the low-er organisms. He lives in a spiritual world, recognises the presence of ideals, and feels within him the 'call to pursue them. If he is to live hie completcet life lie must be in harmony with hie spiritual surroundings. The Boundary Line. Made, as the Bible maintains, for fellowship with God, he will fail to develop his personality to its full capacity if he leaves God out of account. Without religion he cannot make the best use of bis life. Nor will he make the best use of it if he treats religion as an extra, a thing only for Sundays or for special occaeions. A man's religion should shed its consecration upon all his activities.

Asceticism ie no part of Christianity. St. Paul affirnie that God has given us all things richly to enjoy, and that every creature of God is good and to be received with thanksgiving. But the ideal is to be able to enjoy all the good things of the world as coming , from - God. Asceticism is no part of Christianity, but the Cross stands at its centre; and the Cross spells discipline and self-sacri-'fice. ••"•'••;

Old pagan writers called the Cross "Horos," or boundary line. It marked for them the difference between Christianity and pagan religions in which was laek- . ing that spirit of general benevolence and service which makes the follower of Jesus ready to deny himself for others, and ready to forgo a legitimate pleasure in the interests of hie own spiritua development. It must be left to each individual to judge how he shall shape his life and themeasure of self-discipline which it shall contain; but without some sacrifice of the lower to the higher the ' best use will not be made of life's opportunities. Training Of Self. • But it is. fatally eaey to be so immersed in works of service for humanity that one forgets the inner discipline, forgets that there is a. love to God as. well as to man, and that love to God involves the assiduous training of the self -which is made in the Divine image. Character ie not formed in a day or a year, nor without tears and striving. The ren of light" need to have their lamp* constantly rekindled at the Divine Are, for otherwise the flame will wax dim and dwindle. And for the attainment of the habit of spiritual discipline periods of pause and solitude are necessary that the soul may be alone with, God. Over against the advice to enjoy freely all things must be set the apostolie 'maxim "Study to Bβ quiet." It is in these hours of quiet that bur inward eye grows clear to eee the far horizons, and our will gathers strength.for the round of humdrum duties or the coming" crisis. The man who, by steadily trying to adjust himself to the spiritual world around him and within him, has reached an inner coherence of personality, who guides his life by deliberate principle and ever seefce to see the eternal in the temporal, will dfecorer how to make life yield the sprntnal treasurea in which, it is so rich.

"COME TTHTO MOB AWX> I WIXX GIVE YOtT REST."

(By a Salvation Army Officer.}'

Come unto Me. Thw invitation is, by the way, an incidental proof of Hii divinity, a proof all the more telling because incidental. The best of Hi» followers—Paul, a Eempis, Francis of Assiei, Tauler, Whitfield—would never have dared to say, "Come unto me." Their office was not to invite to themselves, but to point to Another. They were like the monk in the German monastery who softly drew the cover from the painting and slipped from the room, leaving the visitors face to face with the Christ.

It is God, then, who ia speaking in these words, a God who wants to assure us that behind the show of things, theblow of bereavement, the mystery of pain, the contradictions of lifer-some-times "too foolish for a tear, too wicked for a ernile"—that Hβ Himself is there. A "God in the shadows" indeed, but One who iwants us to- feel that though neither telescope nor microscope can discover Hita, Hβ is closer to us than the skin h to the body-

"Come unto Me." And a* He. speaks we lave to confess we are drawn to Him. We wonder what foolish feelings these are which possess us. No foolish feelings at all! It is your soul homing. You were meant to respond to this appeal of His; meant to respond to it as a 'Ijower opens to the sun, as a needle jumps to the magnet, as a. babychild answers to his mother's smile. It is one of the laws of the spiritual •world that your heart should be strangely warned ae you think of His invitation. It > would be unnatural if it ■were not so. Your soul, when healthy, is a thirst for God. "And I will give you rest." Christian folk looking out upon the world deplore its restlessness. We would deplore the fact if it were at rest. • Its uneasiness i≤ proof of its distance from God. Were it happy we should begin to wonder what we had to offer it. It is right that the world should be restless. How can a godlefts world be at peace? The London "War Cry."

A prayer:" Heavenly Father, if we have not been true to ourselves, or, if we have- wronged anyone, or grieved anyone, we humbly pray Thee to- forgive -us. Help tb to show by helpful love, patience tinder affliction, and. victory over evil, that we know Thee as our Father and our God. Through Jesus Christ, -~~ _~ — '

RETICENCE OF CHRIST.

THE DIFFICULTY OF PREACHING. - . (By S.) Someone has said that if he had all truth in his keeping he would only let forth one ray at a time lest he should blind men. Our Lord did not exactly say that, but He did say to His disciples at the close of His ministry that there were many things He had refrained from telling them, because they were unable to receive them. They were destined to be the pioneers of Christianity, but they were not easy to teach—they were slow, unimaginative, and matter of fact, though, as Bishop Gore thought, they were for these very reasons in all likelihood the best witnesses to Him that He could have chosen. How wise our Lord was in His reticence with these men. A wise man not only says the right thing, he says the right thing at the right time. This was emphatically true of Him. He was content to wait till they were able with the passage of time and with more experience to receive further truths; then, through His Spirit, He brought fresh light to bear on them. It has been the same with His followers in every age, ; and so it is that succeeding generations have seen deeper and further into the world of spiritual truth. And who can tell what vaster knowledge and what larger wisdom as well as* what deeper love to Christ and to man may yet be manifested. There are some who think the world is getting worse. Others

of us remember the prediction of one of the old prophets that "He will not fail nor be discouraged till He has set judgment in the earth," and we think we see in His own words to the disciples ground for hope that He saw a great future before the human race, and that there may be far more , knowledge; as well as far more faith an 4 goodness, before us than, we have at the moment any conception of. It is a natural sequence from thinking of the difficulty our Lord had in teaching men to think of the difficulty a minister has in preaching to men. Elsewhere in this column I quoted last week the remark of a writer in a London paper that it was not easy to preach, a sermon that was worth hearing. It is anything but easy so to put a discourse together, and so to deliver it that it will come fresh and vital to those who hear it. It is less easy still when one attempts to deal with the deep things of the spiritual life. We cannot adequately realise what a vast, awesome thing the sea is unless we go far out and deep down in it, and it is only when we give ourselves to the contemplation of the deep things of the spiritual life and try to discourse on them to others that we realise how difficult it is. It is like trying to understand and talk about the palaeontological history of plants and animals. It would be to their own edification and profit if congregations would encourage their ministers to spend as many hours as possible every day in hard study and earnest prayer.

NOTE* IK PASSING.

A text: "Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation he that feareth. Him, and wbrketh righteousness, ie accepted with Him/ , —Acts x., 34-35.

A thanksgiving celebration of the recent Methodist reunion is to take place in Jerusalem in February.

"Twenty-five years ago," eaid a, minister in Ms sermon a few Sundays back, "when I came to — we had scores of families where, all, the members were 'twicers. . That's not the case now. Big families eeem over, and 'twicers' are rare."

Mr. J. Watkinson, a member of Dominion Road Methodist Church, has completed 60 years* service ae a Sunday school teacher. In recognition .of the event he was recently presented with a diploma of honour and an inscribed volume of "Copping's Kew Testament Pictures," at a- gathering which, included members of his frrst class.

The Boya , Brigade (founded nearly 50 year* ago for the advancement of Christ's Kingdom, among boys, and the promotion, of habits, of obedience, reverence, discipline, self-respect, and all that, tends towards a. true Christian manliness) has now about 2500 companies, and approximately 150,000 members in aIL

Mr. H. J. Massingham, in a, review in "The Sunday Timee," of "Life in Nature" 'by James Hiriton, one of the eeers of Victorian days, has a fine saying. He says of him that "he must be accounted among: that elect company of lonely thinkers, whose unquenchable desire is to find, in a concept of the universe, at once imaginative and veracious, a home for the soul."

The American Bible Society, the British and Foreign Bible Society, and the National Bible Society of Scotland are together responsible for the yearly circulation of no less* than 25,000,000 copies of the Scriptures. As the result of a. conference between their officials the work is to be more eo-ordinaied and still more extended.

In the course of his address in a Waltakere village on a recent Sunday, a layman remarked that beauty was the visible expression of good nature—of God's nature, and that the cure for pre-sent-day depression lay in the rediscovery of the beauty and power of Christianity. Money, he added, would then be estimated by the good it could do.

"Whatever we do with Sunday, or on it," eays a writer in the "Manchester Guardian," "we shall lose something , precious if we fail to make it different from the rest of the week. No child should be allowed to grow up with the idea that Sunday is either a boring day or a day like any other day. It is an essential tweak in the rhythm of our lives, like the seventh wave in every sea."

A lady who was born in 1843 died recently in Birmingham. She remembered' the celebrated John Angell James when he was minister of Carrs' Lane Church, and his, if anything, mora celebrated successor, Dr. Dale. When comparing the two great preachers, ehe- used to say that James dvrelt much on the awe and majesty of God, and Dale.on Hie love and righteousness. The sermons of both preachers, as in the ease of many of the world's - pulpit- geniuses, were by no means short, but she never found them long or tiresome. They were always interesting , . She knew Dr. Dale for 4ft years, and, (faring all that time, she never knew him to break a promise, cause a disappointment, or be unpunctual.