NOTES IN PASSING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 263, 5 November 1932, Page 2 (Supplement)

NOTES IN PASSING.

A Text: "Let us lay aside-every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us looking up to Jesus." —Hebrews xii., 1, 2.

"By worshipping God we get our inner life made purer and stronger, and so become less inclined to do evil deeds." — John Bevan.

"A man's character may be more surely deduced from the letters written to him than from the letters he writes himself." —J. C. Squire.

Above all, see-that you be followers of peace and unity, both in the Church and among yourselves. Remember that I taught you: He that is not a son of peace is not a son of God.—Richard Baxter.

The tongue is a blab; there cannot be any kind of folly,, either simple or wicked, in the heart but the tongue will betray it. He cannot be wise that speaks much, or without Bense, or out of season: nor he known for a fool that says nothing.—Joijpph Hall.

It is promised that tliey shall bring forth fruit ,in old age. Other trees when they are old leave off bearing, but in God's trees the strength of grace docs not fail with the strength of nature, The last days of saints are sometimes their best days, and their last work their best work.—Matthew Henry.

It is said that, as we come of the same race as the Aryans, when we use such words as thou, day, divine, father, mother, brother, daughter, we are making use of terms used by our forbears vhen they lived in the region Bear Mount Ararat, and that perhaps even Noah and his family used them.

It is not generally known that Sir Walter Scott was the author of two hymns. One is a condensed translation of Thomas of Celano's Dies Irae (Day of Judgment),, And is found at the close of the "Lay of the Last Minstrel." The other is the beautiful hymn, "When Israel of the Lord Beloved," the hymn of Rebecca in "Ivanhoe."

A reviewer of Dr. J. D. Jones' new book, "Richmond Hill Sermons," says that, among other things, they suggest, as reasons for his success as a preacher, these three elements of solidity, lucidity and candour both of thought and language, a firmly held and clearly stated theology, and a large awareness of modern problem and the modern temper.

Dr. Fosdick is of opinion that the book of Ecclesiastes resembles the atheism of modern times, the author thinking that, as a beast dies, so does a man, and summing up his feeling about his generation in the oft-repeated_ refrain, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." Ecclesiastes is certainly a sceptical and pessimistic book and astonishingly modern in its language and standpoint, so much so that it might have been written yesterday.

Professor J. S. Haldane says in his book on "Materialism" (Sodder and Stoughtort): "The everyday world is the spiritual world; and if ye forget this we are wandering without guidance . we find the kingdom of God within lis, as Jesus taught. Religion enables us to face sin, sorrow and death. We can walk among them with the assurance that God is present amidst them. When we realise that God is present to us in our striving we gain strength, courage and inward peace, in spite of all our limitations and failures." These are' remarkable words from a man who is a member of no recognised as-a-freethinker Iu ~ , IL. -