RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 237, 7 October 1933, Page 2 (Supplement)

RELIGIOUS WORLD.

PRESENT-DAY OUTLOOK.

\yA LKIIfG WITH THE LORD,

THE TEST OF CHRISTIANITY.

The Heckmondwiko Lecture (Heckmondwiko is a populous industrial urban i.Xrict in the West Riding of Yorkshire) was delivered a few weeks ago by Dr.

"ohn Short. It was broadcast by the 8.8.C. and its closing passages are so eminently suitable for thi3 column that we reproduce them: They who walk up and down in the r.aiuo of the Lord will carry something

■>.i that quality of friendship into daily life. In this* world of broken friendhips, of broken fellowship, noihing is reeded more to-day than this spirit. It might not solve all our problems. I am not so foolish as to say that. But I do ; ay, without hesitation, that it will, and does, provide the one basis on which an enduring solution can be inevitably built. For that spirit of friendship above all else I plead. It would transform the world; it would transform our relationships with our fellow men. It would give back to the world a great sense of the everlasting reality of God. What other alternative is worthy of our allegiance? I can see noil© that can compete with the mighty ideal of the great-hearted, cooperative fellowship and friendship of tho Christian faith. There is ultimately no nlher.

You will find much in Scripture i-oncerning our walk in life. 11l Genesis wo read that Enoch walked with (iod, and see how his lifo shines out ;imong those of his contemporaries. In Isaiah we read: "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they

(hall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint." Or turn i.o Paul and read: "As ye have received Christ Jesus tho Lord, so walk ye in Him."

That is the acid test of genuine Christianity, to walk up and down in the name of the Lord. It is easy to soar on a mood of exaltation for a time, it is easy 1o run when everyone is filled with eni uusiasm, but to walk up and down in Christ's name day by day, to put quiet Christian quality into daily life, that is the acid test. That is genuine religion. Our Christianity must be carried out of the Church into the street, the office, the factory, into all the common relationships of daily life, above all into the home. "Who is that man V asked someone of Robertson of Irvine concerning someone who had spoken at a presbytery meeting. "He is an elder of mine who lives in communion with God and makes shoes," was the reply. To walk up and down with the perspectives of eternity in our souls, to feel a fire for all righteousness burning in our bones, to be moved in all life's relationships by the self-sacrificing spirit of Christ's spirit of friendship, that is to walk up and down in the name of One who once walked like that. In His strength you can do it. "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and 3i ot faint."