THE CHRIST LIFE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 303, 23 December 1933, Page 11 (Supplement)

THE CHRIST LIFE.

THINGS THAT BELONG TO PEACE. (Ry I>P. IXGK, 15oan <St. Paul's.) Just now we like to think of the Christ life as bringing peace on earth, good will among men. That is the angel song that we all long to hear. As .Milton savs in perhaps the most lieautiful of his poems: That we en eni'tli, witli undiseonling voice, May rightly answer flmt melodious noise; A.s once we did, till disproportioned sin Jarred against Nature's chime, and with harsh din, Firoke the fair music Hint all creatures made To their great Lord, Whose love their motion swayed In perfect diapason, whilst they stood In tirst obedience, and their state of good. (), may we soon again renew Hint sons. And keep in tune with Heaven, till God ore long To liis celestial consort us unite. To live with Him, and sing in endless morn of light. Put so far have we strayed and so grievously have wc sinned that the nations, too, must mount their Calvary of expiation, to ho made perfect through suffering, like their great Captain. We seem far enough from the new creation of which St. Paul speaks so confidently. There is not'much of the Christ life in humanity as we see it. -And yet our image and pattern is there. The perfect life has been lived, and lie who lived it is still with us, to help lis live it, too. There are signs that men everywhere are turning with passionate desire to the Christmas promise," and to Him who, as was said after the war, irreverently, but not without real respect, is tlie only Person who has come with intellectual credit out of the horrible business, namely, Jesus Christ. Intellectual credit? Yes, I think so. For the woes that have come upon humanity in our time have been, I think, the result of stupidity more than of deliberate wickedness. But the stupidity which comes from having all our values confused is morally culpable. The double heart makes the double head. ]f we had studied the revelation of God —God as love in the incarnation of Jesus Christ—we should have learned that the power and wisdom of God arc al.so revealed in Him. We cannot trifle with the, power and wisdom by which (he worlds were made. He manifests Himself as love, as helpless innocence, as a babe in swaddling clothes, aiul men have despised Him, but the weakness of God is stronger than men. In (lie long run, "whosoever shall fall on that stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will scatter him as chaff." May God grant that the nations may learn and know and practise the things that belong to their peace, before it be too late!