WE SHOULD ALL BE GROWING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 70, 23 March 1935, Page 2 (Supplement)

WE SHOULD ALL BE GROWING.

EMOTION IS NOT SUFFICIENT. Dr. Moffatt is a teacher rather than a preacher, but he never preaches without giving a helpful message, a niessage that is always characterised by •thoughtfuhiess and wisdom, and lit up liv fresh and unconventional anecdotes and illustrations that make it memorable. Readers will appreciate the following extracts from a sermon on '•Influence. Growth. Conviction." that lie preached in Sj'dncy some time ago. They are reprinted From "The Australian* Christian World." Archbishop Alexander. of Dublin, addressing an evangelical conference, once spoke very seriously about the dangers of evangelical faith. He said lie often found x» eo Pl& whose religious life seemed to him to be "an initial spasm followed by a chronic dyspepsia."' There were what the fathers used to call conversions, a. great upheaval of the religions life, a genuine altering of everything—conversion, repentance, and as the Archbishop says, they have not grown; there is a lack of vitality in their lives. We do not find them naturally going about the work of the Church in the world. They are far too much occupied with their own emotions and feelings, dissecting themselves, and ■wondering if they are saved, or if they are religious at all.

There is something , wrong there. They ought to be steadily growing, not thinking about growth, but just growing,, as they perform their duties in a natural way. If we are living naturally the life of faith and goodness, we ought to be growing. Of course, the larger part of our growth is taken out of our own hands. A tree depends upon its soil and air and environment; but our surroundings may be chosen. We may stunt our minds, by prejudices. We iiiay starve our souls by selfishness, by failure to use our opportunities, and if we do not use opportunities of contact and growth with others, then we fail to grow. . Grown-up Children. "When I was a child,' , says the iApostle Paul, ''I spoke as a child; I understood as a child; I thought as a child; but now I have become a man, I put away childish things."

Whatever it was in the age of the !Apostle, we to-day meet grown-up children in many of our churches. They Slave not put away childish things; they are thinking and talking like c'"ldren. They seem to learn very little from experience. They are irresponsible, and the result is that they are not happy themselves, nor are they a. source of happiness to others. It is great to eee a person growing mentally and morally. I was. one day walking down a street in Ciieff with a friend, when he said, "Do you see that msm? , ' I looked at the person he indicated. He was not very handsome nor well dressed. My friend said, "I have seen that man growing year by year since I came to "this town. He lias grown in weight of character, in influence, and in breadth of mind. He is a grocer." Thank God for men like that. Strength Means Growth. Bishop Temple was talking with Dr. Brown on one occasion about who ■would lie a suitable man to put into a certain position. Bishop Temple said, "You will hare to put a strong man there." "What do you mean by a •strong man'?" asked his friend. " ''I mean," replied the Bishop, "a man who, •wherever you put him, will grow." "Growth," said Cardinal Newman, ''is the only evidence of life," and so it is. If we are not growing, we are becoming narrowed, and prejudiced, and less and less useful to our day and generation. "There is your second great point in life," as Emerson says. You must grow. Take every chance of growing. We can all apply tests to ourselves in this direction. We can compare ourselves with our contemporaries—watcli how tiiey have improved and matured, and perhaps blame ourselves for not having done as well.