THE ROOM OVER THE GATE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 76, 30 March 1935, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE ROOM OVER THE GATE.

(By DR. DON D. TULLTS.)

RECHARGING THE SPIRIT.

The gale of a walled eitv is an artery through wliicli pass all the currents of the city's life. Caravans of commerce, processions of religionists, tourists from near and far, royal visitors, beggars and brigands all meet and mingle there.

People of nil classes go to the gate for news. It is their daily Press in which the stories lose none of their glamour by translation to the printed l'age. , David went to the gate when his kingdom was threatened by the uprising of Absolom. When the day was won at the expense of his son's life, lie left the busy thoroughfare and retired to a room over the gate to be alone with his thoughts and with God. This room over the gate represents religion at its best—not as public worship or ' ceremonial, but as deep, personal experience. It is more essential to human existence than the gate itself. It is a place of retreat from the dust and the dirt oi' the highway where life for the most part must be lived. When contacts with the crowd bewilder and dismay, when the problems of commerce and industry, Government and society threaten to overwhelm the spirit, there is always the room over the gate where a man may go and feel the problems of life beneath him and the power of life above him.

Tliis room is a place of review where the individual sees the currents of human life in toto. The eddies of the whole social structure whirl in concert at liis feet. He witnesses the fouls, hidden to those who are in the game, and marks the longings and desires that motivate the throngs. No man is proper judge of human values who has not viewed this procession from the upper room.

This room over the gate makes possible a recharge of tlie spirit, fitting the individual for larger service in the gate. The poet dwelling in his house \>y the side of the road may always he friendly to passers-by, but he cannot be a real friend unless he can help tliem to a higher roadway. To do this he must have his own room over the gate. "How canst thou urge God's law to us," says Shakespeare's knave, "when thou hast broke it in such dear degree?"

Have you a room over the gate ? Religious experience is essential to successful living. It is nQt the cynic but the man of faith who understands his age and serves his generation.— (N.A.X.A. Service.)