CHRISTMAS BELLS

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 303, 23 December 1939, Page 2 (Supplement)

CHRISTMAS BELLS

ByThe Reto. C. Yf, Chandler

THE menage of Chrietmaa ia peace. V :* v 'Peaice on earth—goodwill towards men." Juat at present we hardly dare „to lisp the word. "Grim visag'd war" has not "smoothed his wrinkled front,'* hor does he "idly caper In a lady's chamber," as Sh«kespeare wrote of more peaceful days than these. From another point of view, however, there is greater need thah ever for that "peace which passeth all understanding" which we clergy are so frequently mentioning. In a recent Isane of "The Spectator," the medical oorreapondent of that paper haa eomething to Bay about "peace ol mind." Inward serenity ia one of life's greatest assets during these days of storm and stress. Most people are eddying in whirlpools of anxiety and fear. Physician, theologian and paychologist assert that it is "within the reach of any sane person.?* Not the contentment and peace of a cabbage or a cauliflower, or of a cow chewing her cud in the shade of a willow by the side of a placid stream, but the inward contentment and calm of a captain on ths bridge, in the teeth of a howling gale, who, knowing that he has a grip of the situation, also knows that if he were :to get "panicky" there would be amall hope for the aafety of either the vessel, the passengers or the crew. of inward psaea is worth cultivating. So let the bells peal forth their Yuletide message of peace. All that Christmas stands' for is not rendered untrue, or even of secondary importance, because man have not yet discovered the full import of this Great Evangel—that a Saviour haa been born into ths world. Like ths Russian culture germ which was all the rage a few years ago (you put it into a glass of water and watched it fow), is a growth—a development— and in ths carnage of war it ia still developing. Not wily is it a growth and a development, but it is a ferment, like yeast. Gradually, imperceptibly, it is leavening tns lump—the great cosmic consciousness ? Sometime or other, in' the not-too-distant future, we hope, the yeast will have done its work, and the "dough" will Man will .proclaim the truth for Ml! •" tk® ages until then, he will have been groaning and travailing in anguish to hear——that henceforth men are* determined to live in peace with each other.

How many "blood-filled trenches still divide us from that day" none aa yet can ' T * l I repeat, fa going on * i 7 e «t, is working in the minds of men who face the Siegfried Line, &a well EliiilL i$. e i l? of men and women who follow their ordinary peaceful'avocations. on f, ,®' us is free from tho great responsibility of making hia or her mind a K?° *Mi qmet and content that can reflcct , the stillness and the power of all that encircles the turbulency of nations Because of all that I have tried to sav, besides a great deal more that I lack the power to express, is true, I am brought to the point of making a most dogmati-s assertion Keligi on is essential to life. It aU | hat gives men Power to rise above themselves—to hope in the face of bitter disappointment—and to lay the foundation stone of the New Jerusalem on th-j shattered debris of his present folly. " "The Spectator's" medical correspondent concludes his article on "Peace ofMind" by saying: " One of the greatest pioneers of the so called modern psychology has given it aa his mature opinion that the basic trouble of most of the anxious, queer and perplexed patients that throned his *■ • h * M * S "»» proclaim the nineteen, hundred and thirty^ fflSLyggyg of the birth of the Prince of their message will not be in the thTdlvll P ?h? na B f iU th " nature of ThLr3li * 8h Wh [ ch „ we •» passing. ? g " * chftllepge to our god- • lUr*1 Ur *v appalling . a P at fcy a" 10 " 1 they proclaim. They call JtA w ° rk «<»r that inward peace Jthout We rtnd ®f ed « incapable of i£i P L-?.. - 8 a ,' be that skipper on miift whom I spoke, of savuig the Ml VIST CO ® mi , tted to hia care, if he petty fears and anxieties. Don't be like a flea in a prophet's beard. : '■£■£_* * a baßin of cream. Act like a |«r» on possessed with confidence born of world h 6611 born into the JET™. * d * hrou ß\ His spirit working in P! ™T^ d » there shaU ultimately be h JPi h L to l frnltloß those things for which Man has hoped since the day when his language was a cry.