ALCHEMY OF FAITH

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 297, 14 December 1940, Page 2 (Supplement)

ALCHEMY OF FAITH

By the Rev. C. W. Chandler

FANCY wishing a mother a happy Christmas, as in a few weeks' time we shall be doing, when all she has to remind her of her son in Egypt, or in England, or en route to some unknown destination is just a photograph, or maybe a few suits of clothes packed away with moth balls in drawers against the day of his safe return. How can Christmas be happy under such circumstances?

Then let us take a glUwpse into the live? of til we who in the Old Country are immeas : iral>' v worse off. i lie house which was just one of a Ion? terrace or similar hout-es has been .-.lettered b> bombs. However insignificant it miglit ha ve iK-en to others, it. was home to those who have been rendered homeless ti)rough its loss. Everything which it contained had been strupiried '" or " Imagine wishing the mother out of that home a happy Christmas! In Shell Holes or "Hell Holes" Then there are the teeming thousand® ■who huddle together n:_:ht by nigiit in air raid shelters and \vh". on Christmas J );• \ it-elf. may hear the ahum and have to leave su-'it meagre provision as hnbeen made in order to take cover. IVri-h tlie tli..u;r!it that pagan frightful 11 < - - could so ui--<'<-rat'J the natal day of the Prince of Peace. Whatever there is of conscience left will surely assert ' itself on that day. Can anyone have a happy Christmas under such circumstance*T At first Ave feel like saying ''no," but a few moments' reflection upon certain traits in English character soon brings the assurance that these people are capable of laughter under any circumstajtces. With a couple of "Gor blimeys" and a few '"straths" in shell holes or "hell holes" a Londoner can laugh. He's the greatest laugher in the world. Only this week I received a letter from the Rev. Canon J. Beaufort, who is known to so many Xew Zea--1 iders. He says, "I was in London last week and no eooner had I arrived than the sirens e-ounded. The effect upon the people was no worse than the barking of a dog. Everyone went on walking and talking. They onlv take cover if gui*s start firing, and even then 7nan\ jn>t stand and watch the aerial activity until it becomes too hot." Pure Common Sense Beiii? a Cockney myself I know something of their stoicism. People like that can be happy on Christmas Lav sans pudding, sans turkey, sans jni'stletoe sans everything. What's the secret of this splendid uncrushability ? vTo i fh ,\ d , the ansvrer to our question we shall have to think on a higher plane—dive from the topmost spring-

board, and so go deeper into the tmg. lucent wa tors of eternal truth. All that ancient aL'-hemists tried to with the aid of their philosc; nor's stone, to turn base metals into gr Id. smacked somewhat of sorcery and cn-'hantmeut Nunc the less their efforts v.-rr seriou» both in this regard and in their desire to discover the secret of eterr.ai routi. By the aid of the alchemy of common sense these I»nd<'ners are able to strip the night of its darkness, the thought of death itself oi terror. "We have moved our beds downstair?,"' continues Canon Beaufort •"hoping that if a bomb is deposited on us we shall either escape the fragments or depart together." That's surely more than stoicwm, and it's more than philosophic adjustment to .Mcumstanoe. Neither is it just re^igna tion to what fate decrees. Ila'her is it knowledge grounded on faith. That is what faith tran-mutee sorrow into joy, • - j, T changing the circumstances or by Averting the source of possible danger, but by filling the circumstance itself with the stuff of happiness. The purpose for which labour or pain is undergone makes ail the difference "Tin*, n.y mean ta-k," says Ferdinand in Shakespeare's "Temiiest," "would be as heavy to nie a= ndiou*; but the mk-tre.-s iMirandai wnich I serve quickens what's dead and makes my labours pleasures." For a Reason. ■Sorrow is literally turned into joy when we discover why it mu-t l, e undergone. "I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not to be ''compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." Without this wonderworking alchemy of faith our whole war effort would be rendered useless and our chances of victory obscure. What the quiet heroism of non-com-batant men and women at homo j, accomplishing, far more than what soldiers and airmen are doing, is slowlv but surely determining the result of the present conflict. Battles are lost and won in human hearts. Arms are onlr accessories Our adversaries know thii hence the frantic attempts to break th» faith of the British people. 1 hate the word morale. It is entirelv insufficient. It's faith that is workintne miracle. Faith in the cause faith in the leaders, and faith in God who will deserve 3 it victor - v ~ if be that we The Cross—a common instrument of death—has been transmuted by faitli into the glorious symbol of eternal salvation, and unnumbered thousands iiaye braved fire and sword for the triumph of that sign of our redemption Men and women are capable of a like heroism to-day. Beneath fhe coarse substance of our common clay there k still enough of God to save us.