The Church's Message

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 13802, 20 November 1942, Page 2

The Church's Message

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii^^ VERSE hOR TODAY-} The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power . . . : the Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm. —Nahum 1:3. lIIIIIIIIIIM DR. JOHN HUTTON For the first three centuries the followers of Christ were a minority, in the first century a very small minority, and they knew that they had no right to be even a minority unless it meant that they stood for a way of life which sifted men to the depths of the soul. They were

aware also that the eyes of the world were upon them, searching their behaviour for one weak spot. They were wiser to be few and to stand fast, than, being many, to betray here and there their trust. It was not that they perceived that by this severity with themselves they would overcome the world; although it was their moral integrity and resource which in the long run proved to be their one prevailing weapon. "I can do nothing," said Oliver Cromwell, "with an army of loafers and tapsters. Give me some godly men, and I shall pursue this war to a triumphant end." Though that was their very case, still I believe it was not that which, in the first instance, moved the Church to exercise this severity, and to close her ranks against the world as such. No; I believe it was an instinctive action in the interest of her own life and spirit. Day and night, Christians were face to face with a hostile world; in the very first days not so much a hostile world as an insinuating and seducing world. It. was a world which was in all its manifold activities, in its religions, and in its want of religion, in its daily behaviour, in its speech and manners, and in the very accept of its mind, a systematic denial of all those dear and sacred things which warmed the heart, and maintained the will of those first believers.

On this whole matter, and since there are those who, displaying a deplorable discrimination, will listen to a famous near contemporary rather than to such a towering genius in the things of the spirit as was St. Paul —let me say that it was Ibsen who issued the maxim that "Minoriities govern the world."

It was the morning break in the harvest field. Though I had not helped with harvest I joined in with those who sat down or lolled on yellow stooks, and when the custard came round (two inches of a golden sea in a brown crust) together with mugs of tea, I saw no point in saying I would wait till dinner. Tom was next to me.

"Slow Tom" they call him in the village—a farm hand who has never owned a farm, and never will, who has worked for somebody else these fifty years, and lived in a little house, digging his own garden, and specialising in bees and runner beans. He looked slow —leaning back, tanned in the sunshine, weathered by summer and winter, with a strong jaw, heavy eyebrows, and the kindest eyes in the world. "Tom," said I, "why do they call you slow?" He was so slow in answering that my host, the farmer, answered for him. "I'll tell you," said he, setting down his mug between the straws, "it's because everyone else is overfast! That's it. Slow Tom here, he worked for my father same as he works for me; and he belongs to the old-fashioned type that does one thing at a time, and does it well. That's Tom. When he's finished a job, other folks h.as gone home to supper and bed —only Tom's done it to last, and what they've done has to be done again!" "Nay, Master," murmured Tom, red under his tan. "I'll speak my mind, lad," went on the farmer. "And I'll say something else while I'm about it—Tom here does a bit of preaching . . . and it all comes along of him being that slow, don't you see, that the Lord has time to walk with him, and tell him things!"

"Now do thou hunger and thirst, not for' 'the meat that perisheth, but for that which endureth unto everlasting life.' Trample underfoot the world, the things of the world; all these riches, honours, pleasures. What is the world to thee? Le- the dead bury their dead; but follow thou after the image of Cod. And beware of quenching the blessed thirst, if it is already excited in thy soul, by what is vulgarly called religion; a poor, dull farce, a religion of form, of outside show, . which

leaves the heart still cleaving to the dust, as earthly and sensual as ever, Let nothing satisfy thee but the power of godliness; the dwelling in God and God in thee; the being an inhabitant of eternity; the entering in by the blood of sprinkling within the veil, and 'sitting in heavenly places' with Christ Jesus.' "Now, seeing thou canst do all things through Christ strengthening thee, be merciful as thy Father in heaven is merciful. Love thy neighbour as theyself. Love friends and enemies as they own soul, and let thy love be long-suffering and patient

toward all men. Let it be kind, soft, benign; inspiring thee with the most amiable sweetness, and the most fervent and tender affection. Let it rejoire in the truth, wheresoever it is found; the truth that is after godliness. Enjoy whatsoever brings glory to God, and promotes peace and goodwill among men. In love cover all things—of the dead and the absent speaking nothing but good; believe all things which may in any way tend to clear your neighbour's character; hone all things in his favour; and endure all things, triumphing over all opposition: for true love never faileth, in time or in eternity." —John Wesley.