Thoughtful Moments

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 285, 21 March 1941, Page 2

Thoughtful Moments

(Supplied by the Whakat

THE MAN FOR THE NEW AGE

"A man shall be as an liidingplacc from the wind and a covert [rem the tempest,"—lsaiah xxxii. 2.

The hearts of all good, men are turning, even in the midst of war, Lo the world that is to be. It will need to be a better world. The discipline of war will have failed with as if all that makes us long for is to gel back to the old life. It was from this old life that the war sprang. It is not enough to cut down the weeds. The soil must be cleansed from the poisons that fed these weeds and gave them strength to poliute the world.

In his own day Isaiah had his vision of a new age that God was waiting to bring in. He sets forth the elements in it. There must be a good government. "A king shall reign in righteousness.'' W r c are all clear about that. There must be no dictators, no tyranny, no injustice. But there is another important condition which we are all apt to forget. There must be the right kind of manhood. Then he proceeds to draw that wonderful picture of true manhood which begins, "A man shall be as an hiding-place from the wind and a covert from the tempest." This throws the spotlight on ourselves. We arc so apt to put responsibility for everything on the Government. We criticise our leaders, forgetting that it is we who produce them and keep them in power. We think that if this law or that were passed, and this change or that were made, the new world would begin to take shape. We forget that no vital change can come about except it be first born in our own hearts. The big changes all come to life there, as seeds germinate in the ground, away from the eyes of men. The government is iust the projection of what lies hidden in the hearts of countless individual citizens.

It may be the first thing that is needed is a radical change in our valuation of manhood, of what it means to be really gretit. The world is still ridden by false ideas of human greatness. We are still apt to measure people by their power, their success, their money. These people hypnotise us. Does it matter ? It is this false idea of what real manhood is, stamped on the minds of youth, that has produced the Nazi savagery. A man shall be strong, ruthless, dominating, glorying in his power. That type of man can bring nothing but ruin wherever he may be. A bit of him; can be found in all of us; for we are all tempted by the love of power. How different is Isaiah's picture! "A man shall be as an .hiding place from the wind and a covert from the tempest." We know in our hearts that he is right. We respect Nansen, the adventurous hero of the "Fram," but much more we admire Nansen who cared for millions of desolate and homeless people after the last war. We marvel at the work

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and heart

OUR SUNDAY MESSAGE

of Livingstone the explorer; but most of all we honour Livingstone who have his life to deliver the people of Africa from forces that enslaved them within and without. That was Christ's way of measuring them. "He that would be grca. among you let him be your servant"

It was his own quality of spirit. That is how we think of Him, standing between the weak and the unfortunate and the bitter winds of life. He was always shielding someone from life's misfortunes and man's cruelty. He even shielded a sinful woman from the censure of religious people. He stood by her till she found strength to make a new start. He took on Himself the force of the blast. He even took the blame of.sin on Hiis own body

It-is that kind ol man, also, whom He creates. It was a hard lesson for the disciples to learn, that the road to the throne is by way of the cross. It took His own cross to break the spell of earth's pomp and power. But they saw the truth at last. They found that the cross is itself the throne. The serving life is tlulife of power.

If the new world is to come we must learn that lesson. We must find this secret of true manhood. We must see the true man as tlu-great-hearted, who gives instead of taking. We must see power only a means of service, never of dom-

ination or aggression or greed or pride. It is caring about people that will count most in making a better world.

Perhaps the suffering through which we are passing in these days will help us into this spirit. It is doing a great deal already. Wonderful service to the homeless hasi been done in the bombed areas. Men and women of all classes have been a hiding-place from the kind to others. Perhaps we had to pass through this pain to realise that we belong to one another. There is not much difference between cottage and mansion when an air-rakl has done with them. We may have needed something like this to break the fencc.s down and bring it home to us thai we are brothers. In any case, this is the thing God means us to learn. The prophet Ezekiel was of no use to his people till he had shared their misfortune and <; sat wherp the}' sat."

We can practise this outlook and develop this spirit if wc use imagination and listen to the voice that says, "Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these." Jesus once said a strange and even terrifying thing to His disciples about this. They had come on a blind man who wanted healing. The disciples began to probe into the reason for hia calamity. Jesus just said, "So far as we are concerned, the man is blind that we may cure him." Think that cut.' What if the sufferings; of those around us be the way God uses to awaken and develop in us the kind of manhood by which His new world can come in ?—Rev. J. Re-id in British Weekly.