AN ALLEGORY

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LXI, Issue 16, 27 February 1940, Page 3

AN ALLEGORY

"There is in, the Old Testament a story to which I often turii, for it is one of those allegories that are of enduring value. A host, we are told, compassed the city with horses and chariots. His servant said to Elisha: Alas! my master, how shall we do? And he replied:. Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them, "in .answer to Elisha's prayer, the Lord opened toe eyes of the young man; and,' behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. Man's spiritual values are "defended as Bjr chariots of fire. I would that we to-day might pray with Such effect that the Lord would open the eyes of our people, to see God's forces marshalled to protect those things of His that are eternal. But let us be careful not to exaggerate. The Apostle who wrote: 'All things work together for good to them that love God' was destined to die a martyr's death, and the people to whom he wrote were, many of them, sufferers in Nero's persecution. Yet who shall say, when the final accounts were balanced, that even for Paul and his Roman converts all things had not worked together for good? So, notwithstanding the earnestness of our prayers, the loftiness of our respective aims or the generosity of our motives, we ourselves may be sorely tried. But our trials shall not be in vain if we refrain from anger and hatred and selfishness."—

Dr. BarneS, Bishop of Birmingham, in a recent sermon.