INHERITED PEACE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20034, 5 September 1939, Page 4

INHERITED PEACE

VALLEY OF DECISION MULTITUDES FACE TEST OPPORTUNITY OF CHOICE COURAGE-. GO FORWARD "The danger of prosperity and inherited peace is that we may value things seen, and root from our thoughts the inestimable spiritual heritage. To us as individuals and collectively as members of social organisations, communities, churches, and nations —the component parts of the great body of mankind —comes the challenge. Blessing or cursing? Life or Death? Choose jmu this day whom you will serv^.”

The annual meeting of the Victoria League in Poverty Bay yesterday afternoon was notable as the first public gathering held in Gisborne following the announcement of the declaration of war.

In a speech of which the abovequoted words formed a passage, the president, Miss A. L. Rees, reminded her fellow-members that jhe league was an Empire organisation, and that ■its urgent duty was to take up those aspects of the war effort for. which its experience and equipment might seem best to fit it.

“You have all heard the Prime Minister of Great Britain, Mr. Neville Chamberlain, speaking from Downing Street and announcing that England is now at war,” said Miss Rees.

“The Hebrew prophet gazing into the unrolled history of the world, thousands of years ago, may well have seen a vision of a day like this when he cried: ‘Multitudes! Multitudes in the Valley of Decision.’ The Inevitable Impact

“What multitudes stand there today. Numbers beyond the grasp of the mind. In Europe alone, over 10,000,000 armed men—and among,, be 7 hind ’ and beyond them, every human being alive and the unknown millions of the next generation. Each will almost inevitably feel the impact of this upheaval. Their lives will be changed, some for worse, many, we hope, for better. Multitudes, indeed! “And what is the decision you and I must face in the valley we are entering? When the first murderer asked: ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ he set the issue before mankind. Two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ proclaimed that the race of man was one body corporate, that if one member suffered the whole body suffered, that we were not God’s children if we did not love our brother as ourselves; that if we left a human being sick, hungry, naked or in prison and did not help him, we were actively wounding the Son of God.

“Many nations have accepted that teaching as the foundation stone of their government. Leader among these is the British race to which we belong. Divine approval of our service—however faulty and imperfect—is shown by th e ever-growing power and the blessings, both spiritual and material, showered upon us.” • : Interdependence of Nations

The speaker referred to the interdependence of the nations, and the hurting /effect upon all of the complexities which have invaded the lives of the people. The nations were toeing driven forward together, relentlessly, in-, voluntarily and unconsciously, and at a feverish speed. Yet something more than had been manifested was needed before the world-child was born complete. A spirit must enter into it and take control.

Spasmodic shadows of the new force had been thrown by the League of Nations, the Kellogg Pact, and the appeasement policy, offering a welcome to love and life as directors of human destiny. In Tennyson’s words, it was: “As if some lesser god had made the ♦ earth, But had not force to .shape it as the world; Till the High God 'behold it from beyond,

And enter it, and make it beautiful.”

“This is what I feel. The appointed time has come, and the powers of hell, death, hate, destruction and slavery are rallying to try to kill the God-world that has come to the birth," continued iMiss Rees. “They cannot kill it. But they can make the birth pangs hideously long. A Prayer for Guidance

“This brief 1 chapter in our existence, this earth sojourn, is vital chiefly because of the opportunity of choice it offers to us each, and the chance to prove our mettle. The Cross stands before the Kingdom of Heaven. The question for me and for you who listen is: To-day, here, what. is my task?. We do not know. We can only say: I am here, Lord send me . . . And above all, it is the duty of each ope of us to thank God for all His past mercies, to take courage and go forward, into however dark a wilderness, with unflinching trust.” The president spoke of the forms which service might take in the case of league members, and invited her fellow members to join her in the following prayer for good courage:— “Grant to us, Thy servants, O Lord, the royalty of inward happiness and the serenity which com.es from living close to Thee. Daily renew in us the sense of joy, and let the Eternal Spirit of the Father dwell in our souls and bodies,' filling every corner of our hearts with light and gladness; so that, bearing about with us the infection of a good courage, we may be diffusers of light, and may meet all ills and cross accidents with a gallant and high-hearted happiness, giving Thee thanks always for all things, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”