QUIET HOUR

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 18 April 1925, Page 6

QUIET HOUR

THE CONQUERING CHRIST

Dr. Jackson writes to the Manchester Guardian a very fine Advent article on Christ to-day.

ITALY. “A handful of freshly.-gathered illustrations ihay make appropriate reading. They will not be the less suggestive because they are all gathered m foreign fields. “The first conies from Italy m the form of Giovanni Papini’s ‘Story oi Christ.’ It is the work of a man who 1 few years ago was aii. uubelievei > but the foamihg flood of war forced him to seek fresh anchorage for his life; he found it in Christ, and his book' is his confession of faith. io some readers; it may he, apart irom this fact, it will make no appeal; it is too heated, not to say hysterical (though a competent New Testament scholar, I see, writing in hist month s Expositor, gives it a place among ‘the ten best hooks of the life of Jesus ). But this does- not matter; the significant thing is that a life of Christ, written ifi open disregard of modern criticism but in a white heat of personal conviction, has found readers by che tens of thousands alike in Italy, France and Great Britain. How shell we explain it ? In part, no doubt, by the ; personality of the writer;' in part, too, some will add, by the skill of the advertiser; hut for the most part, surely, by the external fascination of the writer’s theme. A GENTLEMAN IN PRISON. “From Italy I turn to Japan. i nave referred in this column before to a remarkable human document published last year by the Student Christian Movement under tiie title ot ‘A Gentleman in Prison,’ and containing the confessions of Tokichi Ishii written in Tokio Prison. Ishii was awaiting execution for murder. Two lady missionaries who visited him left with him a copy of the New Testament. One day when he was tired or doing nothing he took down the book and began to read. AYhat followed is best told in his own words. “ ‘I went on,' he says, ‘and niv attention was taken by these words, •‘And Jesus said, bather, forgive them, for thev know not what they do. i stooped; I‘was stabbed to the heart, as if “pierced by a five-inch naiK Mil at did the verse reveal to me? Shall I call it love of the heart of Christ? Shall I call it His compassion? I do not know what to call it. I only know that with an unspeakably grateful heart I believed. Through this simple sentence I was led into the whole of Christianity.’ AIR,. GANDHI. “Alv next story is of Air. Gandhi. Lt was told in a recent lecture by Dr. Alington, the head master of Eton, on Lhe authori tv of a friend. After one of his foreign tours, as a champion of Indian interests, he Was received by i tremendous meeting of people in Calcutta. He was the popular hero of ihe day, and the ill ace Was crowded with 15,000 Bengalis come to welcome him. My friend was the one Englishman present. For three hours the orators of Bengal spoke in praise of themselves and Air. Gandhi; and then came the great moment when Air. Gandhi rose, and all this vast assembly settled themselves on their haunches waiting for their great orator to speak. His speech consisted of one sentence only: ;The man to whom I owe most and to whom all India owes most is a man who never sets his foot in India—and that was Christ.” “ ‘And then he sat down. That was the whole of Air. Gandhi’s speech. ‘When a Ilian like that’ —this is Dr. Alington’s quiet comment —‘speaks of our Lord in that way, it does suggest India is looking to Christ in a way it has never looked before.’

TURNED HIS BACK ON EUROPE. “I turn last to Eqiiatofial Africa. Some fifteen years ago one of the most brilliant young men in Europe was Dr. Albert ‘'Schweitzer, professor of theology in Strassbtirg, organist to the Paris Bach Society; author of ‘lhe Quest of the Historical Jesus’ —and all 'before he was thirty years of age. Orthodoxy, naturally, took alarm lit his revolutionary theories, but he closed his famous book with these words: .

“ ‘He conies to us as one unknown, without a name, as of old, by the lakeside, Hei came to those men who knew Him not. He speaks to us the same Word: “Follow thou Ale!” and it sets us to the tasks which He has to fulfil for our time. He commands. And to those who obey Him, whether they lie wise or simple, He will reveal Himself in the toils; the conflicts, the sufferings which they shall pass through in His fellowship* and, as an ineffable mystery, they shall ieafii in their own experience who He is.’ “Then, a few years later, came the astonishing sequel. By giving organ recitals he obtained the means to equip himself as a doctor. Then he gave up his choir, turned his back on Europe, dnd buried himself among the natives bf French Equatorial Africa, ‘on the fedge of the primeval forest.’ “So still does the old story repeat itself; ‘They fell down and worshipped Him; and opening their treasures they offered Him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.’ ”

And did’et Thou love the race that loved not Thee? And did’st Thou take to heaven a human brow ? Dost plead with man’s voice by the marvellous sea? Art Thou his kinsman now ? O God, Q kinsman loved, 'but not enough! {> Alan, with eyes majestic after death, Whose feet'have toiled along our pathways rough, Whose lips drawn human breath! fly that one likeness which is ours and Thine, By that one nature which doth hold us kin, By that high heaven where, sinless, T'hriu dost shine, To draw "us sinners in; Bv Tliv last silence in the jndgmenthail. By long foreknowledge of the deadly tree, By darkness, by the wormwood and the gall, I pray a Thee, visit me. Come, lest this heart should, cold and cast away, Die ere the Guest adored she entertain— . ... Lest eyes that ne% r er saw’ Thine earthly day Should miss Thy heavenly reign. —Jean Inge low.