The Quiet Hour

Hawera Star, Volume LI, 20 February 1932, Page 15

The Quiet Hour

(Contributed on Behalf of the Hawera Ministers’ Association.) (By “Beta”), “The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.” (Mark 10 : :45.) Two of the disciples of our Lord, James and John, Had fallen mto disiaiour, wirii the rest of the _ c-ailj cU* cipies 'they had asked their Loid loi privileges which were evidently not obtainable—they wanted to occupy the honoured place with Jesus in the Jxingdom of God, one on the ugh hand and one on the left. At this request the ten were moved with in «- nation. The ambitions of -Limes and John were not appreciated by the « ox the company and even Jesus tour it, necessary to rebuke them. He said, whosoever "shall be great among, you, let” him be your minister (servant) and whosoever of you will he the chieiest I shall be servant of all, for the son of man came not to he ministered unto | but to minister and to give his hie a ransom for many. This rebuke uas indeed a very instructive lesson to all the disciples. Jesus was preparing ioi the Kingdom of righteousness, he depended on the conduct of the twelve disciples for tne progress of that kingdom, his brief sojourn among them must be used as a period ol prepaiatipn, so that after Ins departure, they may proceed with the work ol the Gospel ot the Kingdom. Two out of the twelve are seeking honoured places, how intensely human this is! AVe find this phase of human nature sprouting up at almost every angle of life ; we see it in ourselves, and we see it in others. 100 often dp we find that human service is discoloured with the impurities of unholy ambition, whereas true service ministers without the least desire for the front seats in the synagogue. On the other hand, if we expect real joy m any service we may render to God oi our fellow men, that service must be given in love and with the one desire of doing good, rather than receiving honour. THE KINGDOM OF GOD.

In the teaching of Jesus it is made clear that God has a spiritual kingdom iu the world, and it is composed oi men and women who are called out (ecelesia) from the world as members of that Kingdom, hut who remain in it as citizens. ' . AY hen Jesus sent the disciples on their work of evangelism he realised that the world around them was pagan, that they were a mere handful of men untrained in the arts and sciences ot tlie <iay und iinit tlie> would be faced with great difficulties, and subjected even to persecution and death. But he trusted them. He believed that they would make no attempt to adjust His teaching to the ideals of paganism, he was sure that they would separate themselves from the joys and thrills (so-called) of the Homan holiday, and lie felt that lie could depend on them to be true representatives of the Kingdom of righteousness, in spite of human lapses which might occur occasionally. Now His trust was not misplaced for his disciples soon, became the leaders of a great movement for righteousness and they proved worthy followers of their Master.

But every member of the Christian church is a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, and a commissioned officer in the Kingdom of God, and whenever and wherever Christi&n people have been true to tlieir commissioner and loyal to their Leader, this Kingdom of God has definitely progressed. But during the last few decades there have been many- attempts to adjust Christian thinking and conduct to the changing viewpoints of the world around us, and m most cases this leads to disaster as far as the actual work of the Kingdom of God is concerned. One can scarcely imagine any of the early apostles after Pentecost or the Reformers, or any of the great leadens of righteousness throughout the ages, allowing themselves to be enticed into wrongdoing or into a form of conduct admittedly contrary to the ideals of the spiritual Kingdom which they represent, simply because an unholy set of men think fit to dub them narrow minded men, or killjoys. As a matter of fact the greatest men of our era have often been so classed, but epithets do not hurt and they who are true to their convictions will one day realise that it was worth while being a follower of Christ, no matter what the man of the world may think.

AVe sometimes have too much to say about our rights and forget all about our duties. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man, said the wise king of -old. Duty is an. obligation and a privilege. God is the Sovereign Lord of all the earth, and failure to do our duty to him must of necessity bring evil results, hut it is a privilege to he a servant under the kingship of the God of all the earth. The kingdoms of the earth rise and fall, but God remains what He was from the beginning. No changed circumstances of time can change God, who is Lord of eternity-, and for man to he privileged to serve Him and call Him Father is indeed dutv merged into privilege and jov. “I. "delight- to do Thy will, O God,” said the Psalmist of old. Do we desire to love and serve God? If so, that desire sooner or later will he satisfied. Someone has said that the basis of true life is religion. It i-s true that Jesus Christ is the foundation head of true life, and if we fail to fashion our lives according to the Divine Plan, then life is indeed onesided and uncertain.

None of us can live well by an occasional resolution. AVe need to be constantly- putting good resolutions into practice. It lias been said that knowledge is the possession of a number of facts, that science is the classified arrangement of that knowledge, and that art is the appropriation or application of those facts to daily- life. S-o good resolutions to be of value must be put into regular practice.

Hi l who closes the door of his heart to the higher instincts, and to the promptings of God. closes his life to the good and beautiful and true. The Supreme Good is God; to shut Him out means opening the door of our life to good lessor and perhaps evil. “Swing the heart’s door widely open, hid Him enter while He may.”

Knowledge is food, hut unless used for the service of God and man it might easily become stagnant, if not putrid, like a sponge fitted with water and allowed to remain stagnant. The squeezed -sponge makes possible a fresh supplv of cleaner water. So, too, the diving out of knowledge, the human losses, the trials and the disappointments heln to cleanse the life and soul of impurities, and make possible greater results than hitherto.

We ought to lie somethin g • definite anti sneeial in the matter of religion, and that something should be large, for man is made for great things and religion is the greater interest to God and therefore to man, whether man realises it or Jjot.