THE QUIET HOUR

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 4 May 1935, Page 2

THE QUIET HOUR

Contributed by Basil Metson TRUE BROTHERHOOD “I Sat Where The}' Sat’’ (Ezekiel. 3.15). It required some courage for Ezekiel to share the poverty, grinding toil, and bitterness of- these poor outcasts of his race. The Jewish priest was a man of high rank, set apart, prevented by his caste from coming into close contact with the common people. But God set in his heart a passion to be the living voice of these exiles. To fulfil this office he must come to know very intimately the side of life to which he was a total stranger. So he went into the valley of the Euphrates and sat among liis exiled countrymen. “I sat where they sat.”

In these five words is contained the

SECRET OF ALL TRUE SERVICE

for mankind. If we are going to be of any help to our fellowmen we must place ourselves alongside of them. Every age has possessed those who preferred to look down on life from an attitude of assumed authority and isolation, hermits, pundits, censors, cynics and despots. But their .influence for good has been as nothing compared with that of those who sat side by side with their comrades. Voltaire and Carlyle must yield as movers of thought and feeling to Burns and Dickens. Livingstone means more to our"hearts to-day than Napoleon. It is the men who shared the lives of the people who did the really big things, after all; the things which move men’s tears or laughter and make for the building up of the race. John Howard who so greatly helped to reform England’s disgraceful prison life; Frank Crosslev, merchant prince and saint of Manchester; Ivagawa, the imitator of Christ Himself, who has literally transformed the slums of Japan; these found Ezekiel’s secret and the world is immeasurably richer in consequence. Much of our present

SOCIAL DISCONTENT AND

DISORDER

would disappear if this way of life became the rule and not the exception. We must in imagination, feeling and understanding sympathy enter into the lives of others, see things from their point of view, realise our true brotherhood and become one with them in the bonds of a mighty fellowship. This world- with its wants and ■wounds and woes needs the ministry of sympathy. We will never understand people looking at them through an opera glass, of dropping help to them from a balloon. Kid-g;loved action at a distance is often useless. We must sit where they sit, see what they see, feel much of what they feel. This is a GREAT PART OF THE CHRISTIAN PROGRAMME and expresses the spirit of our (Master, who sat with publicans and sinners, made friends with outcasts, found and transformed the last, the lost and the least. True religion is not for a blue-blood-ed few, the luxury of the respectable, but a vital necessity for the needy. It is not a matter of weak sentiment, it is an obligation. Our strength belongs to the weak, our eyes to the blind, our wisdom to the ignorant, our legs to the crippled, our health to the sick. We are under a great debt by the ties of blood and Christian duty to minister to those so sorely up against it. When General William Booth through old age could not attend a great meeting in a distant land of an organisation whose inspiration he was, he cabled a message of greeting. It was a single word, “Others,” but it contained the- gospel of unselfishness which enabled him to girdle the world in loving service.

There arc lonely hearts to cherish While the days arc going by; There are weary souls who perish While the days are going by. Life is a poor and . empty business

unless we are prepared to share its joys and sorrows with others. Much of the misery in this world is firmly rooted in selfishness. Radiant happiness always comes through seeking to bring happiness to some one else. It was the secret of our Lord's wonderful influence on earth.

HE CAME TO THOSE OF THE

CAPTIVITY,

tasted the common experiences of all mankind, sat where men sit, that one day he might lift them up to sit where He sits in the heavenly places. We shall never do much good for the world until we ai>ply the Christ-eure to its ills and desperate needs. We can never bless and help humanity by sitting apart in selfish isolation. “Bear ye one another’s burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ,” is the exhortation of the Apostle Paul, who himself was an insatiable servant of others. What a priceless right is ours to be and help a brother! We cannot afford to miss the enriching opportunity of manifesting the grace of sympathy, by getting beneath the burdens of those who arc down, and assisting them to come home with happy hearts at eventide. If we do, we shall find ourselves at last in the company of those who said: '‘Lord, when saw wc thee an liungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall lie answer them saying, “Verily I say unto you: Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.” (Matthew, 25:44-45.) |