SUNDAY READING.

Hutt News, Volume 9, Issue 15, 18 September 1935, Page 8

SUNDAY READING.

(By '\Fulax") THE .SCIIOOLHOY AND THE PAINTER. The schoolboy does not know the painter. The painter does not know the schoolboy. They are strangers to one [mother. Then; is nothing surprising in ttiut, since they live in different towns. The boy .lives here in Petne. The painter lives in one of our Southern cities. But they are uliko in their theology. I do not know to what church the boy goes. The painter goes nowhere. lie is not a church' goer..Put they both have a theology and it is the same in one respect. I should say their theology is the theology of the man in the street. And 1 say further, it is a good theology.

I met the boy this week vvlreu 1 was out visiting. Jlo uas out playing and walked up the track to Koro Roto with me. lie had three other children with him and ns we walked tliey chatted oil about different tilings. A lot of what llivy sail never reached me; a lot that did, never interested me; but one thing stuck in my mind. These children were talking about some lad who goes to Sunday School. In a tone of disgust the boy said: "Yes, and he swears too." t should say that this same youth lias a swear word or two in his voc.abualry, and, that on occasion Ire uses them. But the thing that disgusted him was that the boy who goes to Sunday School swore. To this young lad the two things did not go together. I met the painter when If.. 1 was painting the roof of the church where .1 was minister. His wile was one of the members and so I knew the mail a little, although he never came to church. One day when he was at work I climbed the ladder and sat down on the roof for a yarn. The talk ve 'red round to the church and to the church people. Many of the members were well known to him. I forget now just what the burden of his

complaint was, but L know, that iw wis disgusted wiil. one ui the members who had done so netliing that he did not Lmnk

was rig'ht. J. r -." xum on to say that tiieiP was a cerr::i:i .standard for Christians and tliey ougk't to live up to it. Th'S ho said although he w;»s not a professed Christian himself. For the painter as well as for the schoolboy there were certain things that a Christian ought not to do, When he does tlu'ni lie brings the church into disrepute.

Now I have been- a Minister long enough to have heard dozens of times the excuse that there are too many hypocrites in the church. Mostly the people

who n.ake that excuse lor not giving Jesus a chance in tlu'ir lives (in; not living- as good lives as the people tlrey criticise. They fur B ei also that there are ten sincere persons in the church fur

one insincere jjerswa. At any rate just now 1 am not concerned with them. They will keep til! another lime. What 1 urn

concerned with is that, in tire wor.M at

large, there is a cert; I ,in idea of what is

right for a Christian and what is wrong. .In many cases, the people who have this idea are not church goers themselves. Hut they help to form the general idea of what constitutes a Chi istia.n. Generally speaking, tin 1 id. a is a high one. The

man in the street expects that a Christian wiil be the highest type of man. lie expects that he will be sincere and tlrat he will 'e consistent. There are uo days when the man in the street will a-'low the Chiistian to lia\e a holiday from his religion. Once he allies himself witlr the church' lie is expected: to live up to its ideals all dav and every day.

ft the ciuach is ever to make the eontact it desires with the outsider, then

the Christians must live mi to tire standard the outsider sets. The Christian may have a higher standard but 110 cannot

have a lower one than that set for iiiiu by tin; man in tiro street. That is the lowest possible standard for any Christian who wants to retain the respect of his fellows. It lias sumeitme3 happened that the .standard set has been a low one. lint generally speaking, the standard has not been i'ar out. Where it has usually lagged and been too low is in jonneetion with' the social implications of Christiaiiityj In the matters of morality the man in the street has oftore demanded more than the Christian had been willing to give. That has shown how far short Ire has been of living the highest pussbile Christian life.

This question can never be sitnpJy an academic one. It must be a practical and a personal one. Just as that boy and that painter commented upon the life of those people, so yon can )jo sure, your friends and acquaintances are speaking of you. They are being influenced either for or against Christ aud the church by the way you live. In Iris book T. A. Glover has a splendid passage where he gives the secret of the rapid spread of the early Christian Church, lie says those early Christians "out thought, out lived and out died the pagan." The thought is put in a different way in the oft quoted statement "the blood of the martvrs is the seed of the church'." I'or

you and me that means that the way we uve vviil nelp or ninuer Hie auvaucu o. uio cnurcn. jl urn suit) many people wno are biaming tiro minister or me mstiict xor the siow pi ogress of the church Simula blame uieuiseivea. The sermons nave beau all riglu. Tne district may present difficulties but tney can be over-' come. The greatest hindrance to tlie advance of any clrurch is the member who is not living up to his profession. The greatest help is the member who takes his religion seriously and' tries to live it out in iiis daily liie. Now, my friend, winoii are you! Are you a junurmice or a ho!]) J OUK WEEKLY PKAYEII. Almighty God, Who sliovvesst to them that be in error the light'of Thy truth to the intent that they may return into tiie way of righteousness; unto all them tuut are admitted into the fellowship of Christ's religion, that they may eseiiew those things that are contrary to their profession, and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same; through' Jesus ,Christ our Lord. Amen. (Leone'Sacramentary, A.D. 440 J.