ANGLICAN GIRLS

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVII, Issue 30, 4 January 1927, Page 3

ANGLICAN GIRLS

BITILE CLASS UNION.

AN INTERESTING ADDRESS. On Saturday Rev. T. Fielder Taylor, of Wellington, addressed the members of _ the Anglican Girls’ Bible Class Union, now in camp in Palmerston North, as follows, taking for his subject “Tho Bible": Now, to-day, I want to talk to you about the Bible. I have not come all this way except with the idea of giving you something useful. First of all, 1 hope I can take it for granted that every girl in tho camp h.as a Bible of her very own. I wonder if it is so? All your very own 1 Ido not mem your grandmother’s or the big family Bible, but I mean one of your very own! Ttien I hope it is a big one. I nope that you have saved your money up and bought that Bible of your very own —a fine big one. Then I hope you realise that the Bible is a book to knock about. Yes, I mean than, your Bible should have sonie texis underlined by you, texts which talk to you. : Turing tho war I was on the Dardanelles and one night specially I got info a terrible funk —I felt terribly afraid. In soldiers’ language, I had the wind up. If I came to your camp to-night and you did not know I was hero I could get your wind up,, too. Wdl, I spent a long time that night burying men. It was very dark and I Sira* a ll on my own, and at last I came to ;a little passage I had togo along to get hone again to my mates. I knew there was a machine gutv. plnying on it. A machine gun pops off 120 bullets in'a minute. I stood looking at that litflo passage I had to go through. I sood smoking looking at it, with my wind up. 1 heard the machine gun. At last I ran for it, I could not tell yoi: how fast. It was only a hundred j yards, hut I thought it was two miles . long- I got safely to my dug-out and | then I realised how afraid I was and I .-aid to myself, “You are supposed to h© a Christian, but you are frightened.” I think I have read my Biblo •ever since I was eight, every day; I think so. I said to myself that night, "I will try and find a passage which fits in with my wind up.” Do you knew there was one? You would not think so, would you ? I opened my Bille at the Psalms and I read: "Tea, Lord, though I am sometimes afraid ; Thou knowest I do put my trust in Thee." I still have that underlined. So I hope your Bible is underlined and marked to show that it is a look that you realise fits in to every cinumstance of life.

Years and years and years ago I wa> a lawyer and I wondered whether I ought to bo a parson, and I could net make up my mind. Someone said : "O.i. hut. you’re a lawyer, and they’re nor like parsons, you know.” I could no; decide so J did ns I had done at the Dardanelles. 1 said; "I will have a little prayer and now I will open nu Bible.” I opened it as Joshua aid there were two words which gave me my answer, "Go forth,” anti I went. I believe the Bible fits in with every possible thing in life. There is no circumstance for which there is

net some text. So I hope your Bible is a working Bible—underlined and narked. 1 once bought a Bible and took it to a book vendor and asked him to put in a clean sheet between each page. 1 used that to write any mtes opposite any verse I like—it is full of personal remarks on texts which fitted in with special circumstances. Then I do want you to remember those two things—l want yon to have a lii.ble of your very own and I want it to be a real working Bible. There aro two other thoughts I want to give you. First, do not worry about th« difficulties of the Bible, you are not old enough and you have not the brains anyhow. I am old enough to say that to you—the Bible has difficulties but at the bottom they do not natter. My advice to you is: "Do not worry about the difficulties, do not go chasing all the high fainting ‘new thought,’ etc., or the person who tells you that science has destroyed the Title. The Book which could see me through the war holds good. I am not a scientific man, I never was. My aJvice to you is very strong. Take the vord of a person like Mrs York that the Biblo bolds good still. Do not leave out the pieces of the Title you do not like. It is .very stupid to read only the New Testn-mc-nt. Y’ou want to read the Old Testament too. Because you are Bible class girls you should rend it every (lay on your own. A very good thing is to belong to tho Scripture Union, but do read it every day. It is as important for you to read the Bible every day as it is for you to eat your tea. It is better to road regularly and systematically. I do not want to keep ,'ou long, but I want you to bo convinced that it is very essential to rend the Bible every day. It is tho last Took to read every night. Do not "orry when you read if you cannot understand it all, if you do not get anything out of it. If you aro only poing to read tho Biblo when you get Pood out of it, it’s not much good. It depends upon your feelings at the time. But, girls, do read it every day.. When tho doctor brings you medicine and you take it, you don’t go to him tho noxt day and say it hasn’t done you any good. It is tho same with the Biblo, there will be tbe ultimate effect, even if there is no immediate effect. Tho same with the Communion Service. Our Lord did not

promise that we would got anything cat of that service when we took part it in memory of Him. 1 want you to read your Bible every 'lav and when you do I want you to 'at “YYlint does this passage mean to bo?" Underline the particular words '''■'lnch say something to you. It does Hot follow that the same passage will % the same tiling each time. If you say “What does this mean to me?” ’lie whole thing will grow on you day W Jay and you will find that you cannot do on at all without reading your Title. If von follow out these ideas you “'ill find that the Biblo talks and talks ’o von according to the circumstances von' are in when you read it, i.c., it s ai-l one tiling to mo on the Dardan‘ilf's and another thing to me in camp last night—for the simple reason that ■ny circumstances were different. (let out. of your heads the silly idea ’liat’.jf vou read the Biblo every day, ■'on will be a “goody-goody.” You arc not reading the Bible to become n "’-ood.v-goody,” but you are reading *'i" Bible because it is one of the roads “long which you may deepen your personal experience of God. Xow, I want vou to go away and to ’link quietly. ‘I would like you io “lake a resolution, “I will . read the l!:l,l e every day.” Sometimes you >i’t feel like it, when you get home I do not always feel like reading “t night, but it is fatal to leave it out. bin cannot depend on your feelings. 'Vliat you feel one day you won’t feel ’III- next and it is not good to read the i; l)le just because you feel like it. 1 "“ut you to read the Bible because it

is essential food to the soul. It is God’s special food for the soul and you cannot grow without it. If you really have any difficulties about it go to your Vicar and ho will help you. You know I have had something to do with tho Bible Class Union. I say Mr Kenny started it, he says I did, and wo don’t agree about it. The founder of tho Girls’ Bible Class Union is Mrs York. I do hope you all re--cognise how valuable you all are. You aro tho future women of the Church of England. Ido want you to increase your camping number every year until you get 1000 girls into your camp from all over New Zealand. The boys have 275 in camp at Timaru and I’m hoping soon to get 1000. With 1000 girls to go back to their townships in New Zealand full of enthusiasm what can we not achieve? I want you to link up all the towns —Auckland, Dunedin, Wellington, Christchurch and all of them and I want you to feel that distance does not matter, but carry your' enthusiasm North, south, east and west—carry back a common purpose of making next year’s camp more numerous still.

Now girls, do pleaso see that you have a Bible of your very own. Do see that it is pencil-marked, underlined and well used. Do see that you head it regularly and systematically and do ask yourselves what message the passage has for you personally, so that day by day you may find out what I say is true—that God speaks to you through the Bible whenever you really seek to hear His voice through it.