ST. PAUL’S CHURCH

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 99, 24 March 1930, Page 8

ST. PAUL’S CHURCH

A SERVICE FOR BOWLERS—AND OTHERS. A very large congregation assembled at St. Paul’s Methodist Church, Broadway Avenue, last evening, when Rev. J. Ernest Parsons peached a sermon based on the popular game of bowls. He had previously invited members of the various bowling clubs of the town to be present at the service and many players of the game had accepted the invitation. The preacher introduced his subject by way of the text, “With one parable spake He not unto them,” remarking that Jesus arrested tho attention of his audience by the use of stories that had their foundation in the common everyday things of life. Very reverently he desired to follow in tho steps of his Master and both make a parable and expound. The parable he constructed might have been called “A parable on overcoming the difficulties of life.” In the game of bowls there were at least three difficulties against which the player had to contend. There was the difficulty of the bias of the bowl—a difficulty self-imposed. Then there were the difficulties of Nature, such as the intricacies of the green, or the uncertainty of the wind. Again, there were the difficulties made for us by others, sometimes by members of our own side, as when they sent down a short bowl that lay in the draw. In the great business of life we had these same difficulties to contend against. All too many were finding it hard to draw the shot of noble character because of a handicap self-im-posed. In a game it was a good thing to test our powers by creating such a handicap as the bias of the bowl. But-- life was a sufficiently strenuous matter without making it more difficult by such handicaps, say, as wrong habits or foolish friendships. But to those who found themselves in a losing fight against such self-imposed difficulty, the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ came as a great and wonderful message, Power into strengthless souls He speaks And life into the dead. The difficulties imposed by nature were then dealt with. One of the first words he had heard on a bowling green that had had tho power to arrest his attention had been spoken of a new player. Having watched him an old member had said: “He will make a player: he has the bowler’s temperament.” That saying conveyed the truth that even in regard to a game of bowls some players were born with an advantage over others. In regard to the great game of life this was undoubtedly truth. Charles Kingsley had said: “Some were damned, not born into this world.” It was unmistakably difficult for some to live well. A man carried both his parents and his grandparents in his nature, and if they all had lived carelessly, much more viciously, then had he been given a very cruel green on which to play. But a good bowler did not blame his freen or the wind for his bad shots. hey may have something to do with his poor play, but he knew that the difficulties could be overcome. They might, indeed, reveal his great powers as a player. So in the game of life the difficulties imposed by birth or environment were not for a man to hide himself behind and excuse his failures. They were to be overcome, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ was that no handicap of birth or Nature could prevent a man from being a noble player in the game of life. With Christ in his heart a man could bo more than all that was against him. Speaking to tho last point, the difficulties imposed by others, the preacher made a passionate plea for a consideration for those about us. Wo might sometimes bo a little annoyed by the player who persistently played short bowls that lodged in “the draw,” but those men .and women who made good living difficult for others moved all worthy folk to righteous indignation. Parents, all too often, were too careless concerning the society into which their young people wandered. Pity was they were often careless in their own example. The call of Christ was for men and women who would seek to remove every stone of stumbling that lay in the way of those who came after us. With great earnestness the preacher pleaded: “If you know an evil thing that is standing in the way of life, making it more difficult for your young people, or some man or woman you know, to live as they know they should, as you desire they should, never rest until the thing has been removed. Remember that in every such work the Christ who died on the Cross for men powerless to help themselves is with you.” The sermon was lit with many striking illustrations, and held the large congregation to the end. Mr L. G. P. White very helpfully rendered the solo, “How Lovely Are Thy Dwellings,” and the congregational singing was most inspiring.