VISION OF CHRIST

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 71, 25 March 1936, Page 6

VISION OF CHRIST

What is the Oxford Group Movement ? .VITAL FORCE THAT IS SWAYING NATIONS At odd intervals during the past few years, New Zealand has heard whispers of the birth and growth of a movement that has captured not only the imagination but the intelligence of tho nations of the older world and credited with miracle working powers. First the news came in books but now ambassadors of this remarkable new order have reached tho shores of the Dominion. Yesterday Palmerston North was given the opportunity of hearing all about it when Mr. Ivan Menzies, principal comedian of the Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company at present in the city, spoke to business men following a luncheon of his own experience of the movement. Here are extracts from his testimony. ■ The Oxford Group movement, he said, is really nothing new; just simply the rediscovery of'Christianity. It has enabled thousands of people to conquer fear, pride, jealousy, hatred, greed, selfishness and ’all similar problems that malre for unhappiness and war. _ . . It is a new determination, not a denomination, by the people to put Christianity into actipn. The Oxford Movement consists of a group of practising, vital Christians who are allowing the • Holy Spirit to guide their actions and thoughts. Christianity-had be’en offered the world 1900 years ago as the solution of its problems but it had never been properly tried out. It had been discovered difficult and so left alone very largely but now an attempt was being made to try it out properly with miraculous results/' There was"an infinite Power in thiTwilrld and'men and Women" were hastening to get in touch with it. Mr. Menzies said ho had first been attracted by the four “corner-stones” of the movement—-absolute purity, absolute honesty, abosiutc unselfishness and absolute love. They seemed at the time to be pretty well impossible for a bishop let alone a comedian but once he had accepted the standards, he had tho experience of a new life. And as the movement worked amongst the people so would it work between the nations and produce the answer to the world's problems. God’s “weapon” was going to sweep through the world just as soon as men and women accepted His leadership. He said it was wonderful to watch the miracles happening in the lives of individuals. He, himself, had experienced a new joy and satisfaction with life. It was like being at the control of thousands of volts of electricity when one had discovered Christianity as a force. The more self went out of one's life, the more God came in. It was like getting rid of a disease. Mr. MOnzies said he knew of business men who had made God their chairman of directors. The Oxford Group had gone to Norway at a time when that country was on the verge of a crisis and hud prevented a break with Denmark. He gave numerous instances of the effect the movement had had on his own lift, 'Hon. Miles Philumore, a movement leader in New Zealand, said they could not afford to keep silent when such great changes were being wrought. Mr. F. Dodson was in the chair,