Ballance

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 143, 20 June 1938, Page 2

Ballance

FBESBTTEKIAN BIBLE CLASS SOCIAL CLUB OPENING NIGHT The opening assembly of the above clan and elub took pl&ee in the Ballance Church hall on Saturday evening, the president, the Bev. S. A. Armstrong, was assisted by tho club chairman, Mr. Bob Eilson, in the conduct of the meet* ing. There was a good gathering of Ballance youth present and several new members were welcomed. After devotions the president directed a group study on “The Scientific Supports for the Everis Records,” and spoke about the way geological and biological research helped in understanding how wonderful a revelation of Divine truth is embodied in the great first book of the Bible which dealt with “the beginnings* * of the material universe, the vegetable and animal kingdom, the development of man, the endowment of the human race with moral and spiritual faculties, the foundation of freedom in the exercise of human free will. It was the reverent idea and interpretation of life based on religious faculties which exercised the power of faith, which distinguished and developed the spiritual in man and so made and kept him dis-

tinct from the “breasts which perish. 7 ’ Everyone had to stand on one side of this “tree of life 77 and determine whether the selfish and physical or the spiritual and the Divine would be the dominant authority. The failure to obey “the voice of the unseen God” is the fundamental cause of that defectiveness in human history and experience which in Teality is “the fall of man 77 constantly repeated with its terrible and tragic results, but only does this moral and spiritual denial of tho authority of the external good mark so darkly personal life, but there have been periods when terrible collective falling away to the lower physical plane, with the resultant darkness and degeneracy which has followed national despiritualisation, tho product of which was always the rise and trials of Cain “who slew his brother. 77 The approaching celebration of the 400th anniversary of the placing of the Bible in the English tongue in the parish churches drew attention once more to that Word 'of God without which men can neither see clearly, live rightly, nor progress worthily. To-day as never before wo know that the Bible is as the great Queen said, “the secret of Britain’s greatness, ” and its finest defence against all degeneracy and tyranny. Reference was made to tho death of D . H. T. Dawson through whose long, devoted service so great a ministry of good hard experience throughout the district. A vote of sympathy to the bereaved family and friends of tho deceased was recorded. The gathering closed with an enjoyable social hour and supper.