The Quiet Hour.

Mt Benger Mail, 12 June 1935, Page 2

The Quiet Hour.

DRIFT I Mi. t Contributed.) The easiest thing in tin* world is to drift. Of this there are constant illustrations, alike on the large and on the small scale. We see it in Governments, in business, in professional, family, and private life. How often do we hear the explanation of failure: lie let things drift. Look across the placid waters of some land-locked harbour. There, lying upon a glassy expanse, unmarked by a single ripple, lies a vessel. Him is “as idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean.” You lix her position by noting her relation to some land mark on the other side of the harbour, and go , bout your business. Half an hour or an hour later you look '.gain, and see that she has moved a considerable distance. She has not been anchored, and the tide lias carried her on, a tide that “moving, seems asleep.” She is drifting! Human lives are just like that. There are often long periods where there seems to be “nothing doing.” Life seems unchanged. The even tenor of our way is pursued from day to day. In the nurse of a few weeks, or even months, no change could be noted. Cut mark carefully the life of a w years ago and the life of today . it seems at first as if nothing as happened. Hut something has happened. There has been a steady drift. So sometimes friends, once the closest and most iutin.ate, drift apart. There has been no open rupture, but interest has gradually slackened. So also character gradually deteriorates. Tile man is drifting. Obviously the influences that c,.use moral drifting are inertness, with a consequent yielding to external influences, and the absence of strong and settled convictions. Most of us arc greatly affected by v hat might be called the “comj munity pull. ” When we are at j Rome, we do as the Romans do. It is enough for the average man to j know that the other fellows arc all j doing a thing. They naturally think it is only narrow-minded j people who don’t follow the crowd. And so, though at one time they would never have dreamt of following the course which now they are pursuing, they simply drift. It is much easier than trying to make headway against the stream. There are multitudes of these hj g men and women in the world. They have no objective of their own. They have no driving force within them. They are simply carried forward by the stream. And just as there are tides and currents in the oceans that carry the derelict vessel along, so there are thought currents in the world of men, common attitudes towards life and conduct. that easily master* those whoso convictions and principles are weak and unenlightened. It is a common place to speak of tlit dangers of drifting. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, after a glowing passage in. which he describes the greatness and glory of God’s revelation of Himself in Jesus Fhrist, says:— “Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things that were heard, lest Imply we drift away from them.” It is not necessary to do any outrageously evil thing to compass our moral and spiritual ruin. By sheer neglect wo may destroy ourselves. The experience of long years of Christian service go to show that, while every now and again some promising life or career is spoilt by some distressing piece of folly or wrong-doing, multitudes more make shipwreck through simple drifting. To counteract the drift certain hints may be given. First of all, let us watch its beginnings. It Is comparatively easy to arrest the drift when it has just begun. It : is tremendously difficult when the drift has gathered momentum. ] Then let ns beware of little things. J Gulliver was a mightly giant, a ( Man Mountain, among the tiny Lilliputians. Their strongest cables were to him only like cotton thread, which he could break with ease. Yet they got him when , he was asleep, and bound him over j and over with their tiny ropes, so j that when ho awoke, he found, hunself helpless. That is a parable j of the force of habit, of the oft-! repeated choice of the less worthy way of life,

On the other hand, it is all important to watch and strengthen our Christian habits. When Caul’s ship, driven by a tierce gale, was approaching the island oi Malta, the weather was so thick that no sign of land was visible. Kut as the night drew on, the sailors hoard the roar of the break's. At midnight they cast out, after the ancient fashion, anchors from the stern of the ship—four in all—and prayed for the day. So ; l.i re are anchors that will keep the ship of life from drifting upon ihe rocks: the habits of church gong, of Bible-reading, of prayer, of ; ’hristian service. Wise is the man who attends t» his moorings; wiio watches his Christian convictions, seeking to make them intelligent, and strong. There is nothing about which men arc so heedless as the precious j vrel of Christian character; the ::!ration of their immortal souls! “Will your anchor hold in the storms of life, When the clouds unfold their wings of strife? When the strong tides lift, and the cables strain, Will your anchor drift or remain?” We are happy if wc can truly say: We have an anchor that keeps the soul Stedfast and sure, while the billows roll. Fastened to the Rock that cannot move; Grounded firm and deep in a Saviour’s love,” . _