THE RELIGIOUS OUTLOOK

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 16 February 1935, Page 10

THE RELIGIOUS OUTLOOK

(Contributed)

Hidden Saints- . ■ How quietly they come and go, Unnoticed in life’s' gala show.

The good Samaritans who pause, Regardless of a world’s applause

To lift it broken heart and bind Its wounds against a bitter wind

So selflessly they conic, our eyes Glimpse not their meed of sacrifice

God’s hidden saints: the unacclaimed Who tread the heights and pass unnamed. —Anne M. Robinson in the “New Outlook.”

Idle Church Members The editor of “The Methodist Churchman” (South Africa), writes on this subject as follows: “lit the school of Pythagoras it was a point of discipline that if among the probationers there were any who grew weary of studying to be useful and returned to an idle life,.they were to regard them its dead; rind'upon their departing to perform their obsequies and raise them tombs with inscriptions to warn others of the like mortality, find quicken them to refine their souls above that wretched state. It is interesting to speculate, somebody has said, what kind of inscriptions would appear if my church were to inaugurate some such scheme for its membership as that of the Pythagorean School. Would ecclesiastical obsequies be necessary in my case? Have I ceased to be useful?”

My Home Church “We once heard a famous .evangelist,” says the “British Weekly,” “rebuke a great gathering of men and women who would have been distressed had they been suspected of not being religious people and even acutely religious people. They had loudly applauded some utterance of his. When the applause had completely. subsided, this fearless man broke the silence with ail uncomfortable observation.■ ‘That is all very well!’ said lie. ‘Nothing easier than to applaud! But I know you. There are some here who, when they leave this place and go back to their home town, will keep their church at the steady temperature of a refrigerator, and then ask their minister to resign because he will not perspire!’ ”

General Booth’s Ties with Cardiff General Booth, in an address at Cardiff, said that she had tangible reasons for coming there as the first I dace after London. “There are ties between my heart and Wales, and they have not been broken by the long years between; they are memories that remain uudimmed. Why, I consider myself half Welsh. I’ll tell you why! Cardiff was the town to which I came upon the first occasion I left home as a little girl. My .mother sent me to Cardiff to her friends the Billups. I was nine at the time; my tenth birthday came on the Christmas Day I was here—my first birthday away from home. .. . The Billups took me to the mountains for the good of mv health, and they bought me a little pony. I did my first riding over the hills and valleys of Wales. And never can I forget listening to the. miners singing coming home from work over the hills and the women and girls answering them with song. And I used to lie in bed at night and hear them singing and think, ‘All Welshmen must be good. All the people of Wales must go to Heaven if they ean sing like that.’ ” She added that her personal secretary, for 30 years, Colonel Richard Griffith, was a Welshman—a. Manchester horn Welshman, hut he lived in Cardiff as a boy and attended Spotlands School. Feasting on God Once when I was sick a friend remarked to me, “You must find this long illness very tedious.” I was compelled to confess, however, that I was not conscious of any ennui. To he sure, work was waiting, but work is not the only thirig in life. I am given life that I may live! My task at that moment was to fellowship with God, on my bed of pain. There lis no such thing as tedium for those who are constantly praising God for the joy of the moments lived with Him. We. 'may feast to our heart’s content —not on food, but on God. In dreaming and in waking hours, in sorrow and in laughtef, we may walk in "a .world flooded with light. Every moment of life is a revelation, of the heart of God. He greets us in the kitchen. We breathe Him in the bustle arid roar of the factory, or wlien .hanging on to a strap iri a crowded car. Always we are iri the bosom of iGod.sA-Toyohiko Kagawa.

White Unto Harvest “There is an earnestness and interest in religious questions which is an entirely new' .phenomenon, iu South America. . . This ■is Latin America’s day of white heat. The firm impress of* Christ must be.' Mid now on. the fiui.d material, of these young commonwealths. The frightful chaos in social and political life, the misery and suffering in economic life, are all creating a desire for something imperis'li- • aiile and a willingness to listen to any who claim to have the way, the truth, and.the life.” (Dr. George P. Howard. Argentina). . “The Christian religion is peculiarly needed by the youth of Japan just now, and appeals strongly to 1 the- thinking .Students of the land.” (Rev. T. T. Brumbaugh, Tokio). These two statements, published in a recent “Missionary Review of the World,” and referring, as they do, to two countries as widely separated in racial traditions and social outlook as they are iu geographical position, are full of significance for Christian peoples. They are indications of a homesickness in the soul of humanity under all skies. The cruelties of the war, the sufferings of millions in the worldwide economic depression, the growing disillusionment of youth which has followed in the' wake of the stark paganism of our times, have all contributed to this present unrest.- In this temper .of dissatisfaction, this vague groping for some- sure foothold in the sweeping tides of life lies the opportunity of the Christian Church. Is she ready? Is she capable of giving the ‘n'eeded leadership? God grant that -she uiay be fully awake to wliat .the hour offers.

Not too Old at 80 The longevity and general good health of sovereigns and clergy men is a phenomena to which philosophers have, frequently drawn attention. ‘Poets, writers and artists also achieve

notable records. For instance, at 80 Goethe completed “Faust.” Bernard Shaw will be 80 next year and he is still turning out go'od work. At 81 years of age Monsieur Louis Lumiere has this year invented a stereoscopic film which includes a camera' with two lenses. These take pictures of an object at slightly different angles so that the pictures when projected from flic film have an effect of solidity. Experts prophesy that this invention will revolutionise the cinema world. Among poets who gave of their best to their fellows in their old age wa> Lord Tennyson who wrote “Crossing the Bar” at 83 years of age. In the world of big business, Lord Leverliulmo inaugurated some of his most important projects long after lie had attained three-score years and ten; and the originator of the vast chain of chemists’ establishments known as Boots’ (Britain) was a keen and capable business administrator when over eighty years of age. Professor A. G. Vernon-Hareourt, the scientific genius an c j master of chemistry, was still bestowing incalculable benefits upon the world at the age of 83 in collaboration with the famous geometrist, William Esson. At 77 Professor Cajal, an international benefactor in the realm of the microscopy of the nervous system, produced one of his largest and most important treatises, the “Degeneration and Regeneration of the Nervous System”: followed by a further masterly book at the age of 82. Edison was working hard at 84 and Sir. Isaac Newton at 85. Dr. N. E. Brown, known arid loved by botanists the world over as “N. E. Br.” was engaged upon some of lijs most important work when in November last lie died at the age of 85. At 74 Verdi produced his masterpiece “Otello”; ami at 85 lie wrote the famous “Ave Maria,” “Stabat Mater” and “Te Peiim.” Throughout a long life of

administrative and editorial activity. Sir Vincent Evans was trie main driving force inspiring research into the language, literature, history and antiquities of the gallant little land of Wales. Two months ago Sir Vincent died at the age of 87.—8 y Silent Peter. Remuera, Auckland.