THE RELIGIOUS OUTLOOK

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 29 June 1935, Page 11

THE RELIGIOUS OUTLOOK

(Contributed) The Fold of God “A young lamb was found near Spencer Street station, and placed among the lost property.” —News item, “Sun News-Pictorial.” In a field by a roadway unending, O’erslmdowed by wattle-tree gold, A Shepherd in sadness is searching For a lamb that is not in the fold. Many lonely and lost souls have listened To the story that never grows old, And obeying the call of the Shepherd, Have found shelter —as lambs in God’s fold. But listen! The Shepherd is calling.... To all who are safe in the fold, “Other sheep have I, not yet in safety, Go bring thorn in out of the cold.” —Edith M. Tainton. 1 The Oxford Group at Work (From the “Methodist Qliurchman”) In a special edition of “Tidens Tcgn,” Frederick Ramm, journalist who flew over the Pole with Amunsden, .summarises the work of the Oxford Group Movement in Norway. “A handful of foreigners,” he writes, “who neither knew our language nor understood our ways and customs, came to this country. Thirty of them met in an hotel with seventy Norwegians and began to talk about God. A few days later the whole country was talking about God, and two months after the thirty foreigners arrived the mental outlook of the whole country had definitely changed.” Ronald Fangen, former President of the Authors’ Society of Norway, says: “No informed person in Scandinavia has gone unchallenged.” The. Bible Society in the King’s Reign “Up to May, 1910, the Society had issued 229,000,000 copies of the Scriptures—Bibles, New Testaments and portions. Up to May, 1935, the Society lias issued about 403,000,000 copies of the Scriptures. On the face of it one might draw the conclusion that the Bible Society had done as much in spreading the Scriptures through the oarth in the last twenty-five years as it had done in the first century and more of its existence; but such a conclusion would be inaccurate. The tremendous increases of recent years arc due to the fact that portions of the Scriptures—generally single books of the Bible —have been in great demand; but when we consider the issues of Bibles and New Testaments —and these must be given the importance they deserve—there is not so much room for congratulation, as the figures have remained about the same for a number of years. Yet it is a matter for profound gratitude that the demand for portions has been so much augmented, for this means that people are being reached by the Scriptures for the first time —people -who naturally begin by acquiring a single book of the Bible. Thus it may he fairly said that the pioneering work of the Bible Society is in a healthy con dition: we are an evangelising and a missionary society. What progress has the Society made financially during King George’s reign? In 1010 the total receipts amounted to £234,000, and the total expenditure was £242,000. Both income and expenditure have increased in the last twenty-five years by about £100,000.” —“Bible in the World.” The Seeking Saviour “In speaking to the young men and women here, let me say this. I am not going to frighten you by speaking of the consequences of sin both here and hereafter. I am not going to try to drive you into the Kingdom of God by the whip of fear. No. But I would ask you to think of what your life might he if filled with God’s Spirit, if possessed by a holy enthusiasm, and a holy energy, such as His Spirit can bring, if putting aside all lower appetites, resisting all worldy ambitions, rising above all evil passions, you brought your life with all its enduements, with all its opportunities, witli all its power and promise, and yielded it fully to God in Christ, then suffering Him to fulfill His purpose in you and making you what no man can make himself, making you what God JEfimself can make a man who yields himself wholly to His Spirit, in penitence recognising past failures, and in confidence sure that God can turn your life into a life of triumph and success.

“One of the Hebrew words for sin means ‘missing the mark.’ Paul says that ‘All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.’ So I would ask you not to look so much as the depths to which a man may fall, hut to look rather to thejieights to which a man may rise when God lias His way in that man’s life.” — Dr A. Garvie.