THE RELIGIOUS OUTLOOK

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 23 May 1936, Page 10

THE RELIGIOUS OUTLOOK

(Contributed) The Ascension There is, then, only one conclusion to be readied about: the significance of the Ascension. It was not in any sense goodbye. I here was no sense ot sorrow, because they had no sense that they had lost Him. The Ascension marks the completion of a ministry beginning with the Kesurrection, in which Jesus successfully aimed at carrying the sense ot Presence, beyond the need of tlie senses so that without seeing or leaving or touching they knew 11fin to lie near them forever. in deed, is it not sullieieiil to say that the friendship they bad with Him in the days of His llos 1 1 survived His death and was continued after it. It. was consummated alter it. And when we lead the New Testament carefully and remember that the epistles were written before the earliest gospels, we recognise that the apostles preached His risen power and abiding presence more than they preached the glory and splendour of his life. It was only after the church had entered into a living fellowship with Christ in His risen power that its set itself to com mit to writng the story of His earthly life, and from the point of views o'' experience this was the order <y events.—Leslie Weathorhead ("His life and Ours”). Church Music in Uganda, The Rev. .1. M. Duncan, Precentor of Kampala Cathedral, Uganda, who has died at Kampala, will be missed particularly for the special service he has rendered Church music in Kampala. Not only was he largely responsible for getting an organ for the Cathedral four years ago, himself training a native who was to be its organist, but the Kampala Cathedral choir, under his direction, has become famous in Africa. He trained it on classical •ids, teaching the European scale so that the greatest English hymns and the works of such composers as Palestrina, Byrd. Purcell, Bach, liandcl and Mozart might be available to them. Mr Duncan had previously held curacies at. Chesterfield and in London, and lie was Vicar of Much Marc.lo, W. ■ tton, Herefordshire, from 1922-20. Then lie went to Africa, went along the Nile into Uganda, became interested in the work of 'the Church .MissionarySociety missionaries at Namirembe, Kampala, helped in the mission school, and eventually took over the training of the Cathedral choir. He became Precentor of the Cathedral in 19.32-

Escaping the Strain of Life Tbe human mind and body are extraordinarily adaptable to the stresses which have been laid upon them in the modern era; they have learnt in a measure to adjust themselves but it is a matter of common sense that in tlm inevitably increasing complexity of civilisation relaxation is required. ’ Holidays are a way of escape ; picture shows give relief to the harassed mother; amusements of all kinds for varied types offer themselves Moderation and simpler ways of life suggest themselves, too. as necessary. The desire to seek diversion in grotesque forms of amusement is but r-

symptom of a prevailing - characteristic of the present age. There will be no ease from the strain of life and no capacity to ease that strain until men and women liufi God and make Him the centre of their thoughts. A selfcentred life not only is ill-directed but becomes- purposeless because it misses liie great Reality, whom we call God. Bv inverting tbe proper order of things, by adopting a false scale of value, modern civilisation lias largely eliminated tbe thought of God from its con duct in life. It is not God-conscious and therein is to be found the cause of its unrest. Restlessness will remain and no way of escape from the strain of life will be found until it finds God, —“•Church Gazette” Auckland-

God and Man Christ as man, and man as one with Christ, are made lower than the angels, that they may rise higher i.i..,i i nay. Man ean iue with Christ, and rise again with Christ. The greater pain and the greater gain are liis. The badge of his weakness is the secret of his powc.v For what after all is physical death V Shall not this great globe itself, and all who it inherit, fade away like an unsubstantial pageant, leaving not a wrack behindV So says the Bible, and so say our astronomers. Only that shall abide which is the meaning and purpose of God for them, that from which they came and for which they came into the world. All else —all that is accidental or meaningless or frustrate in them, shall be changed, folded u]i as a garment (so Goethe sneaks of the universe as the living garment of the Godhead; “but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.” “Nothing that really is can ever perish”; so speaks the great thinker of the third century. But much that passes before our eyes only seems to exist; it has no permanence and therefore no reality. —Dean Inge. The Secrets of Peace. There is a society of persons, mostly, I believe, Americans, whose slogan is “the more we are together, the merrier (or is it happier,) we shall be.” Let us by no means forsake the society of the human kind; the vocation of a hermit is a rare one But the words 1 have quoted are dreadful indeed! The state of mind of the person who has lost the power of being solitary is truly pitiable. Actual rest, simply in the sense of being away from the. noise, is necessary for the reconstitution oc the spirit of everyone sometimes; and of all the sounds that vex, incessant talking is the most wearisome. Yet the thing goes deeper than that The wisest masters of spiritual life are never tired of telling us that the chief part of prayer consists not in going on talking to God, but in stopping to listen to what He says. Hence the need, much more emphasised than it was, for a quiet time somewhere in eaeli day; for a longer time of solitude now and then, and for definite Retreats, in which the spirit can ho re-edilicd under the guidance of God Himself. From such times of refreshment men and women come back to the hurry of tlie world in a new mind. Not only are they at peace within themselves, lint wherever they go they carry the power of tlie Pence of God with them, and whether they know it or not they calm troubled souls around them. —J)r Francis Underhill.