SUNDAY HEADING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13455, 6 April 1907, Page 4 (Supplement)

SUNDAY HEADING.

I .stj:amy!~«tcdy T( KKKI" QUICT. ttV si. 11. uoutiox. .The 'Villi is noisy. Nature is -till, Tt,eri ;are storm noi-c« and em thqnuke", but. t|jA\<> result from di"luriißn'-i < above and litvlow 15 .t the dl-'nr'i-iiic.M and the noise* are !abnormal, not true f.> nature. M 111 I- noi-r. Cod i- quiet. N0..,- reveal- waklic--: -unlet mug i- out of lor tune. Sound i* rhythm. N0;.,. i- ,j; ion! : it I* a result of friction alwuv-s. * | jarring of two or more - fori rs. The ju <%!n . J bors of the onhestia are not iotitioi'e.{ 1,7 111 « leiuler's eve: tiiev me fr< <• huiciti-j. Strength i- still. It nitty give .i - -mid, hut it i-- always » sound of .«■'illness, Is „ rhythm i. harmonioit-. musical. Sympathy means onehe-s -i spirit. it i- the basis of all commiiuit at.'.ii. of hutever degree, between mau and man; lusher up belvvecn t J -'I and man. A man r>. v oil himself, lets out the tree inner -fit" only to one of like spirit. N< i o,ly it i- -v. J. is doubly so. On on - sole he need- 11,,,. j opening where lie may go in. 1 :'! tin* sympathetic opening it-elf attracts »ud <]iaw- s out llie coiitideuee. On the o;her sale, tinlack of sympathetic ct:e:t>is a lock. 'Itie life 1- all -tiut up and shut. in. It t;aiioot, rotoivo what is watting at it- door. I Cod is quiet. Hi- I- revealing iI;Iiisclf, nil lno lime, up to highest po'ftibit limit, to ill- 111 lie il -11! Cll inco u! men. Jilt [((. can came -.• i only thfutgli an opened dour, lie can reveal tliui-eU only to the man who o],"ciis lo- di.'or t",y ntpatliy I with liou-oneness ..i spirit ivita Him, i- the key. A -pin' of quiet -tilUics, opens i ')•' life t > this manellou-, quiet Cod. Wo can all recall how, in moments if quietness. Cod has spok< u into tile inner ear, and we have long 11. uicmbci'i'd what He -alii We (. an romeiul*'!'. too. bow (it such , time« His speaking litis deepened the quiet ;iu our souls, Cod would woo us into that I quietness of spirit akin to Ills own, thai vvy ; may be liv ing again in our native atmoi sphere —Hi- presence. I .Man call- nature slow. The growth of ()>« j trees, the passing of the year through its joeasoiis —we call these things -low. Hut | la . tui.> reveals C«.d. It reveal- His method. i Nature seems -low to us beiau-e the riot ;of lever i- in our blood. Nature is normal; ! the other is abnormal. Man needs the soothing. controlling touch of Cod's hand evet I upon his life, if the fever is to go and not : return. To a man alw-orbed in Christian activity, | rushing,, pushing, with nerves uu tension nd blood boiling, who wearily turned to (toil in prayer, there came one day into i the inner ear. as he was on bent knee-, ; the message, spoken with groat softness ami 'equally great clearness, "Study to be quiet - ' (1. Titos-, iv. 11). In the following day it became a veritable sheet-anchor, holding ill* bark ready in many a storm. lis variation' were brooded over thai new life might i.-une out of its inner depths; "study lo keep quiet." "Ik l ambitious to lie unambitious," ; ill all the world's abu-ed moaning of that ; worn ambit ions. | Many personal, practical application* quietly, gradually worked themselves out of it into the fibre of habit. Keep the bony quiet. tin l voice quiet, the eves quiet, the j thoughts, the iimigiiiai ion, I lie emotion* I quiet. I'll) on nature's pneumatic tires unit I rublwr heels. "Hut," vou sny. "how selfi conscious that must make one!" No, not lif you do it quietly, naturally. Quiet dews i not mean repression. It means the ualura' {expression of mastery, neither over dor.", nor under done. One of the sweetest words is mastery; but sweeter is the thing itj -elf. It does not mean i core-don. but control. It means holding one's self, one's i power.-, steady to their true -o ; not lack lof use. nor over-use, nor mis use, nor alm-e. ! but nature's true, full u-e. It recognises that what is not controlled go»s to oxj tremes— wrong, bad, weak extremes. Masj tery is holding true to nature. Mastery I means quietness, the quietness of | rhythm, of the sun's swing, of the | dew's fall, of Coil's action hi all nature, iof the truly masterful mini's natural life. As the days went their round-, there came I trooping to the support of this message, oiu» iby one, a group of "quiet" verses. Front; out the midst of thai stormy forty-sixth. ; Psalm came the quiet, commanding note,; 1 " Be still and know that I am Cot!" (Psalm' | xlvi. 10), with its. alternate reading, - ''Let!go and know that I am Cod." Let go your, I will and plans, and you will find Somebody' j el'o's will and plans for you. Let. go off yourself, and von will become conscious of! ! Him. Ho still. be still, and you will find i Cod, ami in finding Him lie finding your' own true self. Hut what a lot of persistent) practising that, "be still" does fake! Into the hearts of many thousands limn been sung, in classical music, those words jof David's, "Host in ti.e and wait patiently for Him" (l'salm xxxvii 7). Tho | margin of the Revision gives tine colouring, !" He still before the l/>rd." Hut the beauty las well as the deep, simple philosophy, or, rather, the beauty because of the philosophy. comes out. beat in Luther's translaI tion, " Ho silent to Cod, anil let Him mould tine." The wondrous power of silence when : it is in Cod's presence, and toward Him! | The one hundred and .seventh l'salm i (I'snlin cvii. 23-32). which the Hebrew* mug I responsibility in their temple service, pictures vividly such a- storm at sea as many a man lias known upon the sea of his life, jor the inner sea of hi- heart. Hut the great ' change comes when the oft-repeated "they" lis changed to "He"—"He inaketli th« ; storm a calm, so that the waves thereof jure still." His hands -weep the human key- ! hoard and discord gives wav to sweet,'music. | And what a wealth of human experience is Jin the next lino, "Then are they glad If - .cause hey lie lot. "* The return to quiet, i j i- a return to natural life, as planned by the jCiver of life. One can just see tie, quiet sigh of relief breathing out, the sweet,, peace '; in the eve, the steadying of the pulse of ' the storm stirred men. r This vein of go'd come- again to. the sur- ! j face in the CostX'l-. Matthew kingly nsrjrative gives the imperial touch t<> the same storm scene on Caliloo's blue waters—"lie ■ rebuked the winds and the sea. and there ■; v. as a great calm" (Matt. viii. 23-27, Mark , iv. 3641, Luke viii, 22-25). "l!ebuk«*<ll !.Something was wrong, someliodv misbehaviiiur. they were raising a storm. The Mioi'ter anp<'iii's with Hi- rebuke. Hi' was re- , cognised. There via* a gie»i calm, if li" wore over recognised and h'inoured there 1 was always a groat culm. And there can ! be power only where tliei" i- calm, nature* , true condition. A change of figure couple?, [with that this, also from Matthew. "And i He touched her hand and the fever left her. I iind -he arose and ministered to them (Matt. viii. 15). The riot of fever in the j blood ! Angry face-, green eyes, booked ! linger—His touch—the fever goo-, the storm is stilled, a great calm, thou service. Only ; calmed hands can serve truly. i The Old Testament brings up a familiar [line that has strengthened many a life in | stress: "In quiet.',ie .- and iu confidence 'hall ibo your strength'' (Isaiah xxx. 15). Conf.'I donee is quiet. Fear is always flurried ■ ! Strength is stored away in quietness. 'hit ■| of the quiet, conies new* strength. 'I ha * ex- ! ipii-ile, 'simple Oriental love story, Ruth, j has in it a bit' that contains moaning for tone's heart apart from its original signihjoance: "Sit still, my (laughter, until thou ' I know how the matter will fall: for the man will not. rest, until he have finished the [I thills this day" (Ii ut Ii iii. 18). Wo who have Paul's prison psalm (Hhilipnians i. 6). fit""' [in its confident assertion—" He who b p' ll 'la good work will perfect it unfit the day 'of .Testis Christ"- -good reason for spoiling '! Ruth's " man" with a capital M in our per-'j-yoiial thinking of it. and finding in that , sweet story fresh stimulus of sitting "still. ■ ' Cod revealed Ilim-elf to Wijah one morni ing early in "a sound of gentle stillness' (i. Kings xix. 12. margin). The shepherd■singer says, "Ho leadeth me lieside the : waters of quietness" (I'stiltn xxiii. 2'. -lob s ■ true comfortei reminds that much troubled 1 man. " When He tjiveth quietness, who then lican make trouble?" (Job xxxiv. 23). H>>o- - i moii's Cod-given wisdom has this: A ,! tranquil heart is the 'ifo of the fle»h_" (' 1 ' "I verbs xiv. 30. Am. Revision). Kitting the I ninety-first l'salm into it- likelv historical i setting of the thirty-third chapter of K*o'i dtis suggests this free translation of its first '{verse: "He that gooth aside to sit still in ' the secret place with the Most High, shun Mind Him eomintr over so close that he »ha 1i be lodging under the shadow of tie' A'* i miirlifcy I hie" (Psalm xci. 1. with LxoiJus ; i xxxiii. 7-111. The-e are some of the "qu e ,1 verses that grew no abound that first one. I And there are move. Thev should be look"- , led nn slovvlv. and breathed in noeplv .! Thi« is the nathwa yof peace »nu so. ii through peace, "of power In it ju-t eneic' l I stands the Master, saying, "Come slot" '! with Me." Let us go.