Religion and Life

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23827, 30 November 1940, Page 5 (Supplement)

Religion and Life

I-- 1 HE last, day of November is, | by time-honoured custom, observed aj3 St. Andrew's Day, being the supposed anniversary of his martyrdom. And thus a man of obscure origin, who wrote no book, performed no famous deed, uttered no memorable word, and whose certain history may be recorded in a f eW brief sentences, is held in wide and honoured memory. Hc'wjis a young Galilean, a fisherman 0 f the Lake, whose native town was Bethsaida. and who shared his brother •Peter's home. Those were restless times in Jewry. Men plotted in back streets against the hatpd Roman occupation, and in Galilee riot and insurrection ■n-ere always waiting their hour. In religion. too, strange ferments were potently at work and in the Gospels wo hear of a tjand of youths, "all of them enthusiasts in their twenties," w ho had grown impatient with their ancestral faith and lent a ready ear to criticism and the demand for reform. . The ties that' bound them to conventional religion were loosening, they found no spiritual help in the dull forms of the synagogue and the-exact-ing burdens imposed upon them by scribal teaching ' were oppressive and provocative. And so, when a _ Voice came crying in tjie wilderness, it was to them as a challenge from God and those who could went down to the Jordan and became disciples of the Baptist. And there they found a Man, one whose prophetic mien and daring inessage stirred the depths and sum-

By PHILEMON

moned to action. It was to this freethinking band that Andrew belonged, and we may well believe that none therein was more greatly moved than he whose Greek name means the Manly One.

It was from this company, marked out for lasting fame, that our Lord ohose His chief apostles, for they early transferred their allegiance to Him, being encouraged to do so by the Baptist himself. The story of Andrew's call, as told by the evangelist, who doubtless was his companion, is_ imperishable in its bequty and simplicity. Behold, the Lamb of God!" said John with eager joy to two of his disciples, and' they "heard him speak and followed Jesus." And Jesus, looking back, "turngd the strange glory of His face upon them," and in that light they walked till travelling days were done. "Master, where dwejiest Thou?" they asked, greatly desiring. "Come and see," was the inviting response, and "thev abode with Him that day." In extreme age, when a thousand fair memories had grown dim in the mind of the evangelist, this first contact with Jesus retained its bright intensity. "It was about the tenth hour, lie recalled; on which the beautiful comment has been made —"Time began for them at four o'clock on that summer day of the year 26."

Then, if we do not exaggerate the significance of the slender references of the Gospels, the true Andrew appears. He caught the evangelistic spirit of his

Lord aud became a seeker of men. The joy he himself had found he would share with others. At once ho brought the good news to Peter, his brother, and, says Archbishop Temple, "Perhaps it was as great a service to the Church as ever man did." And at the last, when, amid the gathering shadows of the Cross, the Greeks from afar wished to "see Jesus,"-it was Andrew who overcame the hesitations of Philip, and sought to open the way of approach. Thus the circle of his evangelism widened and ho who was first ii Home Missionary became a Foreign Missionary; and almost immediately Jesus, stirred by the coming of the Greeks, said: "I will draw all men unto Myself." Andrew early disappears from Scripture but not from good tradition, and to the last he remains the zealous preacher and evangelist. He laboured in Scythin, on the borders of the Black Sea, and became the patron saint of the Russian Church. He bore faithful witness in Greece and there gave his life for the Gospel. Moved by his preaching in Achaia the wife of the pro-consul became a convert and her angered husband condemned him to the cross. They bound him to its arms that his sufferings might be prolonged and there he hung for two days. But the ruling passion persisted in death and, while" strength endured, he still preached Christ to those who would listen. In the light of it all, how apt are the words of Jveble, in "St. Andrew's Day," in the Christian Year: First, seek thy Saviour out. nml dwell Beneath the shadow of His roof; Then potent with the spell of heaven, Go, and thino erring brother gain.