ONE HOUR.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20786, 3 August 1929, Page 31

ONE HOUR.

Written for the Otago Daily Times. (By Rev. D. Gardner Miller.) A well-known newspaper from across the Tasman featured recently a symposium of opinion under the striking heading, " If I had an hour to live, what would I do with the last sixty minutes? ” It is one of the most remarkable signs of the times that newspapers, especially in the Old Land, have broken out" recently in the direction of featuring questions on matters of life and death arid eliciting considered statements from leading men and women from all walks of life.

There' are those, of course, who regard such “ moves ” as simply newspaper “ stunts.” To do so. -in my opinion, is foolish. The newspaper is the _ most sensitive barometer of public life, and I cannot but rejoice that matters of faith and morals, life and death, are ’‘featured'' ns never before. These so-called “ stunts ” have but served to reveal what many of- us have long ■known, that "the man in the street” is intensely interested in religion. The particular question asked by the newspaper to which I have referred provoked some exceedingly fine replies. One roan said that if such a verdict were passed upon him ho would wish to die at once, for then he -would enjoy one more hour in eternity. Another said, “ I would like to be so occupied that I would have to apologise to the Lord for ray being so busy that I kept him waiting to give me the welcome which will be the conn pensation for all life’s failure, disappointment, and hardship—the welcome that His love, not anything I have done, makes possible to a forgiven sinner.” These two replies show a fine fearlessness and a tranquillity of mind that cannot fail t,o impress. As I conned the article I found myself picturing what I would do if I had only one more hour to live. Of course, I am taking it for granted that I would be in good health of body and mind, and that, in some way, I was consciously aware that God had given me but GO minutes before He expected me to stand before Him. I immediately felt that I would not spend ray last hour in prayer or in reading the Bible. It has always been my fervent wish that I would be called home while I was thronged with the adventurous duties of the Kingdom of God. That, of course, reveals my innermost and uttermost conviction that every hour should be so spent that the last hour should have no regrets. I think I would like to spend my. last hour in this fashion: A little time spent op personal and famjly affaire, a little time in writing a short message to the papers and magazines ‘lor which I have written for many years; and then—off to the pulpit. That would be my last action •—for as the clock struck the hour I should like to be found standing in my old place, urging men and women to follow Christ. TV hat would you do? Of course, such a question may easily give rise to unhealthy sentiment, but to sober-minded _ people the question will inevitably remind them of LIFE'S UNCERTAINTY.

No man knows what an hour may bring forth. To live every day as though it ware your last is a' sound maxim—although that docs not preclude you from planning ahead for to-morrow Wnat it does do is to make ua realise that time is but the shadow of eternity Years and months and days are but the .arbitrary distinctions we have manufactured as we pilgrim from one birth to another, the last birth of life being death. To pass from time to eternity is to pass out of, the shade into the sunshine.

Again and again tha New Testament writers remind us that life is like a tent, easily moved and transferred. It is the call of the " far country" that invests this mortal lif6 with beauty and purpose and at the same time reminds us that here we have no continuing city. This life is not our home —an abiding place—it is but a halting place for a short season. How beautifully an old Latin writer (Cicero) put it when he said: “ I depart from life as from an inn, not as from a home ”! The uncertainty of life is rooted in the conviction that God has some other place ready for ns where, grace will complete its work. " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the thing# which God, hath prepared for them that love Him.” Arid so the questionr "If I'had an hour to live?” should not flurry us,'but rather : give emphasis to. the conviction that death is but tha opening of a .door to new scenes, new activities, and new experiences of grace. The question also reminds us, with a gladsomeness and joy that even the tragedies of time cannot wither, that our times are IN HIS HAND. . Let the call come when and how it may, we cannot retard it. A quiet trust in God is the surest guarantee against the unexpected in life. A man may compass the manner of his death but, even so, he does not fall out of the hands of God. Happy are we when the call comes that we are found ready—not in the sense of standing still with expectant eyes, but in the sense of possessing a faith in God that enables us to "carry on” without fear of the future. , If you are afraid of the * last hour” then there is something wrong with your "present hour.” To be able to say, “My times are in His hand ” is to meet the last hour with equanimity. The following prayer, by one Michael Sailer, who lived nearly two centuries ago, aptly describes what should be the purp jse of our' lives—a purpose that would make the last 60 minutes an hour of unruffled calm and glorious expectancy:—“Searcher of all hearts, Thou knowest my heart, and how it stands with me. Thou hast made it. Thou knowest whether I love Thee. All 1 am, or have that has any goodness m it, I am or have' alone through Thee, for it is all Thy work in me; but it must be Thine, also by the free surrender of my heart. In Thy service, and fulfilling of Thy will, I would fain spend every minute of my life. The thought of Thee shall be the sweetest to me of all thoughts; to apeak of Thee the'dearest and best of all I speak or hear; the joy of Thy love shall be the inmost joy of my soul. Gladly would I devote my whole being to Thee; accept me, then, as a living sacrifice, and give me the mind that wqs in Christ Jesus, to the Glory of God the Father. Amen.”