THEY ALSO SERVE WHO-

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20900, 14 December 1929, Page 31

THEY ALSO SERVE WHO-

Written for the Otago Daily Times. By the Rev. D. Gardner Miller. The other day, I heard of one of the most tender and touching incidents that it has been my privilege to hear tor a long, long time. It was on the occasion of the old people’s service which the ministers of Christchurch hold every year. Two hundred old people, many of them very frail, were brought to the service in motor cars, and after the service they were entertained to afternoon tea. Among them was an old couple tlur: attacted my attention. The old man had snow-white hair, his wife had a look ot quiet happiness on her face; and both were beut by the weight of years. A fellow-minister told me this beautiful thing about them. He goes every morning to see the old couple and to read the paper to them. The wife cannot read, never having been taught; the husband cannot read, for he is blind. The tale of their years is long, for she is 88 and he is 92. My friend, the minister, has to read two things to them every morning from the paper—the weather report and the obituary notices. They do not want to hear anything else. _ And then —and here is the beautiful thing—that old couple and the minister pray together for all the bereaved folk who have lost loved ones. I confess I was deeply moved when 1 was told of this beautiful ministry. Just think of it; in a great city where death enters every day and leaves behind sorrowing families, there is an obscure old couple, unknown to the sorrowing families, praying for them. “ They also serve who ” —pray. One cannot measure the effect of such a ministry. lam sure that when,on that great day the Book of Life is opened, the “well done ” will be said to many a quiet, shrinking saint whose name was never known, but to a few, during his or her earthly life. The quiet ministry of intercession has always been the medium by which many choice souls have not only maintained their own faith, but, in a way they little discerned, maintained the faith also of the nation. There has always been a residue of people to whom the trumpets of religion and the clashing cymbals of national movement and strife have made no appeal whatever, but to whom the quiet ways are best, and who confidently expect that, in His own good time, God will manifest Himself. Once and again the cycle of history has brought their faith, and occasionally their names, right into the front page of the imperishable records of our race. Two of such were ANNA AND SYMEON. Not only cannot these two be dissociated from the birth stories of our Lord, but they are representatives of that ministry of intercession which again and again has proved to be the very leaven of God in society. In the days of Anna and Symeon the religious life of Israel had fallen very low. Yet the nation had still a goodly remnant who nourished their souls on Scripture and lived quiet lives of faitli and prayer. They were watchers for the morning—the morning that would herald the approach of the Lord’s anointed. Symeon was an old man now, and Anna must have been at least 100 years old when the faith in their hearts took flame and by its light they recognised in the Child Jesus the hope and consolation of Israel. At the time of the birth of our Lord it seemed as if darkness had crossed the face of the earth and men’s hearts were filled with. fear. In a truer sense than many imagined, Jesus came in the fullness of the times—indeed, if one may bo pardoned the expression, in the nick of time. While it is true that Jesus “came into His. own. and Hia own received Him not. ’ it is also true that He came into a circle that welcomed Him—a circle that had kept its hope and faith, not perhaps undimmed, but certainly untarnished, alive by expectant prayer. These ‘Hoping Ones are the salt of society. They preserve it from decay. There are many to-day. whose names are not known, and never will be known, who are exercising. a profound influence upon the world and whose expectancy is the womb of the great emergence of Divine revelation. They also serve who”—hope. And yet again, history tells us of how the ministry of quiet people prepared the scene for one of the greatest reliigous movements the world has ever known—- • * Reformation. Luther did not leap into the arena as a champion without suppqrters. Behind him and sympathising with him was a host of PIOUS PEOPLE. In Germany, at the close of the fifteenth century and beginning of the sixteenth, amidst the official religion and in spite of it was to be found the simple homely piety ot the family circle. It was a hymnsinging generation, and where we have hymn singing we have religious faith at its simplest and at its best. Here is a verse of a nymn which German mothers m pre-reformation da ys used to sin* as they rocked their babies to sleep* Now sleep, now sleep, my little child. He Icves thee, Jesus, meek and mild: He 11 never leave thee nor forsake. Hell moke thee wise and good and great. Oh Jesus, Master mild. b Protect my little child. The simple evangelical faith was quietly working as leaven. God called Luther to ?* a ? d r lke i a . kn Jj? ht amongst his prosf e,l s' ve ’ but He was not altogether a lonely figure for be was buttressed by the prayers and simple hymn-singing faith of a multitude of pious people. God*never forgets the setting. Indeed, you will fiDd tha t the E rea t leaders of the The 1 mo« "than we^can Sp“ S.SS.'gfg '**' of • h »‘ They also serve who’’—worship. And so on one could go, giving instances of the wonderful preparatory th°p rk worm ° K T eat r ? ll K lous movements of ne?oir GAd 1? ne by Slmp l e ' nameless people. God has more worshippers than appear on church rolls. He is swed by whose voice ie not heard in the street or pulpit. “They also He?® th e ° n T s P ! ay - and hope and worship 0 18 a ministry open to us all—than G we & P a“iJ S e . on BUch a miniErtr y ««*