THROW IN YOUR LIFE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21924, 8 April 1933, Page 19

THROW IN YOUR LIFE

Written for the Otago Daily Times. By the Rev. D. Gardner Miller.

“In the biography of John Maud, Bishop of Kensington, there is a story told of two young men who, having completed their college course, came to sec the warden of the college before their departure. Both, it appeared, were going round the world to see life before settling down to their different jobs. “I mean,” said one, “to take holy orders on my return.” “And what about you?” said the warden, turning to the other. “ I don’t think I could face that,” he replied. They ■went and they returned, and came to see their college chief once more. “Well, what about it?” he said to the first man. “ Oh, I’ve given up the thought of being a clergyman. I’vc seen the world and that’s that.” “ And what are your plans? Is it to be engineering —or what?” he said to the other. “ No,” he answered, “ I’m going to be a parson. I’ve seen the spectacle of the world and everywhere I went I found a moral struggle going on between good and evil. I feel I must throw my life in.” So he did, and in later life became the much-loved Bishop of Kensington. In every realm of life no man worth his salt has ever achieved anything lasting without throwing all he has, without reserve, into his job. Particularly is it so in the great task of Christianising society. It can’t be done until men and women—generations of them—are willing not only “ to bet their lives there is a God,” but also willing and ready to be considered the very off-scouring of life for the sake of the cause. I am quite convinced we are far two respectable in our handling of the moral and religious problems of our day. By respectable I mean orthodox, quiescent, being in good form, not getting excited—and all the rest of the shilly-shallying ways we all have of evading a real tussle with the ugly and the foul. We love to work by means of committees—the first and last resort of the religious amateur and the work-shy Christian —instead of being living individuals set on fire with a holy purpose and scorning the consequences when half the so-called Christians in New Zealand begin to take their religion seriously —and they will find it a very uncomfortable thing to do—then the creeping forma of evil that are now sapping the foundation strength of our national life will die in their tracts. If I had a hundred tongues I would call aloud in every quarter of our beloved land to all who are concerned about the future, whether it is to be Godly or God-less, “ Throw in your life. The cause is worthy hot only of your best, but your all. No half measures. Throw in your life.” Oh, that the Church in New Zealand would kick a little harder! * * Next to Christ, the most supercharged personality in the world's history is the Jew by name of Paul. He threw in his life, for the sake of the gospel, in the first century, and now the twentieth century dare not, dismiss him. His matchless mind and passionate fervour set in motion spiritual forces that girdled the world and which will never die, unless God dies. There were no half »easures about Paul. He hated the indecisive. He believed that power belonged to the positive and acted accordingly. He was not always a Christian. If you read' and compare the scene where he took part in the stoning of Stephen with the Scene where he faces Agrippa and his group of military and civil,aristocrats, and tells, them all the why and the wherefore of his present position, you will, if you compare the scenes, realise that a tremendous thing had happened between the two occasions. And what happened was just this, that he had changed his mind. That, you say, was not a very striking thing to do. No, I daresay not, for many people change their minds so often that one wonders if they have really any convictions at all.

It all depends on what you change your, mind about and for and whom. Paul changed his mind about Christ. And when any man does that —even the most ordinary and prosaic man—he finds that he also changes his mind about God, his home, his friends—indeed he changes his mind about everything thats worth while. You see, the centre of life is altered the moment you have anything to do with the Man Christ Jesus. Had Paul left it there, that is, changed his mind about Christ, he would still have been, I believe, a striking figure. Blit he did more, he threw his life into the cause of Christ.

The same passion and virility and intelligence that characterised his preChristian life is now utilised to the fullest in the service of Him Who is now everything to him. Christ loves men who don’t count the cost —which means that everything they have, of brain and skill and passion and possessions, is now His, and so they have nothing of their own—but throw in their lives with a Godly recklessness. Have you ever read F. W. Myers’s great and moving poem, “Saint Paul?” if you have not, make a bee-line for the nearest bookshop and get it. The poem takes the form of a monologue. As you read it you can almost hear the great Apostle breathing. Here are three verses which should create in all of you a desire to read the whole poem— Christ! I am Christ’s and let the name suffice you, Ay, for me too He greatly hath sufficed; Lo with no winning words I would entice you, Paul has no honour and no friend but Christ. Whoso has felt the Spirit of the Highest Cannot confound nor doubt Him nor deny; ~ , , Yea, with one voice, O world, tho thou deniest, Stand thou on that side, for on this am I. Yea, thro’ life, death, thro’ sorrow and thro’ sinning He shall suffice me, for He hath sufficed ; ' Christ is the end, for Christ was the beginning, Christ the beginning, for the end is Christ. More than any man, Paul made the New Testament and that because he knew no half-measure; he “ threw in his life.” This self-abandon is the price all must pay if they will taste the power and the suffering of true Christian living. Even in the most humble circumstances and possessing the most meagre gifts, we can share the exultation of the great and awful struggle between the good and the evil and rejoice also in the knowledge that even though we fall by the wayside, the fight will end one day and Christ be Lord of all. I’d rather be an out-and-out worldling than a half-baked Christian.