SHY FOLK

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24481, 14 December 1940, Page 5

SHY FOLK

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

A taxi-driver stopped me this morning as I was crossing the square. He wanted to give a donation to my mission, although he had never been inside its doors. I have known him for some time and had always passed the time of day with him whenever I saw him waiting for a hire. This morning the talk about the mission led to talking about personal _ religion. He was a shy old man and it wasn t easy for him to speak about the deep things of life. Something his mother told him when he was a boy in the Scottish highlands had stuck to him all through his wanderings and he told me about her and what she said. To my joy I found in him a quiet, firm faith tucked behind a careless exterior. When I left him and entered my city room to take up the tasks of the day, the postman called and, as usual, we had a few minutes’ chat together. He, too, had opened out to me some little time ago and I found in him a fellow Christian who was shy about speaking to anybody of the things he most surely believed. Later on in the morning I had to go out and on returning to my room I met a woman, a lonely widow, whose husband I knew and loved for many years before his passing. As we talked her quiet frith expressed itself in the remark that when she was in the garden she knew her beloved was with her. These personal contacts —and every day is full of them—made me turn over in my mind the many folk ! know who never trumpet their faith yet whose lives are nourished by spiritual graces. Most of us pay tribute to the influence of our mothers, but few of us had mothers who ever got up on a public platform and spoke. The generality of mothers .is of that type that lives its faith instead of speaking about it.. Indeed, our mothers—and fathers, too —would have found it very difficult to put into words the beliefs by which they And we have the very highest authority for believing that heaven will have wide open doors for those who have never paraded their religion. Did not Jesus say the most gracious things about those who served others and never thought they were serving Him all the timet “ When did we? ” they said, and Jesus replied, "Inasmuch as ye have done it to others ve have done it to Me.”

In the Gospels

The more I think about shy people the more 1 realise how wonderfully understanding Jesus was in regard to them, and, incidentally, how attractive Jesus must have been to them. There are many shy people in the gospels, and their stories of how they came to Jesus with their needs and found satisfaction and fulfilment are among the choicest that have come down to us from the days of the long ago. There was Nicodemus. He was a very shy man. Very intellectual, too. He came to Jesus by night, not because he was a coward but because he could not wait until the morning and be one among many clamouring, to speak to this gracious man with the wonderful words of life. And Jesus met this shy man and talked to him on his own level of understanding, and brought him into peace of mind. I have often pictured that animated talk between Jesus and Nicodemus in the quiet of the night, when most folks were asleep and wished that more of their conversation had been handed down to us. But Nicodemus was a shy man, and he never could bring himself to tell all that passed between him and Jesus on that night. And then there was the woman who touched the hem of his garment. She was not a bold woman; she was really a very shy woman. She did not want to attract attention. If only she could creep up behind Him among the crowd, and not be noticed, and just touch His cloak, she felt sure healing would come to her. And it did. And more than healing did she receive, for she received an inner place, a wholeness, that made life different for ever. We may be sure that Jesus did not shout at her, nor draw the attention of the crowd to her. What He said would only be heard by those nearest to Him. He would spare the feelings of a shy woman. The Simple Way

I am struck with the very simple way these shy people came to Jesus. . They made their way direct to Him and did not feel at all that He would be too busy to see them or that He would treat them with other than the greatest courtesy and understanding. I think that is a characteristic of shy people. They are really simple at heart, and are most grateful for anything you do for them. Unfortunately many shy people are treated with roughness through lack of fine feeling. There are people who always speak as if every word was a club. They seem to be always banging you into a corner. No wonder shy people withdraw into their shells. I plead for gentle and tolerant treatment of those who seem to be hesitant in making any public witness of their faith. There are more people belonging to Christ than are on our church and mission rolls. They have had private interviews with Jesus, and they have no wish to live in the limelight. All’s well with them. They do deeds of kindness of which you and I know nothing. But Christ knows. “Inasmuch .”

Books About the Young Here are three books by the Epworth Press, priced at one shilling each (English price), that are of great value to parents and teachers who really care about the education of the B. They are: “A Boy’s Right to on,’’ by Conrad Skinner; “.The Christian and Education,” by W. G. Humphrey; “Nurseries of Christians,” by John W. Skinner. The book by Conrad Skinner is by a recognised authority on religious education—as indeed are also the other two books mentioned above—and is the best argument I have come' across in reply to those who stubbornly refuse to admit the recognition of religion in the educational system of New Zealand. Education must be Christianised. Religious education is not an appendix. Dr Humphrey’s essay is full of ripe wisdom. and is an excellent contribution to a subject to which there is too little attention given to-day. The child book by Dr John Skinner .is to the point. “A nursery is a place where young things are reared for transplanting. What responsibilities, what joys, a schoolmaster’s job brings!”