"OTHER LITTLE SHIPS"

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24783, 6 December 1941, Page 5

"OTHER LITTLE SHIPS"

||oritten* 'ilor.the OtagoDaily; Times! f|| By ,'lfce"-- Bev. Gardner. Miller .. feThese .little ships have always inSjed me. I have often wondered were in them and how they felt n the storm broke on them. You «0B find the reference to these wee boats in the story of: the stilling of gtti; storm in the fourth chapter of Hark. Whenever I read about the Sta of Galilee -,linjmediately*ee Loch Lomond. My"tScbttishi readers ;whb if;v : t^'^6ch ! enly storms can arise there; one nesr moment trie; wind has whipped thVlbch ;into;a Jragftigsea,and you wopder if you will ever'aee i the: shore iSSh; Sea of Galilee" Was like gßp knew it but acrossinat it;%av«d many of:-weary' tramping round the shore the risk of sji|iWv-«orm|'>wa»>a i ¥■: ■^ato7fQtt'"h>\ ! the^*ee'boats-.must.'have kad a t»d; tun* Judgtog by. the terror oPexperienced fishermen in the .flshli#am«lc. Is there not a lesson there! Eft read a long.time.ago: It was during ti>* last war—how we misuse that word -last"—foi it was not the ;last wax but simply the one before,. the Kent warr"nat a group of soldiers Trrance totl* service. feflow hlfeknamed. i Tubby. They sang some hymna °f them prayed; and tlfcn*Tubby w read i^ft on ithe ,Seav& Galilee §&. preached hU He: saidv" %frl don't know if ymi chips ever 'Noticed' that it ,sayS;VV Itoereya«ra r also_ other I .wan* •trt talk about these other little. -Ships ; :;&en^hSrn?fell: on the other; it be twsWlabouthke^ corks s«L"*to& :andi the ■mm^i^ izis'?u--mht the same with yowl «»W sE£*tt':s3fr&MfatM<-rtto .drink fl sSer %s*&■■•/<& Will not he the klßss«X» : There'll wlttfXyou-your Mv»and little children. your sweetMZ&?%tiey\\ get It. too.' v *Ut when : WtSm opens Ms heart to Je and #«• eomePln and makes the great 'other ;s*Jdy and peace of It as well. , flf ; tiiink that is a. fc simple and goes straight to the mark. ibid it is true "you can't do anything without Affecting Others. 'the waves that rock you may land Othets on the rocks. If you are nearly swamped it may mean that others are We are air tied Up with each other, arid if we could see how our word* and^ictians affect hose around ua-i'we Would be astonished. Nobody livas unto himself ho matter how he inav pride himself, on his individualism. mai»> it is tfue<that,*when we play «*sbl. oihe»rrare affected by it, it_ is «M> true that'i When We do good deeds, fheae deeds naveK'-'a'" wonderful way o*Je«dihg. others, whom we know not, deeds also. One day I reived e letter from a nurse. I at all. She told me that' byithe ,tiirie I received her letter

she would have left New Zealand for -Australia, where she was' entering a convent, which she : would never leave until death.' Her reason for writing was to thahkime for sohiethinc I had done for 7a friend .of: hers;v: She said she would never forget it, and tms was her last letter before leaving busy World: She - prayed, that God would bless 'my work and, tucked Within the folds of 'the:tetter;;was a donation, r have many letters from strangers;^but ■; somehow I cannot forget that 6he. :I have, often wondered ' how she is getting on. Her letter was a reminder td'.me that you never can tell the any kindly action done for any of God's family. And anybody is 'in.God's prodigals as well.as.the unco guid. Be Control

The other little ships were not out of the .mind—or, even >the "Sightrrpf Christ as He stood, up;-hi: the stern of'the heaving; boat, and: ordered th«? waves to be muzzled and the wind to behave >• itself. .;.' the disciples; thought that a sleeping Christmas-an impotent Christ. .Not at all. Agteeg and awake,, i Christ/ is always ; aware of the tremities of those Who follow Him. If the disciples had followed Christ's example they would have remained calm m spite of the storm. But there, you arid I would have clone the same; All of us get the wind up and imagine that the end has come. We get jittery.. 1 am sure we should repeat to ourselves at least once every day, the; assurance that'there is no situation irl,our,p*s beyond His control. And because; of that we should scorn being afraid./You will notice, too, that Jesus linked the; disciples' fear with their lack Of faith. That, to-me; is very signiflcant. My experience has taught me that faith is courage. Faith is something -that should urge us to take risks, not shelr ter I wonder if it dawned upon the disciples that Jesus had shown .great faith in them when He went to sleep trusting them to take the boat across, storm or no storm. They failed Him and He had to come to their rescue. It makes you think-rdoes it not?—that we fail Him many a time and do not justify His faith in us I am afraid faith to many is just a scurrying into a corner and praying the Lord to deliver us. It should be a sallying out to face the danger, confident that Christ trusts us to do our utmost. Yes, faith is courage.. • ■' '■■■ ■ But you may remind me that there is a possibility that the storm might finish us , Well, supposing it does so. That does notCmean that the power: of Christ has failed; it simply means that the storm has become His way of taking us into; Heaven's Harbour; No circumstance, no storm can outmatch His power. He is in control. Then let us pray that,we may be worthy of the faith He has.in us. And then the other little ships, those who follow us and are connected with us,, will share His overflowing grace.: