THE GARLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 3571, 22 August 1922, Page 57

THE GARLAND.

FOR THE QUIET HOUR.

No. 469.

By

DUNCAN WRIGHT, Dunedin.

THE APOSTLES’ CREED

Augustine. —“This is the faith which in few words is given to novices. These few words are known to all the faithful, that by believing they may be subject to God, by this subjection they may live well, by living well they may purify their hearts, and with pure hearts they may relish and understand what they do believe.’* Calvin—“ln the Confession which Galvin wrote for the Italian Churches he declares, ‘Tliat the Confession of Faith comprised in the Apostles’ Greed ought to be sufficient for moderate Christians.’ Erasmus —“Truth does not stand in need of words. And that is best remembered which is related with the greatest conciseness. Never was the Christian Faith more plain and pure than when the world was contented with the single and concise symbol of the Apostles or Apostolic men.’' Bishop Hail.—“Of the small number of tilings we are obliged to believe there is no article so necessary as that we need not believe more tlian the symbol of the Apostles.’’ SUNDAY AFTERNOON. EXILED. Light, light, always light, would craze our minds; God knows we need and must have blinds And the gloom of a wood in which to rest, Wjiere the tail trees sigh and the wild birds nest. Shadows and shade and gloom are sweet After sun-glare and sizzling heat. And when the last great shadow falls, And the stream runs black and the nighthawk calls, "We’ll sleep like guests at some old inn By velvet darkness folded in, Until, through windows open wide, We hear the surge of a Western tide; All! then, through trailing mists upborne, We’ll drink the wine of a- Highland morn. —J ohn S tepheii. Ontario, Canada. Cheerfulness and contentment are great beatitifiers, and are famous preservers of good looks. Look not mournfully into the past. 11 comes not back again. Wisely improve the present. Beauty, good, and knowledge are three sisters tliat dote upon each other, friends to man. We make an egregious blunder when we try to persuade men that the way to heaven is easy. Unless we learn to do our duty to those we employ, is it likely that they will learn to do their duty t-o us? How true it is in all art, that what seems the easiest done, is often the most difficult to do. There are shades in all good pictures, but there are lights too, if we choose to contemplate them. Love is in all things a wonderful teacher. There is no school in which a pupil gets on as fast a-s in that of love. Great deads cannot die; they, with the sun and moon, renew their light for ever, blessing those that look on them. A great mind is a good sailor, as a great heart is also. And the soa is not slow in disclosing inestimable secrets to a good naturalise. Beware of pretending to accept conclusions that are not really your own : and of pretending to reject those which, in your secret soul, you acknowledge. —London Christian. 1)1-1 LIGHTING IN GOD. To delight in God we must give up all the old “delights” and “count them but dung.”—Phil, iii, 8. Delighting in God Himself, lie will grant us the desire of the heart.—Psalm 37, 4 We must delight ourselves : 1. In, God Himself (Psalm 37, 4). 2. In His Word (Psalm 1,2; 119, 24). 3. In His Service (Psalm 40. 8). 4. In Prayer (Isaiah 58, 2). Then He will “delight” in us (Psalm 37, 23; Proverbs 11, 20; 12, 22). THE MAN. Educate a man’s body alone, and you have a- brute; educate a man’s mind alone, and you have a sceptic ; educate a man’s heart alone, and you have a- bigot. Educate a man’s body, mind, and heart, and vou have the noblest work of God—a man. DO VOU SAY. “HOW CAN I BE SAVED Jesus Christ died for sinners.—Roman v, 6-7. First : As you cannot save yourself (Titus iii, 5), take Jesus as your Saviour. There is no other name or way, whereby you can be saved (John xiv, 6; Acts iv, 12). “The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah liii, 6). Second : Believe that- Jesus Christ, the Son of God, can and will forgive your sin:-*. “All things are possible to him that belioveth” (Mark ix, 23). Third : Confess Him —Tell what lie has done for you. “If you confess Me before mi'ii. 1 will confess you before My Father Who is in heaven” (Matthew x, 32). Fourth : trust Him—Put away your sins —even private ones (Eeel. vii, 26). You can cover them up from your friends, but not from God (Romans iii, 23), and ask Him to blot out. every trace and desire for sin. lie “is able to do .... above all we ask or think” (Eph. iii. 20).

“The Lord redec-meth the soul of His servants: and none that trust in Him shall be desolate.’’-—Psalm 34, 22. “0 taste and see that the Lord is good : hlossed is the man that trusteth in Him.’’ —Psalm 34, 8. John xvii, 13. I steadfastly believe in God The Father of all might, Who mad© the lower world and all The glorious worlds of light. And I believe in Jesus Chrißt, The everlasting Word, The Almighty Father’s only Son, And our most gracious God. Conoeived by the Holy Ghost, Of Virgin Mary bom, By Pontius Pilate doomed to bear Most bitter pains and scorn. Was crucified, and for - a time Both dead and buried lay In the cold sepulchre, and rose To life on the third day, Ascended up to heaven, and there At God’s right hand is placed; From whence he shall return to judge The quick and! dead at last. I likewise firmly do believe, O Holy Ghost in Thee, The Holy Universal Church, And Saint’s Community. Forgiveness of repented sins (Through Christ our sacrifice), The resurrection of the dead, And life that never dies. CULTIVATE RESERVES. “Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when Ho cometli shall find watching" (Luke xii, 37). The time of emergency comes to all. It seems to be the law of things that they move steadily and even monotonously over periods, and then they begin to gather themselves into a narrow point of pressure. It is the tight place. The wise will remember this. There are people who have in themselves resources of spiritual strength and grace upon which they draw in tiie hour of need. Are we of that order? Consider the fact of Christ. You know how his own life was lived, so that when all the waves and billows went over Him, He was found serene and strong, master of Himself and of all circumstances. “Be ye also ready, for the Son of Man comet-fa. in an hour that ye think not.” And the readiness is the availability of cur reserves. Cultivate the means of grace, be much in prayer, that your life in Christ may be no starved half-life, but a life which knows the ranges and resources of that “more abundantly” of which He spoke..—Thomas Yates. MODERN MANNERiS. Dr Jowett on a recent Sunday, deplored the coarsening of modern manners, particularly in young people. The graciousness and courtesy of yesterday . were rapidly disappearing. He feared that if these were lost, the sense of reverence would follow : which would be an immeasurable calamity. Tlic Lev. 1!. G. Bourchier, of the Hampstead Garden Suburb, on the same Sunday, declared that “the younger generation would appear to be uttt r strangers to goer’ maimers.” lie blamed parents, choirmasters and employers. They were guilty of a very grave wrong in not correcting rudeness and discourtesy. On the other hand, Air George Lansbuiry rebukes snobbishness with severity. “You have to give up worshipping form in men and women, and to get rid of the notion that anybody is superior to you in any sort of way.’’ Mr Lane bury is right in depreciating the cringing attitude. But self-conceit is, at least, equally objectional. There is a self-respect that, is fully consistent with that consideration for others that is the hall-mark of refinement of mind and of manners. THE PURITANS. 1 want to he frank in regard to this matter. Speaking as a politician whose business it is to know what is going on, 1 am convinced that what we really need is a revival of religion in our land. Sir Charles Wakefield mentioned the Puritans. They may have been hard and harsh, but they were very definite in their Christianity. They did not believe in the Higher Criticism. They did not bogle about miracles. They did not make God One who was unapproachable. They realised that unless the nation had God in its heart the clays of Puritanism would be inevitably followed bv the license ot the Restoration. And unless our nation is prepared to go back from these Modernist theories, prepared to go back to the simple truths of the Gospel, the last state of England -will be worse than it is to-day. I make bold to say that when the missionaries go into the drunkard’s home, when tliev go to couples living in adultery, when they go to men and women in the purlieus of the East of West-end, they do not talk -Higher Criticism, they have onesimple word —that God is able to save to the uttermost the sinner who repents, and that is the only Gospel that is worth anything in the world.