THE QUIET HOUR.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12438, 2 September 1933, Page 2

THE QUIET HOUR.

THE SALT OF THE EARTH. (Contributed by the Pahiatua Ministers’ Association;. Matt.: 5, 13.—“-Ye are the salt of the earth.” Dr. L. P. Jacks some time ago wrote an article in which he deplored what he called “The lost radiance of Christianity.” Is this what Christ means when He speaks of salt which has lost its savour S' Let us look into the phrase and see if we can find its meaning. When we think of the word salt in this connection, we generally think of its purifyng power. It is an antiseptic. It keeps things from going bad; it saves from corruption. i That is one of its uses. And we have taken the meaning of Jesus to be that Christians should be a kind of moral antiseptic keeping the world, from rottenness. “Men must have a religion,” soys Carlyle in his caustic way, “if only to save them the expense of salt.” That is undoubtedly a part of Our Lord’s meaning and that is one of the effects of vital Christianity. And surely we may claim that in this respect it is working. What would the world be like to-day without the influence of those humble folk who in every walk of life are radiating the spirit of right thinking, pure love and sincere goodness, because in their hearts they have enshrined the * name of -Jesus ? They supply the argument for Christianity which can never be denied— the quality of the Christ-like life. But that antiseptic quality is not the only value of salt. We use it to give a taste to our food, to stimulate our palate, to give zest to the appetite. Does not this come nearer to what Christ meant when He said “Ye are the salt of the earth?” It is our business to carry into the world a zest for life; to g-ive people a relish for existence ; to bear about with us the kind of mood and spirit which will make others feel that life is worth while, to break into the world with a tonic quality of spirit which shall banish its dullness and listlessness and help people to lift up their heads and go on. As Jesus looked round on His world He saw that the besetting trouble with multitudes was their defection. Life for thousands was deadly dull and uninspiring. It had lost its zest. Nothing new ever freshened the surprise of life. Monotony seemed to prevail. There are countless people like that. Mark Rutherford in The Revolution in Tanner’s Lane, describes an old man in ..the workhouse a century ago. “He was a poor-looking, half-fed creature, with the special workhouse bloodless aspect just as if he had lived on nothing stronger than gruel and had never smelt fresh- air. The old man’s face, too, had nothing distinctive in it. He was neither selfish nor generous; neither a liar nor truthfill ; neither believed anything nor disbelieved anything; was neither good nor bad; had no hope hereafter nor any doubt.’ When lie was asked about his business he described how it had slipped through his fingers. “I was alwavs dull.” He said people like to be ‘talked to. “I got nothing to talk about, had nothing much to say to any of them when they came in. but as T say, I was always dull.” That was his whole story. How many people are like that! They have no interest in life, no zest, no heart for its difficulties. Xo trumpet challenge ever sends its music ringing in their ears. Xo vision ot hope ever kindles their eyes, and so life passes by. They spend their days in a constant state of half-conscious boredom. How much vice or riotous excitement is due to nothing but this dullness I I.ook at the world to-day with its shriek--1 n g posters and loud advertisements, all making constant appeal to jaded people. What does it speak of but just the dullness of people’s lives. It is all an effort to find, outside of us, the source of a joy we cannot find within. Euless we ’have the secret of happiness within we cannot afford to look into the faces of serious things and tackle them mid into the heart of difficulties and meet them. The trouble with many people, in spite of their apparent jollity, is that life at its core is just ' tasteless and insipid. Thev have no hope of a future life, because they have no use for this. Now the first thing which Christ’s disciples did was to banish the dullliess of the world in which they lived. Things began to happen when they were about, people began to tiiink and to dispute, they began to curse them, to stone them. Some said they were drunk. Others said they were mad. But, along with that, unhappy people began to find a new spring of joy. A new thrill came to them. New currents of hope were set flowing. With these 1 linstians about, there was a blitheness as of jieople setting out on a great adventure that started the pulse beating. And when folk asked u lint it all meant, they discovered that these men had been with Jesus. *• M hat is it in Christianity that awakens the zest of life? in the nrst ace it gives us the conscious--11.11.I 1 .^ 558 there is a big meaning in lite. So many people cannot see auv meaning Tn it at all. That is their trouble. They go through it all as it they were dummy figures in some weird and senseless stage play. How «in anything have an interest for us it it. lias no meaning? Some people never think about life’s meaning at all, never ask questions. Some take up one ot the keys of life that lie to their hand and try to use it and because it does not open all the doors they throw it a wav and say hard things about life. They try the key called pleasure and it fits one or two doors and for a while it seems as if they have found the secret. But by and by thev come to doors winch that key wild noi open —tlie door of pain, .that of sorrow and that other of difficulty, and tliey discover that pleasure cannot be the real meaning of a universe in which these things exist. Some try the key of personal ambition and there are certain doors it seems to fit. Certain difficulties it enables them, to overcome and even turn to their advantage. But let them meet with failure and disappointment and they discover that it personal ambition is the meaning of life, the biggest half of experience is for ever

an unsolved enigma, for who can get the real heart oii love or friendship if they meet it with the demand for pleasure or seek it in their personal ambition. It is here that Christianity steps in. Life has a meaning and we have a place in it. The universe is making for something. God has His purpose, and we are called to share it. As we think of that purpose in the light of Jesus Christ it begins to take various shapes and to glow with a winsome attractiveness. It concerns us personally for one thing. It includes our character as individuals, the shaping of our mind and spirit, the control of our passions, the bringing to life in us of a spirit like that of Jesus. For that purpose we are called to live, to fight against slackness and discouragement, to stand up to difficulty and opposition and disappointment and all the other things that once made us feel that life had nothing in it. We are called to a fight. Th.* moment we see that, there is a new interest in life. Only this fight to which God calls us is not against others, hut for them, tor an end that we can only achieve together. And Jesus came to people who were down and made them feel that life was a fight—a real fight in which something is won for the universe by our success, or lost by our failure.

As that purpose throws its light across the world we see it touching other things, awaking other interests, giving rise to various kinds of social movements. Think of the spirit that started hospitals—that fights with disease and sickness. Think of the struggle against vice and injustice and war—those blots on God’s uiiri verse. Think of the enterprise for which the Church stands, carrying the light of Christianity into places of ignorance and superstition—the fight tiiat has love behind it.

again, Christianity gives zest to life because it has the secret of hope. Lite has a meaning and its meaning for us is a fight and that fight which is going to be won. How many have lost interest because they have lost hope—hope about themselves, hope about the world, hope about the future? We cannot Jive cheerfully without hope. How many folk could get through to-day u there were no to-mo-rrow and if somehow to-morrow did not hold promise of some good? We live bv anticipation. Is that an illusion? Some say it is. Christianity says it is not provided our hearts are set on the right things. Hope is born of the love of Christ. The fight for character is :u the long Juii a winning fight. _ It is the same with the fight for righteousness, it is a wining battle if von look far enough ahead. Or think of the assurance of immortality. How many folk are hopeless about life, just because they