Religious Life

Southland Times, Issue 24237, 21 September 1940, Page 7

Religious Life

By

ICHTHUS

Nothing Can Ever Put Out That Light

The latest issue of The Outlook, the weekly paper of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand, came to our house yesterday. After tea I was turning over its pages, browsing here and there. One page caught my eye by reason of its special interest, and I read it carefully. It recorded a meeting of the missions committee of the church in Auckland, of which the outstanding feature was the presence of the church’s veteran—and pioneer—missionary in China, the Rev. G. H. McNeur. “Here,” said I to myself, “is a man who ought to have something to say. A man who has been in China these last 39 years, and who has been in Canton through the Japanese attack and occupation: yes, he should have something to say.” He had. He gave a sketch of recent happenings and of the outlook for the future. But what most deeply impressed me, and left a mark on my mind, was what I might call his Christian detachment. He seemed to view the situation from above the ebb and flow of war, almost as if he were looking at it from eternity: as, indeed, I suppose he was. “There is nothing permanent about the present political situation in South China,” said the veteran missionary. “The permanent situation is that the Chinese are there; our work is there, and we are going to carry on. There is no need to be troubled about the present _ situation. It will pass and the work will go on.” That is magnificent. How that would strike the imagination of Lord Halifax of Mr Winston Churchill: “There is no need to be troubled about the present situation. It will pass and the work will go on.” But perhaps Mr McNeur’s best word was yet to come. One would have thought that with one of his fellow-missionaries—a brilliant young doctor just commencing his career in China—shot dead, churches and property looted, the Japanese in occupation, and mission work terribly difficult, the situation could hardly be darker. But that is not this missionary’s view. “There is a very bright side,” he said, “to the present dark cloud that hangs over China, and that brightness comes from God’s Throne, and nothing can ever put out that light.” That all left in my mind three points that I have since been turning over and over. They apply not only to China, but to Europe; and not only to Europe, but to the whole human situation and outlook.

THE PRESENT SITUATION IS NOT PERMANENT When things are bad, and we are passing through a very dark time, that is a true thing and a heartening thing to say to ourselves and to others. “The present situation is not permanent. Things are pretty bad, but it is something, after all, that we are passing through. Presently, if we stick to it, we will come out on the other side. China has had, and is still having, a bad time. But it is passing more and more every day. Every day her vast resources are being organized more and more, and those of Japan are wearing down. Every day she is stronger and Japan, for all her bluster, is weaker. There is something that does not pass: it abides and works. China will emerge at last into the sunshine. The present situation is not permanent. Stick it then. That is true for us also. What is happening in London is bad. But there is something better than that: the spirit of the people. They are sticking it marvellously day and night. Their work is there and they just carry on. Where do they get the courage, the calmness? Well, in part, from the knowledge thjit these horrors will pass. They are not permanent. Nothing bad is ever permanent. The night passes.: The sun rises. Better days are ahead. . Just stick to it. Be calm, and of a good courage, and carry on.

THERE IS A VERY BRIGHT SIDE Of course, there is. It may be night here. But on the other side of the globe it is light. Over on that side they are basking in the sunshine. It may be night here, but that is just because we are passing through the shadow. Up above the sun still rides in the heavens. There is always a very bright side. But we have to look away from the hard road beneath our feet, away from our own struggling, to see it. But when we lift up our eyes and our heads, see, it is very bright. “And not through eastward windows only When daylight comes, streams in the light; In front the sun climbs slow—how slowly; But westward, look! The land is bright.” Arthur Hugh Clough had a dark enough time. One incident I never forget. He tells how he had to punish his little boy, his mother being recently dead. Later, he went, to the child’s room, and found him lying in bed asleep, the tears still on his cheeks, and all about him the playthings he had tried to comfort himself with having no mother. That brings the tears to my eyes still, both for the father and the child. But, like the veteran Chinese missionary, even amid that darkness the poet could see the sun climbing the heavens, “and, westward, look, the land is bright.” It is good to be sure when things are dark that there is a bright side; it is better still to have the habit of lifting up your eyes and looking upon it.

NOTHING CAN EVER PUT OUT THAT LIGHT The Japanese can bomb Shanghai or Canton and put out of action the electrical installation. But they cannot bomb the Throne of God. And God is on the side of China and against Japan. They can never put out that light. That represents the ultimate reality that is working through the whole situation, and nothing they can do—no change of Government, no new “southward advance” policy—can alter it. The Nazis may bomb London, and seek designedly to destroy Buckingham Palace and the King and Queen, and to blow up St. Paul’s Cathedral. They failed in each design. They will fail to invade Britain; they will fail in everything they attempt; their whole existence and programme will soon be extinguished in utter failure and night. For the Throne of the God of Goodness and Love they despise as not being a “full-blooded German”—madmen!—is in the heavens. And nothing they can do will avail to put out that light. So always, for us all, in all things; in our private days of darkness and nights of distress or sorrow, in our public calamities. There is a very bright side to the present dark cloud that hangs over us, and that brightness comes from God’s Throne, and nothing can ever put out that light.