GOD’S QUIET WORK

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 443, 27 August 1928, Page 14

GOD’S QUIET WORK

CHANGING EMOTIONS OF HEARTS FROM WAR TO PEACE The healing of battle-scarred lands and the changing emotions of man’s heart are part of the quiet beauty of God’s work. Preaching in the Beresford Street Congregational Church on Sunday morning, the Rev. Lionel B. Fletcher, chairman of the Congregational Union of New Zealand, took as his text Isaiah- 61: 11: “For as the earth bringeth forth her bud and as the garden eauseth the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all nations.” The preacher said that the coming of spring was always a time when the quietness and beauty of God’s working could be appreciated as at no other time of the year. With man’s working there was noise; the roar of machinery the rumble of wheels and the shouting of orders, but the Eternal worked without sound, and yet with steady and irresistible power everything was changed. A field, a garden, a forest, bursting with new life and glory set forth the ways of God. In His working He healed and beautified what man had well-nigh ruined. The fields of Flanders and France ploughed by the guns of Europe, blasted by years of war, were to-day bearing rich crops and carrying a population of happy people. This was a parable of the ways of God, telling of His doings among the people of the world A few years ago hate and hell ruled, but on Monday the nations were to meet to sign the Pact of Peace. Quietly work 0 f Grace had been going on. While men hhd been busy building new engines of war, and devising new methods of destruction, God’s loving Spirit had also been busy. The world looked like a ploughed field, brown and bare, but out of sight in men's hearts the spirit of peace and brotherhood had been at work. Forgiveness and mercy had been gently pushing their green blades thtough the Impeding crust up into the light, and we see to-day what promises please God, to become a glorious harvest of peace and good-

Nothing of greater Importance had happened in our lifetime, and if the nations of the world would let God have His way, even as He had covered the scarred fields of battle with flowers of chits.; eVe " a ? to_day laughter of children was to be heard where a few years ago the roar of cannon and the groans of suffering men filled t/e air so would He eliminate our hate and cure our madness and bring in the Kingdom of Heaven. 'jf s f ? r J he time being I occupy the New*" Congregational Union of New Zealand, continued the speaker I earnestly call upon our people throughout this Dominion to pray for this and to work for It, so that we may o? Pr na e t i ion d , from ‘5 16 deadly Influence ot national jealousy or from the pernicious influence of those who love war. Let us do all we can to help the great and glorious work forward. Let God have His wav V*?eld 'ii! y the ® acrlfl ces of war shall yield the peaceable fruits of righteousness and God's will shall be done fn earth as it is done in Heaven.” WIDER FAITH NEEDED “WAIST-DEEP” CHRISTIANS ' ‘Waist-deep’ Christians are those which cause them to live like human black-beetles,” de-thh-d* 5 t f le Rev . c - G - scrimgeour in the Mciocsf ♦ aer ' es , of addresses at the M ?”, odis J ; Central Mission yesterday. They hate the world in which they been J >ut to serve Some useful E,“‘ p " se and qualify f or a paradise, ihese are the people who annoy the more sincere, witl, thefr creeds and peculiarities of their own particular sects They usually read up all about religion and proceed to cut it up in fine .slices and serve it to others. They succeed only in upsetting the beliefs of those whose faith is broad I " ‘Waist-deep’ Christianity will get us nowhere. Wo must wade out and swim in Christianity.”