SUNDAY READING

Taranaki Daily News, 28 December 1929, Page 19 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING

By

REV. A. H. COLLINS

THE NEW AND THE OLD.

“Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart, 0 Lord, according to Thy word, in peace.. For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.” —St. Luke 11, 29-30.

One of the most picturesque and arresting scenes in the Gospels is this pen picture of Simeon, standing in the temple courts, with the infant Jesus clasped in his withered arms. It was bleak winter embracing blithesome spring; the rich and storied past creating the untried future with a cheer; the old welcoming tfhe.new, not only without jealousy or reserve, but with rejoicing and benediction. Two great epochs, came together in that hour, with no sign ol clash or hostility; Simeon stood as the representative of an age rich with the rhyme of antiquity, with a long line of kings and prophets, and religion, the highest and purest the world had seen. The infant Jesus stood as the inspirer and the exponent of a new faith that would disannul and supersede the religious conceptions of the past, and introduce ideas of God and man and . life that transcend and eclipse, the law and the prophets; yet Simeon* under the inspiration of .God.hailed the coining one with his Nunc Dimittis, an act of-faith which supplies'a strange contrast to the maledictions meted out .these who still believe ‘’there is yet more light and truth to break forth from God's Holy Word?’ A RARE SOL'L : IN ISRAEL. Our knowledge of Simeon is scant. Practically all we know is flashed into this brief paragraph of Saint Luke. He was one of those rare souls in Israel who nourished their hearts on the Messianic scriptures, and “it was revealed unto-him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see deatlr.before lie had seen the Lord’s Christ.” With that hopeburning in his heart he haunted the temple, and pondered the ancient scriptures of his race. Picture the old man waiting in . the sanctuary with expectation and desire,.yet net knowingwhat form this manifestation of God would take. Then a peasant woman comes with a little child in her arms, and there leaps, up. in the old man’s heart the conviction that this is the Messiah, and he.., moves forward and takes the child into his arms, crying "This is He. It. is enough. Now lettest Thou Thy. servant depart in peace, fcr mine eyes have .•■seen Thy salvation." 'let a little child in a peasant woman’s arms was so Unlike the Messiah the nation expected. To quote Macdonald: “They all were looking for a King. To slay their foes and lift them high; Thou cam’st a little baby thing. That made a weman cry." THE UNEXPECTED HAPPENS. Fresh revelations of God seldom take the form we expect; but the heterodox}' of one. age is the orthodoxy of the next and the radical and the dangerous of to-drfy become the obvious and the conservative of to-morrow, a fact worth pondering; There is the old recognising the new for Simeon expressed in himself the aim of the Old Testament revelations. He is described a? “just and devout." which is moral char- : actor stated in terms of the Old Testament. He is "wailing for the consoia- i tion of Israel," which was the ideal ; attitude of every true Israelite. "And ' the Holy Ghost was upen him." which J was the aim of the whole revelation ■ granted to Israel. Simeon' standing in ; the temple |>orch was the embodiment i of results that God had patiently sought j through centuries of providential deal- I ings. and teaching, and illuminations. ! It was into the arms of such a man ! Christ was laid, and this aged saint ■ was helped to see that all the ancient i scriptures intended was now aceoiii- ! plished. The sun. the moon, the stars • retired. The topstene had come with { shoutings of joy. and the scaffolding ‘ might be removed from the building, j the world none the poorer, but immeasurably the richer, for its disappearance. I So the old man sings his swan song ; of departing Israel, because Christ Himself had come. Judaism had accomplished what it was meant to do, and now it ended as it was designed to end. in passing into something better. '. A' MARVELLOUS PROPHESY.

.Yet,., as I have §aid. how totally unlike this ideal was to the current notions of Messiah! At the very moment when Simeon clasped Jesus in hi* arms a young man was growing up in Tarsus, »“a pharisee of the pharisees, as touching the law blameless,” but so far from w&lcomihg Jesus as Messiah. Saul, was exceedingly mad against Him. and pronounced Him enemy of Truth and destroyer of the temple. I Not. that Saul of Tarsus was a bad man. but because he was the bond slave of tradition and soulless orthodoxy. The old man Simeon reverenced the old. yet welcomed the new, for ho saw in both the wisdom of God and the power of God. The young man Saul idolised the Cdd,.and anathematised and persecuted the new, not because he was an evildoer, but because he failed to understand. that truth is a seed and not a crystal. and the same is true still. I have said this temple scene -is picturesque; it i<s prophetic, too —a marvellous microcosm of history and religion. THE CONSTANTLY RECURRING CLASH. Who does not see that the clash between the old and the new is a constantly recurring .spectacle? In social customs and habits, in political movements, and in religious thought, nothing is static; all is in a state of flux, and “God fulfils Himself in many ways, lest one good custom should corrupt the world.” Finality in any department of life and thought is a vain hope, and nowhere more vain than in the realm of religion. We talk of the unrest abroad as if some new thing had happened, when as a matter of fact unrest has always marked living periods. We say the Church is in a time of crisis; but tell me when has the Church not been in a time of . crisis? On all sides we hear voices loud and shrill telling. us that- organised religion is cracking and morals are decadent, and the world is on its way to the ■fires of Tophet! Yet when these prophets of evil are challenged to name ah age better than this - they fail to name the. day. In the twelfth century 'Bernard of Cluny chanted* mournful

lamentations over the evil of his time and was sure the end of all things was at hand. He sang:—

“The world is very evil, The times are waxing late, Be sober and keep vigil, The Judge is at the gate.”

In the eighteenth century, while Europe was in the throes of revolutionary change, James Rtursell Lowell sang in cheery confidence: —

“The time is ripe, a rotten-ripe, for change; Then let it come; I have no dread of

what Is called for by the instinct of rankind; Nor think I that God’s world will fall apart Because we tear a parchment more or less.”

And so the pendulum swings from pessimism to optimism, and I am a twice born and stubborn born optimiit. The old and the new’meet in some cases with mutual trust and hope; in other cases with distrust and jealousy; and which is the wiser way let thoughtful people decide.

A TIME OF TRANSITION.

• A wit imagined Mother Eve saying as she left Eden. "We are living in a 'time of transition,” and all her sor.s ;u;d daughters say the same. We are passing through great' changes' now. During the war we were said to be lighting for the recogntion of the .life of the smaller States of Europe, and the-rights of eelf-government of nations within the borders of our own Empire. The clash of arms has ceased., but net the clash of the old. and the new in the world of ideas and ideals. Some of our statesmen are thrilled with the sense of the glory of the new order, •and/siiig their Mine Dimittis; others cling to the old as better. What is- true on the scale of imitioris is equally true of political parties. What a sorry sight it is to see our. responsible public men spending their time and strength in abuse,-and trying to bolster up outworn laws and institutions, not realising what is tl:<> spirit of the new age, or seeking to. get oil with the things which ready matter, the righteousness' that ftioiie exaifeth a nation; playing Herod., who would slay the newly born, instead of Simeon, who hailed Him a« God’s gift to a sad and weary world. •

THE NEW IN THE HOMi

To ccmb nearer, home, what - tragic stories might be told of familier, where peace is broken ■'and love lies bleeding because the old and the new have not learned to li»c tcgotlier in mutual reverence. and goodwill. Fatheri, .and mother.- with rasping critlci.-m ci the dress, the recreations and the social habits of their young .people, and sons and daughter.. who are haughty and defiant 'of v. L;;t they call - tlicise old-fashiosK'd notions ar.<l prejudices.’’. Well, "I have been young and now am old." If /I have, liny prejudices, which.l. hope 1 have not, they are m favour of the past. J am mt greatly enamoured of the "abbrei laird oddmenlt- of undress” . which Miss New Zealand adopt.-; neither do I like the Jack of, reserve in speech and deportment', whilst the jazz and. the bridge ami cocktail mania offend my ser.se of the rational -and the edifying. But when 1 turn back to portraits and fashion plataj.of the mid-Victorian period. I am not sure that the former times were better than these. Young men playing crh-kt.’i-' in; top hats and tight pants! Young women in crinolines and coal kkutt-ie bonnete! Pale and languid Miss Victoria, working “samplers,' or wool cushion?, or sighing over the in-

am- poetry of the period! No. 1 have no w.< h for that .to return. Our young people are sound in heart. They will outgrow some of their foibles, and’ we who are their eiders must shun nagging and cultivate friendship and sympathetic under<standing with youth for their sake and our own. We must not condemn a generation for the faults of a few. for the wine of freedom lias gone to their head.

And what is true of the political world is surely also true of the religious world. Look across the seas and see the result of the patient toil of our missionary societies and of their devoted workers for many decades: the rising up in Japan and China and India and Africa, of the Christian Native Church of those countries, and the birth of a great movement 'for the advancement of the Kingdom, of Christ upon earth. What should be our attitude with regard to all these’ Surely a welcoming of the answer to many prayers, the beginnings. of the fulfilment of a long-

cherished hope, the taking it up in our arms and giving it our blessing, because we see in it the embodiment of God’* salvation for the world Yes, we can afford to stand aside, and if need be to depart in peace in the presence of the life-giving power of the Incarnate Saviour. NEW IDEAS OF RELIGION. Aye, and the religious .world in the West needs to play Simeon, and not Uercd We are living in a world of uqw ideas of religion. Our approach to the Bible, our attitude to. science, and our interpretation of Christian doctrine are entirely new. Our thought and vocabulary are new. The change of the old to the new is as great as the differ-, ence between the Old Testament and the New Testament, and the reception is pretty much the same; yet God was the source of both. The result is discussion, which is good, when free of prejudice and bitterness. But to name “modern thought,” in some circles is to create a scare, and in the same group the word “evolution,” is “suspect,” and the wildest alarm is with amateur theologians and amateur scientists. The experts in both branches of knowledge need to observe a wise reserve and modesty. Exceedingly few men have the capacity or the training that entitle them to discuss these subjects. For a threepenny pamphlet by a man who is neither a scientist nor a theologian is no reliable guide. These subjects must be settled by evidence and not dogmatism, in a calm, judicial spirit, land without appeal to angry passion. To avoid and denounce a man, and treat him as the enemy of truth, because he does not agree with you is simply wicked. Dr. Charles Berry rightly declared: “It is well for the new. when it consents to be taken in .the arms of the old. It is ill for the old when, instead of welcoming, it frowns upon the new, and instead of°playing the part of Simeon, and embracing and blessing the infant, plays the part of Herod-and seeks to destroy

the child that seems to threaten his sovereignty.” For the conservative Iby years and temperament; and for the re-

volutionary by reason of their youth, the lesson is the same. Simeon with the' infant Saviour id his arms is their pat-

tern and ideal. “Lord now lettest Thou i Thy servant depart •in peace 'for mine M* eyes have seen thy salvation,.”