SUNDAY READING

Taranaki Daily News, 2 August 1930, Page 2 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING

By

REV. A. H. COLLINS

THE UNIVERSITY OF HARD KNOCKS

“Take your share of hardship with Me, as a good soldiei* of Jesus Christ.”—ll Tim., 11, 3. Weymouth. When age speaks to youth it is wise to listen, when to age is added wisdom it is doubly wise to give heed; and when with age and wisdom there is goodness, the call is imperative. This is the word of ‘‘Paul the Aged,” and he is near to his mortal change. Look! He is a prisoner in bonds. His face is scarred. His limbs are fettered. Any minute he. may hear the footfall of the headsman with his “sharp cure for all the ills of life.” Listen! It is the scratch of his reed pen as he writes to Timothy, the young man who will carry on the Apostle’s work, when Paul has passed on to join the ranks of singing angels. His words breathe tenderness, for Timothy is young and not very robust and his task is heavy. But though tender Paul’s words arc bracing. He knows that softness is not strength or wheedling wisdom, for any young fellow who is worth his salt, and Paul pays Timothy the compliment of assuming that he will respond to the heroic note and welcome the trumpet rather than the flute. “Accept your share of hardship,” he says. Don’t shirk and don’t whine. Life is- a battle, face it! Life is a race, gird up your loins! Brace yourself for the hard task and scorn the primrose path. “We are not here to dream, to drift, ... Be strong! . . .” THE TONIC OF HARDSHIP. ! Pcfhaps you think that a hard say- I ing, but tell me, isn’t it wholesome? Isn’t it tonic? Do we suffer more from, hardness or softness? Well, I venture’ the opinion , that softness is our peril. More people are damaged by luxury 1 than privation, 'more suffer from the snare of the easy and the pleasant than the discipline of the difficult. Religion may he too cheap and too easy. Men would sooner respond and follow ' Christ if instead of soothing, we offered them swords, and, instead of re-r wards, we set before them tasks. When -Garibaldi was fighting for the unity and liberty of Italy, he frankly told his troops he had no badges and no ; decorations to offer, but only wounds < and privations, and if they would not accept the conditions, they could fall: out of the ranks, but not a man stirred and, as Professor Denny said, “When a voice like that is heard in the church by men who have the right to utter it, then we can be sure the thin ranks will fill up again, and our King will go forth conquering and to conquer.” MEASURED BY THE COST. This then is Saint Paul’s strain, and : it was Christ’s way. He never concealcl tlie ' wouhds,• never offered a bribe > to win a disciple. His words are some- f times forbidding. Because 1 would fol-J low my Lord, I. have no gospel of religion made easy, no patent concoction of human cleverness. Religion that costs; nothing is worth nothing. The heights by good men reached and ; kept, Were not attained by sudden flight, But they, while their companions slept, Were toiling upward'Jn the night. We arc the inheritors of a great rich - past. Life for us is sweeter and braver ’ for the doings of those who have gone before, and it is iiot honest to enjoy ' the advantages our' fathers won and make no contribution to the moral wealth of the town where we live, the ' Dominion of which we are a part, and the Church of our fathers. We should : pay our debt to. the past by some ser- • vice to-day. “Take your share of hard- , ship.” ’ Dr. Van Dyke has given us lines ■' which supply the substance of my mes- ■ sage: ■ Four things a man must learn to do, If he would make his record true: To think, without confusion, clearly, To love hrs fellow men sincerely, To act from honest motives purely, ■ i To trust in God and Heaven- securely. • Think, love, act, trust! I ECHOES NOT VOICES. Our first great task is to think.- The Lord’s complaint against Israel was,’ ■ : “my people do not consider,” and His ■ call was, “Come, let us reason together.” ■ rind that is the situation stilt. People will not think. They catch opinions ■ as they catch a cold. They are echoes and not voices. They repeat the ideas current in the street, and they reflect ; the newspaper they read, the party or the church to which they are attached. Men are not sheep, but they have two characteristics of sheep, for they are - easily frightened, and they are gregari- ' ous. Nothing stampedes them sooner, than a new idea. 4 ' .But we arc Jiving in a new world. . The difference between the lumbering stage waggon and “The Flying Dutchman” is not greater than the difference : between the "7th and the 2'oth century. ■ Wo scrap old machines and ancient methods, blit wc cling’ tb old ways of doing things and to' outworn ideas. We think, it. wicked not;, to '.believe : as our lather believed, and “modern thought” is regarded as a fearsome.,bogey. It is' told of a man who. was beheaded so swiftly that he did. not know that his head was-, off until he sneezed! And there is going to be a big sneeze one. -day. PROBLEMS OF THE’TIMES. The world measures the same miles in circumference that it did JOO years ago. but it’s not the same world.; Space is almost wiped out. East and West act and react on each other.. There is a new world consciousness. A mind thinking in London can communicate j with mind thinking in Wellington in a few seconds. The schoolmaster is abroad, and new problems face this I generation. We cannot stand stiff. We I cannot put back the clock. Forward must be our watchword. Ah! But forward where and forward to what? An unthinking democracy is dangerous, ami unthoughtful religion is m.ore dangerous still. We must think. But thinking is not child’s play. It is harder 1 think than the plough and reap or make money. For the problems are grave and .'tangled and their Solution is no easy. Thinking means brain sweat and soul sweat- and if you think.' you I may be suspected and shunned as ‘'dangerous.’’ Paul was. Luther v.im., Jesus I whspand if yop share .their experience [' doifft Avlijhc k’bput it. Don’t be copk I

tent with q pawnbroker’s religion or a second-hand faith. Don’t be a mental coward. Think! It is not infidelity to r. e your own brains. Liberty in an age of changing thought is essentially religious. THE PLACE OF LOVE. The second duty is even harder, for love our fellow men sincerely” is often a costly adventure in living. Yot thought without love is not enough. The intellect may be clear as ice and just as cold, and the problems of life need the play of warm human feeling. Law may be just, yet administered in a heartless way. Institutions may be theoretically perfect and practically cruel as Juggernaut’s car; to prevent this they must be worked by men and women who nut love into their service, and it is not easy. By love I do not mean gush or slobber,. bu 4 ; tenderness yoked to strength. “Love suffereth long and is. kind.” Docs it trouble you to think of the drink traffic? Do you care anything for the brave, poor ?■ Is there a single individual in the wide world who is better for your presence in the world? Whose load do you share? It is written, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self,” but how many of us believe that is possible or even desirable? What! treat men as our brothers? Love them? Why, many of them don’t know what l»ve means an dthey would take advantage nf you if you exhibited it. “Love men,. why you would turn the world upside down; property would not he safe, life would not be safe.” THE PATH OF DIFFICULTY. Now Jesus neither denies nor ignores ■ all this.' ' 'He says it may be so, and, that in some cases it is so. Love ma y I be imposed upon; k>vq may .be slain; Christ was slain and thousands of His followers have been slain. Ah! yes, loving your fellow men' sincerely is a eoritJj’ business. It may .not cost you your life, but it. will cost you your ease, your pride,, your cherished opinions, and you may have -to revise your programme of life. It ought to cost i us something to be Christians in a world like this. “Take your share of suffering.” “It is the way the Master went, Should not the servant still?” , - The third rnle is “to act from honest motives purely.” Is that easy ? We may say and do the right things .and yet be* actuated by wrong motives. “Honesty : i the best policy.” Oh! but honesty as a matter of policy! We may espouse a wood cause because its success would reSect credit on ourselves or our town. Religion itself maay be tainted with a species of selshness. Playing for safety is a shabby religion. SERVING THE 'CAUSE. ’ Finally, ‘“to trust in God and'-Ileaven securely?’ Nothing else will bear the strain of this “naughty world.” Trust no lovely Johns of passion,— Fiends may look like angels bright; Trust no custom, school or fashion: Trust in God, and do the right. • ' Some will hate thee, some will love ; thee, Some will flatter, some will slight; Cease from man, and look above thee; Trust in God, and do the right. Simple rule, and safest guiding, , Inward peace, and inward might, . Star upon our path abiding,— Trust in God, and do the right. Courage, brother! do not stumble, ■ Though thy path be dark as night; There’s a star to guide the humble*. Trust in God, and do the right, ./ • • It -is wise to count the .cost of discipleship, yet it is a notable fact that; those who have, most fully paid the, price have .been least conscious of the:, sacrifice. Paul made-light of- stripes;, and 'imprisonment. It. was. for .“the Joy - set .before”, that Christ “endured .the! shame.” Hudson .Taylor declared, - “I 5 never made a sacrifice.” , .Livingstone; said, “I, do not,, mention these... priva- 1 firms as if I considered them sacrifices;! j’o I. think the word, ought .never: to: be applied io anything we can do for,; Him who came down from heaven , and' died for us.” Wliat these noble souls ’ craved was not recognition of their eac-. rifice, but the knowledge that the cause; they served is being carried to cowpie-: tion. This is the thought expressed in the following noble lines r— - ; In Flanders fields the poppies grow,: Between th. crosses, row on row, ** That marks our place; and in the sky : The larks, still bravely singing, fly, - Scarce heard amid the gims below 7. : We are the dead. Shorts days ago ; We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie? In Flanders fields. i Take up the quarrel with the foe! ; To you, iron; falling hands, we throw; ,p he torch. Be yours to hole it high.; If ye break faith with us who die, . We shall not sleep, though' poppies: gro-,v ' In Flanders'■fic'ldisl ■ '