CHRISTIAN COURAGE

Taranaki Daily News, 1 August 1932, Page 9

CHRISTIAN COURAGE

APPEAL TO YOUNG PEOPLE

SERVICE AT ST. MARY’S CHURCH.

ADDRESS BY ARCHDEACON GAVIN.

“It is splendid to see such a display of young life in this church,” said Archdeacon G. H. Gavin at St. Mary’s, New Plymouth, last night, and the observation was thoroughly justified. The archdeacon welcomed the Girl Guides, Girl Citizens, Boy Scouts, members of the Bible classes, candidates for confirmation and their parents and pupils of the Boys’ High School, all of whom attended in large numbers. -The scouts-and girl. guides were in uniform and the placing of the flags in the sanctuary gave a picturesque touch to the service. The lessons were read by a High School boy and a boy scout. It being a young people’s service it was little wonder that the “note” of Archdeacon Gavin’s address was, the cultivation of Christian courage. Preaching from the text, “Whosoever will save his life shall lose it, but whosoever shall lose his life for. my sake and the Gospel’s the same shall save it” (St. Mark 8 v 35), the archdeacon began his address by recounting the dramatic moment in the Colosseum at Rom® in which a simple monk from an eastern land bore witness to the faith that was in him. The people had gathered for an entertainment that was part of the celebrations of the repulse of the Goths and barbarians, who had invaded Italy and reached the walls of Rome. The entertainment included gladiatorial fights, and just as those were to commence the “bareheaded and barefooted” monk sprang into the. arena and called upon the gladiators in the name of Jesus Christ to cease the shedding of blood for the amusement of holidaymakers. It. cost him his life, but it stirred the public conscience. It was a great sacrifice, but it led to the prohibition of gladiatorial contests in Rome. ■ . , . Those who were on the threshold ox confirmation were about to bear witness for Him as against the forces of evil. Their witness must begin in the home. It was not always easy to dd so. In the home the veneers of . hie dropped off and'the natural self came out, and that natural self was not always very Christian. They never knew, however, who might be watching the effect of their confirmation on their lives, so that other lives might be influenced' by their witness being faithful or otherwise. ' After the home came the wider world of school life. There they must bear, witness by standing- up for truth, honour, chastity, diligence and unselfishness. It was there they might meet the deadliest weapon in moral warfare* the “machine gun” of 'ridicule. It was hard to stand up for principles and easy to be laughed’ into doing things .of which they were ashamed. By having the manliness of Christ to say “No to temptation they would be bearing true witness and helping to keep up the moral tone of their school. After school in the wider world of. adult life they would find men. and women who did not share in Christian ideals, and in their ways lay temptations. True Christians, must be brave and stand, up to their guns. They must always see that 'their lives backed up the faith they professed. Genuine relirion whenever it was recognised was always honoured; it was pretence that men could not stand. They must be straight. Men would condone almost all other faults, of character, but they had no time for'the man who was not straight. . . ~ . They must show witness m their work, for Christian faith would surely influence the work a man turned, out. They must see, too, that their hours were not the undoing, of their lives. Those hours contained many snares. They must be kept clean and. innocent. It was a question whether a man s character was shown more truly m his work or ?n. his play, but for all occasions thev would find the virtue, that must underlie all effort to bear witness before all the world was the virtue or courage. The speaker had seen.it exemplified by a stretcher-bearer m war time who went back through half a mile of danger because someone might need, his help. He had no thought of heroism but the virtue that underlay fils action was courage. They were soldiers or Jesus Christ and they, must develop a similar fine soldierly spirit.