APPEAL FOR FAITH

Taranaki Daily News, 16 October 1935, Page 7

APPEAL FOR FAITH

HELP IN EVERYDAY LIVING.

ADDRESS BY REV. G. LAURENSON.

A message of appeal for faith in God was given last night in Whiteley Memorial Church at New Plymouth by the Rev. George Laurenson, who concluded a week of special evangelistic services. After the minister’s address members of the congregation testified to the good the meetings had done. The Rev. F. Copeland conducted the service.. It was the instinctive reaction of men and women to call on God when they were in distress just as a man as ne fell threw out a hand to save himself, said Mr. Laurenson. (Nevertheless the way to get the best from faith in God was not to call on him only in emergencies but in the day-by-day reactions Of life. A man who-had by experience how to handle a motorcar was the man with whom one would wish to travel because he would be less disconcerted by an untoward circumstance than a tyro would be. In the same way a person who had faith in ordinary days would find it most comfort in distress. Emergencies tested the Christian living of the ordinary days. Some people attempted real devotional living once a week at one service and many read their Bible “ only through a second person. But their inspiration could not be strong. On Sunday it was below zero mark, at the service it was raised, by vital earnestness and during the week it slumped under innumerable other considerations below zero mark again. ( .Mr. Laurenson pleaded for the holding of a week-night service to carry inspiration over the slump of the between times. The congregation at New Plymouth had a great opportunity in the week-night fellowship meeting. Mr. Laurenson spoke of impressions of Christianity which seemed to him false. Many believed that one started out m life with a certain equipment which could be improved by striving. They forgot the words “Christ is thy strength.” Others thought they would achieve Christianity if they followed the great example of Jesus, and set up an ideal up to which they must live. If that was true, said Mr. Laurenson, Christianity was a counsel of despair. He personally had not the strength to follow Christ; he could only go with Him. It was no help to make a series of resolutions to try harder to live up to ideals because one would fail. Christ had given man the certainty that if he trusted in God God would give him strength. There must in Christians be* fighting against evil but not fighting for the power of God—rather an accepting and absorbing of it. The question was rather, “What would Jesus want me to do?” than “What would Jesus do?” because that was really impossible to answer amid 20th century conditions, and h implied an impossible standard. People had to accept the friendship of the living Christ if they were to find strength. Another thing Mr. Laurenson thought was wrong was the way people spoke of sacrifices they had made for Christianity. The more talk of that sort he heard the more he doubted the motives of the speakersjoecause those who made the real sacrifices thought least about them. ' - ■

Mr. Laurenson concluded by quoting a simple philosophy of Christian living: ‘‘Kneel down and ask for God’s help, get up and think you have received it, go out and live as if you had received it and you will find you have got it”