CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19374, 24 December 1932, Page 15

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH

THE MINISTER’S GREETINGS. Looking back upon the year 1932, it does not present a bright and encouraging future. We see a debtshackled world, for almost all the nations are staggering under an unbearable weight of war debts, togther with with equally menacing taxation and falling revenues. These things have ma'de the past year one of the most trying periods in the history of the Dominion. Our merchants and professional men, our tradesmen and farmers, scarcely know where they stand. Multitudes of our toilers are out of work, and many more are uncertain how long their jobs will last. We are facing a world economic blizzard and we all pray it may speedily pass. Though a spirit of depression is in the general atmosphere, a spirit of hopefulness is revealed in the Church. “Over the hill there is a smiling prospect.” or “around the corner of the coming year there may be a pleasant surprise.” During recent months, this has been evident in the church activities. A new interest prevails, a new vitality is eminent.

There is a spirit of courageous optimism, that will surmount present time obstacles and assist us to maintain our efficiency with a fair measure of

May the dawning of the New Year inspire each one of us with a greater confidence in Him whose birth we celebrate, and whose teachings can alone lead us into the paths of peace.

GREETINGS TO ALL “With that wish, I would take this opportunity of saying Christian things to you. Day by day, during this past week, the feeling of Christmas has been gradually growing upon us. It came with the mail delivery, when the postman handed to us our first Christmas card, and soon after that we were caught and carried away in that deep and ancient tide of emotion, that sweeps ever the world on the day when we celebrate the birth of the Babe that was born in Bethlehem.

“If it is possible for you carry back into your heart and lives, every little bit of faith, romance and joy, that once was yours in childhood days. I know that is a very hard thing to do—so easy to suggest, but difficult to carry out, for the faith of many has grown cold in these modem days. The difficulties that face us to-day, the pressure of the hard facts of life, so stern and so remote, give us so little time to think about eternal things.

“There is no angelic choir now to make music, no star to lead us through the darkness, no sense of expectancy, such as there was for the ancient world, when everyone was on tip-toe looking for the coming Messiah. They lived, those people, in Bethlehem of Julea in the time of Herod the Tetrach. We live in New Zealand. We are shut up in the walls of a town, we go to business in the morning and return in the evening—that is the beginning and the end of it. It is enough, if we can keep the wolf from the door that shelters those we love. Our faith had grown so weak under the pressure of these stern realities, that we feel we cannot burst into the glorious song of old: “O come all ye faithful. Joyful and triumphant.” “But it is just here I think, when we are at our weakest, that the joy of Christmas might, come afresh * to us. For at Christmas ,it is the heart and not the head that - takes control. There is no antagonism between the religion of the heart and the religion of the head, but oh! sometimes the religion of the heart gets crushed out; it has so few friends, it is not held in reverence as it should in these days. There is not nearly sufficient heart control, we are so truly alive. “But Christmas! With all its sublime simplicity, beckons us back to a dream and a romance, beckons us to be kindly, to think about other people, to

stop grumbling and grousing and to put all our interests in the welfare of others, especially the dear little children; to make folks happy and to find our own youth and happiness again in the joy of somebody else’s happiness.

“On Christmas Day, I always think human pride, just kind of breaks down, and we have to fall back on the anthems and carols and the old songs and the only happy people are those who become as little children and so enter into the Kingdom of God. “So may I suggest that if possible, we should let our religion run away with us for a time. The peril of this critical age, is that we are always endeavouring to explain our faith and just revelling in it. Religion is never at its best when we are defending it and its position; it is only at its best when we are going out to attack and for one moment ceases to think of our churches. On Christmas Day, when you hear the bells pealing, inviting the people to worship, you will

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH probably remember for once that there is courage and there is bravery. For them they are telling in song and in sermon the Christian story. The miracle of the stable inn, was worth more to mankind in all its Divine simplicity, than all the pomp and splendour of the rulers of the world.

“So, good people, be young again, if you can, at this season of good will and joy, and see if you can help someone less fortunate to be happy. Pull your crackers and wear your paper caps and never mind looking foolish for once; it is good for all of us. Forget your dignity and your own middle age; forget you have ceased to be a child, but be tender in the presence of suffering humanity and do, if you can, ask that you may be allowed to sing as once perhaps you did sing “Glory to God in the Highest and on earth peace and goodwill to all men.”

“So shall romance shine back on you from the village inn at Bethlehem on you and yours, and in that inn lives the “Light and Hope of the World.”

“I heard the bells on Christmas Day, Their old familiar carols play, And wild and sweet, The words repeat Of peace on earth goodwill to men. And in despair I bound my head: There is no peace on earth! I said; For hate is strong, And mocks the song Of peace on earth goodwill to men. Then pealed the bell more loud and deep.

God is not dead! Nor doth He sleep. The wrong shall fail, The right prevail,

With peace on earth, goodwill to men.” J. MILBURN STEWART. DON’T GROW OLD. Don't grow old and dull in spirit. The best recipe for keeping young, is to keep your interest as keen and alert at fifty, sixty, seventy, and to the end of your life, as it is possible to keep it. Do not let life grow less and less, until you can neither be interested in, nor sympathetic with, nor sensitive to, the joys and sorrows of others. Keenness, zeal, enthusiasm—these are the yeast of life.

Simplicity, sincerity and common sense make a wonderful combination for usefulness, and can be attained by most honest seekers.

Of all beings in the universe, man has the greatest reason to sing his Maker’s praise, and yet he is the least engaged in this delightful service.