SAID THE PADRE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 123, 27 May 1933, Page 16

SAID THE PADRE

TO ONE WITHOUT A GOAL. (H.G.G.) “(Drive fast,” cried a man late for a meeting, as he jumped into a Dublin cab The Irish jehu went like the wind. After they had jolted up and down several streets the passenger asked: “Do you know where we are going l ?” ”No,” came the reply, “but I’m driving fast!” “Speed without direction, energylacking purpose, feverish activity minus any goal, those,” said the padre, “arc some of the tragedies typical of modern life. So much of our strenuous living is as ineffective as the Irishman who said he aimed at nothing and missed it. The secret of all really worth-while living and working is found in having a definite purpose and co-ordinating all things to its fulfilment. This means a simplifying of the issues by a singleness of aim. Jesus Christ is the sublime example of such a life—“l do always the things that are well-pleasing to my Father.” Thus He had freedom from inward conflict, the peace of single-mindedness and poise, the tranquillity of a character at one with itself. We can have the same by cultivating ‘ the simplicity that is toward Christ.’ Life will be simplified and motivated by having a goal.” To the Parent. “Posterity is the future generation coming behind’us, ” wrote a bright youth in a matriculation paper. “That may have a family likeness to the Irish ’bull,” said the padre, “nevertheless it contains a profound truth. A man was climbing a steep crag and was startled to hear the voice of his little son from below saying, “Watch your steps, dad, I’m following you.” Naturally, extreme care was exercised over the remainder of the climb. But that was not all; the words kept ringing on in his ears and made him face up to the ways of his daily life. He had always se>en to it that his children attended Sunday School and fulfilled what he thought to be the desirable things for the development of character. Now he had to realise that example is greater than precept The word of Christ became mingled with the warning from his boy: “Whoso shall cause one of these little ones which believe in Me to stumble, it is profitable for him that a great millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be sunk in the depths of the sea.” To Home Builders. “Home life is fast dying out,” said a close observer recently, albeit with sorrow. “We are committing racial suicide,” said the padre, “if that be true. Gibbon, in his masterpiece, makes it quite clear that the decline of the Roman Empire began in the social degradation of the people. Before the imperial forces were driven back and put to rout on the field of battle, the scantitiei of home-life had been violated. The defeat began on the hearthstones of the people. Is it well with your home and mine? What are we doing to ensure those sacred, holy factors in earth’s trinity of father, mother and child which bind up the unity of the home? What will you put in the place of the home? The’greatest home lover wa- Jesus, who, for 30 years lived as son and brother in the home of Mary. He was ever among them in the home as one who serves. Are we so busy serving in the world that we have no time to serve at home? Do we diligently cultivate what someone has happily called the art of living together? “Is he a Christian?’’ “I don’t know,” was the answer, “I have never seen him at home.” Is ours a religion that will stand that test?” * To the Scoffer. “Clergymen’s sons usually turn out badly,” according to the common sneer. “The fact is quite the reverse,” said the padre. “Bishop Wclldon searched through 66 volumes of the Dictionary of National Biography, going back to the Reformation. Marking only the names of the children of clergymen whr had done something really worth a place in English history, and paying no attention to a large number of others of less importance, he found 1,270 children of clergymen, of lawyers 510, of doctors 350. “The children of the clergy who have served the State with distinction since the Reformation have exceeded by more than 400 the similarly distinguished children of the legal and medical profession put together, whether since the Reformation or before it.’ He goes on to say that English literature would be robbed of half its glory if the sons and daughters of clergymen were abstracted from it. I mention this to show the relation of a pure, religious atmosphere in the home to the growth and development of that typo of character which is the saving salt of a nation.” To Excusers of Themselves. “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge,’’ runs a favourite proverb of Israel. “Heredity is still the excuse put forward by many for certain lapses from moral rectitude,” said the Padre. “I had the pr ;verb hurled at me recently by one who had let slip. My reply was twofold. First, I read the eighteenth of Ezekiel, whore the proverb is definitely ruled out of court and the moral responsibility of the individual is trenchantly dealt with. Then I gave an instance of an evil taint being turned into a virtue. ‘Criminal instincts!’ General William Booth once exclaimed, ‘why we have all got them. I have got them. My father was a grab, a got. He had been bred in poverty. He determined to grow rich; and he did. He grow very rich because ho lived without God anti simply worked for money; and when he lost it all his heart simply broke, with it, and he died miserably. 1 have inherited the grab from him. I want to get. I am always wanting to get.’ By the mercy of God and the grace abounding in Christ, William Booth converted his woeful heritage into a glorious grab and get for the souls of men and women. ”