RELIGIOUS READING

Waipukurau Press, Volume XXVIII, Issue 31, 28 January 1933, Page 7

RELIGIOUS READING

FOR THE SABBATH DAY THE BIBLE ALONE I know it is sometimes thought presumptuous to speak of belonging to the same church to which Paul and Peter belonged. But I must be allowed to say that, if I could not belong to the same church to which they belonged, I would not belong to any. If I could not stand where the apostles stood. I would stand nowhere. Everyone admits that Paul belonged to the church of Christ. But to what denomination did he belong? Everyone knows that he did "not belong io any. Therefore there is such a thing as belonging to the church of Christ wTiTFout belongFng to any denomination; and in so doing, standing precisely where the apostles stood, and occupying the position of all the primitive Christians and thus presenting the only Scripture ground of Christian unity. The leaders of the Reformation saw very clearly that the church thus restored would enable all God’s people, who love truth more than party to unite on the ground on which the first Christians were united during the golden age of the church’s purity. The church as it was, without any human legislation, furnished the ground of Christian union then, and that alone can furnish a basis of Christian union now. Consequently, the union of all God’s people on the Bible as our only authority in religion was the ultimate subject to be accomplished by the restoration of the church. THE HONEST MAN Who is the honest man? He that doth, still and strongly, good pursue, To God, his neighbour, and himself most true; Whom neither force nor fawning can Unpin, or wrench from giving all their due. Whose honesty is not. So loose or easy, that a ruffling wind Can blow away, or glittering, look it blind; 'Who rides his sure and even trot. While the world now rides by, now lags behind. Who, when great trials come, Nor seeks nor shuns them; but doth calmly stay, Till he the thing and the’ example weigh. AU things being brought into a sum, What place or person calls for , he doth pay. Whom none can work or woo To use in anything a. trick or sleight; For above all things he abhors deceit; His words, and works, and fashion, too, All of a piece, and all are clear and straight. GEORGE HERBERT (1593—1633). NOTES IN. PASSING A writer in the “War Cry” says that, if we neglect the reading of the Bible, and fail to develop our minds in respect to religious knowledge, they will be left, in such a condition of ignorance concerning Divine truth as to render the Holy Spirit unable to help us. “A blank, unthoughtful mind is an effective barrier against spiritual development.”

“A merry heart,” says one of the proverbs (in the Bible), “doeth good like a medicine.” An eminent suF geon endorses the saying. “Commend me,” he says, to a good laugh. It will be a benefit to all who hear, and an important means of driving the “blues” away from a dwelling. Merriment is very catching and spreads in a remarkable manner, few being able to resist the contagion. A hearty laugh is the best of all music.”

Mr. J. Lewis May, in his introduction to “An English Treasury of Religious Prose” (Bodley Head), describes a religious man as “one who, amid the manifold occupations and distractions of the material world, re-

tains some consciousness, some perception, expressed or implied, constant or intermittent, of the eternity whence he has come, and whither, soon or late, he must return.”