For the Sabbath

Waikato Times, Volume 97, Issue 15272, 23 June 1923, Page 12 (Supplement)

For the Sabbath

“ J SERVE!” .. “I serve I" And though I do no more than keep the road, And here and there help one to bear his load, — "I serve!” “I serve I” As he once served In lowliest estate, I seek no more than Him to emulate, “I serve 1” “I serve!” And while my best to His concern I give, No higher honour mine, the while I live. “I serve 1" “I servo 1" And when, my little service done, I die, On hope of greater service I rely. "I serve 1” —John Oxenham. THE PASSIVE VIRTUES. MORAL VIGOUR. Though we have learnt to associate religions and morality we must be careful to observe that religion is not exhausted in this union. It neither begins nor ends .withour duty to our fellow-men. Religion in so far as it is true and pure has a Divine origin, and must be directed to its Author. It can guide men'on earth only In so far as its light shines.from Heaven. We demand that religion shall be practical. By this we mean that it must offer us guidance in the , cares and trials of our daily work, disciplining our fears and passions to righteousness, and comforting us in suffering or distress. .Its fruit is the fruit of good living. But we may not forget- that religion must have its Godward side. It comes from above, and must go out to Him, who is its source, its centre, and its completion. In a word religion enables us to live by faith ih the unseen. For this it needs faith, the power of withdrawal from the claims of the world, the recognition of the presence of the Allpure, the All-merciful, the Almighty. Prav’cr, meditation, the deliberate response of the will of man to the allloving will of God is religion’s very life. We of the Western world do not easily recognise this clement in religion. The Anglo-Saxon race finds it specially difficult, but this does not absolve us from submission to the inherent claims of the Spiritual life. We arc hidden to set our affections on things above. Our life is to be hidden with Christ in God. A whole world of interests and activities must engage our wills and minds, though what they learn may ruti counter to our success or comfort in this temporal life. It is difficult to reconcile the demands of faith and the claims of the world. Some would appear to have come to the conclusion it is impossible, and since the claims of tills workl are held to be both insistent and immediate they abandon .what after all seems less urgent and powerful, and sometimes, indeed, altogether uncertain. On its Godward side Christianity accentuates certain qualities and principles which even the most enlightened morals of society cannot correlate with its ideals. Christian ideals seem to be inconsistent not merely with success but even with self-respect. - They raise criticism and sometimes excite aversion on tho ground that they mar virility and hinder self-development. We call them passive virtues such as humility, meekness forgiveness, self-sacrifice, and the rest. They are strange to the world's notion of a worthy life, and do not come within the scope of its morality. They are condemned, or at any rate avoided, as robbing men'of the vigour necessary to meet the stress of the conflict in which they must needs lake their part. In this war there is no quarter given to the weak, and ! the passive virtues of Christianity' seem to be not only essentially servile, but ineffective. But wo must be sure that we are using the true, scales of moral values and taking the widest views of human life. Christianity certainly does nothing to discourage manliness. Indeed, it confers on those who accept it added vigour. In gives power to men. As we look at it over the wide spaces of history we find that always when its standards ai'e loyally accepted it becomes dominant and victorious. It has conquered evils which appeared to be invincible. Its most faithful exponents have exercised a masterful influence on society, and what the world has judged to be weakness has proved to be strength ever waxing in its own inherent power. Even while men were it as other worldly it proved to be the most vigorous force in this world. The New Testament era had not concluded before the chief exponent of the passive virtues, th« Apostle of Love, could declare: “ This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.”

It is the paradox of Christianity that out of weakness men have been made strong. “Give me twelve men,” cried Ignatius Loyola, “who are wholly surrendered to God, and I will convert the world with them. Very few men understand what God could do with them if they would yield themselves entirely to Him.” Here is the secret of true power. Passive virtues are the result of man’s recognition of God, the claims Ho has over them, the love He lias shown to them, the duties to which He calls them. They arc not the virtues of the market place, the senate, or the battlefield. They are mightier, Human society, though it knows how to appreciate fidelity and courage and instils in men many virtues of high dignity, cannot confer these graces even when it must needs acknowledge their supremacy. They arc gained only as men lift up their heads and minds beyond the levels of self-interesl or social prosperity and ascend the Mount of Vision. In God’s Presence they learn the truth about the world, and especially about themselves, and that knowledge gives them power.

This conception of the moral order of the world and man’s relation to it as rooted in the nature of God vindicates the spiritual factor in human life. And when men see the power of such virtues of the spiritual life in the person of Christ they can no longer esteem I hem as anything but the most congruous to human wellbeing both for the individual and the community. Only as they arc attained can man’s character be complete and his relation to God-and Mis fellow-hen become permanently harmonious.