The Sabbath

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 18022, 17 May 1930, Page 18 (Supplement)

The Sabbath

| CHURCH REUNION. THE' ARCHANGEL’S PARABLE. The Churchman, of New York prints the following parable with its obvious lesson:■— | “ What seems to be wrong with the Allied Armies of Righteousness down in that sector?” asked the Archangel Michael of his friend Gabriel, pointing to—well, heaven is so far away, arid the earth is so small, that it is difficult for a terrestrial observer to say just where he did point. “ They don’t seem to be advancing very rapidly. To a military man they seem to spend a great deal of time fussing over their uniforms and drilling, and very little in righting.” i “Well,” said Gabriel, “you must admit that they have pretty handsome uniforms, j&d they are so old, and their cut is so antiquated, that it takes a great deal of time to keep them-pol-ished, and patched, 1 and to study up : just how they are supposed to be worn. You know, of course, that each regiment wears a-unifor-m of a different colour, and that an old hiilitary tradition provides that no man of different : regiments shall march, eat, sleep, or : right together. It makes for regi- ! mental loyalty.”

j “ One little man is gesticulating as I if he were trying to stop it.” j “ That little mart,” explained Gabriel “is the colour of one of the most j ancient and honourable of the regiments. He glories in the fact that its ■ manual of arms has hardly been al- | tered in the past three hundred years. ! And he is certain that those who wear i his uniform can make a valid advance 1 against the enemy. Others may push on, but not legally or legitimately. Do ; you see that company of old, greybearded soldiers? They all carry blunderbusses an* flint-locks, but he lets them march with him because their uniforms are of the same pattern and colour.”

I "What does ‘valid’ mean?” inI quired Michael, who was never much of a metaphysician. i “ Don’t interrupt,” said Gabriel.

; “ Some of those officers from all sorts | of regiments have called a mass-meet-i mg, to confer for united attack, and ; strangely enough, one of the Ancient and Honourables has invited them to meet in. his dug-out, and has asked the colonel of a regiment not quite ’so ancient as his own to conduct the final Ritual of Allegiance just before the drive. But the little colonel—see!—is running back for the Book of Rules.” I “To be sure,” said Michael. “ The Rules from General Headquarters.” “ Not at all,” corrected Gabriel, “the rules of his regiment. See, he lifts an admonitory finger. They may confer in one of his dug-outs, but they dare not let any but one of his own officers conduct the Ritual of Allegiance.” ■ “ Won’t that delay the advance?” 1 “Very likely, Michael, but it will break no regimental rules.”

i ■. . BELIEF IN GOD. THE SUPREME ARGUMENT. “ I do not think we can ever rind a completely conclusive argument for the existence of God,” said Dr. W. R. | Matthews, Dean of King’s College, in

an address reported in the Brighton Herald. “ You cannot prove God as if He were a proposition in Euclid. We are very greatly concerned to know what this universe essentially is and what our place is in it. The number of hypotheses on the subject is limited. There is the agnostic, the materialistic, the Pantheistic and the theistic. Test the hypothesis of theism, and see whether it explains the facts of life better than any other one. The study of evolution certainly goes to support the theistic hypothesis. Man’s aesthetic consciousness, his response to truth and beauty and goodness.—in short, man’s moral consciousness—are the strongest arguments in favour of belief in God, Man in contemplating beauty, and the artist or musician in creating it, is as much in touch with reality as with what appear to us concrete things. Truth, goodness, and beauty are the three great values of which man is conscious. It seems incredible that they should be separated.' They must form some great unit of value. It is belief in God that substantiates and makes firm these three aspects of our lives as spiritual beings. Because God exists, there is a truth which I may come to know; a beauty which does not depend on my individual preference; goodness, not as I may see it, but which is the same for ever. That is the supreme argument for the belief in God.”