The Sabbath

Waikato Times, Volume 116, Issue 19462, 29 December 1934, Page 14 (Supplement)

The Sabbath

GOD KEEP US.

“ Another year has dawned, wherein God bids us live eternal life, Shake loose the bonds of time and death, Step clear together from the iron chains of fate Into His own dominion, His own perfect home of freedom, light, and joy." “ 'God keep .us this day God give u's His spirit of beauty and truth That around us, wherever we go Loveliness, purity, joy may leap, into splendid being: God kindle in us, to His glory. The flame of His indwelling presence. That our life may shine as the stars." “ Father, we thank Thee to-day for the open air— ; For sunlight ablaze on forest and river, For merry companionship all the day long, For the wild free life of the open air. For flashing water to swim in, For thirst and hunger and wearied limbs, For deep sound sleep at the end of the day For these Thy gifts most goodly, We thank Thee, our Father." -—From prayers by J. S. Hoyland.

THE DAILY TEXT.

Sunday. .Road to True Riches,—Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness: and afl things 'shall he added unto you.—Matthew 6: 33, Monday. Free from Want. —-The Lord is my is hep ©l'd; I shall not want,—Psalm 23: 1. Tuesday (New Years Day). Safe Steps.—-The steps of a good m'an are ordered by the 'Loud; apd he deiighleth in his way.—Psalm 37: *23. Wednesday. Salvation. —-If tlilou shalt 'confess With thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and •shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised, him from the dead, thou Shalt be saved- —Romans 10: 9. Thursday. Love Defrauds Not.—'Owe no man anything, hut to love one another. Thou shalt nqt steal. Thou shalt not •covet.' Thop shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.—Romans 13: 8,9, Friday, Foliage 'and Fruit. —I am like a green (olive tree In the house of God: I trust •in -the mercy of God for -ever and ever. I will praise thee for ever, because thou hast 4ene it: and 1 Wifi •wait on thy name. —Bsalm 52: 8, 9. Saturday. - The Two Great Commandments. — Thou shalt love the loot'd thy God with pH thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy min'd.: and thy neighbour as (hysoir.-mLuke to: 27. ,

HIGH churchmanship. At a big public meeting in connection with the Congregational Union (England) meetings, Principal Whale preached wliqt must have seemed to some of his hearers to be new and startling doctrine. When lie quoted famous dictum, "Outside the Church there is no salvation," there was a significant silence which Mr. Wluile turned io account with a pleasant piece of luuuour. " That is greeted with silence here,” lie said, pointing an accusing finger at his audience, “because you have not been reading the lath volume of John Owen's works. You have not, been turning back lo Calvin to learn that he uses exactly the same language ns Cyprian, 'ile cannot have God for his father who has not the Church for his mother.’ ’’

THE NEW YEAR. THE USE OF THE PAST. FOR “THE MORROW" Another year has almost merged in the past, yet it does not thereupon cease to affect our -present and our •future. Indeed, the Influence Of the bygone years is immense, and to see that we use the past rightly Is among our most important and most frequently neglected- responsibilities- Out -indebtedness to the past is a lesson which needs to he strongly Impressed upon the rising generation to-day; from lack of such teaching the young Incline 'So take for granted what has been won for them by toll, suffering -and heroism. * ■indeed, all of us, when we looa back, may profitably pause to 'consider what our attitude to the past ■ought to 'be, 'One extreme of erpm Is to disdain everything that is not of to-day. Arrogance of that type, •merelv ludicrous in the regions ok art and literature, becomes most mischievous when It attempts to dorm pa e religion. For Christianity Is both a historical and a . living faith, and its life dwindles when R is severed from the history in which It is rooted, To

welcome new light on old truths is clearly wise, for the disciple must be fetrav a-s lily ha!pi;fe implies, a -learner. Yet he has no ' liberty ; ijo dishonour the witness of the saints, or 'to substitute a creed thought likely to attraqt ."the modern mind" for beliefs that have been verified by holy and humble men of heart thibugh long centimes. Loyalty to -a past which reaches back to the Founder of our .religion will make us chary olf accepting a Chrlsl'apity emptied of its supernatural content, and \ve shall be unlikely to exchange Ghristianfly itself for any of those fashionable quasi-religious ciiUs which |iave their day and cepse tq be. The Rood Old D^ya, At the opposite pole pf error arg they who, so far from scoppipg tfie past, arc enslaved by it. In their religious as in their soplal life they detest all hint qf Pfiapge. i! }pPPYfttif)o ,! is for them a floai term of reproach, and the rightness of a practice is decided by the length of its vqgpq. They resemble Crabbe's parsqn:=rr

Hlabit \v(th tflm id l tfie test qf truth' “It must bo Vfg-Rt—:l’ve done it frqip my yo'utli."

Without going to that length, many incline to Idealise the past, and the tendency increases with increasing age. How happy in retrospect seem the distant years, how stable and wellordered was the world, how strong and simple was religious faith, how really great were the men and women prominent in public life, how exoellently mannered the folk? The habit of belauding the past In comparison with the present Is a habit probably as old as the human race. Things were sq different in the good old days I Yet the phances are that, though unconsciously, we pervert the troth When we draw these mournful comparisons, arid oeriainiy the practice is not of a kind to strengthen qs for facing the future with good courage.

Nor, again, if in our individual fives we ar-p eppspioos 1 a P.aat largely composed of failures and blunders and defeats, should \ye allow fi to dishearten os,. Qf -tills Christ- spo.ke?.a word that lias been given an unhappy tin'll by qpr English Bible: "Be not anxious for tfie mqfi’pw . . . sufficient onto Hie day is 'the evil thereof." Rot tiio “is,” as tfie Unties of the Authorised Version reveal, fias no Place jp the original, and far pipre probably Hie adjective lias an imperative force. Then the saying loses what is almost a cynical meaning, and gains one of high encouragement. "Let the day’s evil—its sips and defects—belong to its own day alone. Do not let it trespass upon the morrow, making you unduly anxious, haunted by disheartening memories of past errors. Yesterday you failed; to-day you may try better, and succeed." At the end of a year, as at the end of a day, that is a thought to he welcomed-