THE SABBATH.

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20464, 2 April 1938, Page 20 (Supplement)

THE SABBATH.

OUR FATHERS’ GOD We come unto our fathers* God; Their Rock is our salvation. The eternal arms, their dear abode We make our habitation; We bring Thee, Lord, the praise they brought; We seek Thee as Thy saints have sought In every generation. The fire diving their steps that led Still goeth bright before us; The heavenly shield around them spread Is still high holden o’er us; The grace those sinners that subdued. The strength those weaklings that renewed Doth vanquish, doth restore us. saints to come, take up the strain, The same sweet theme endeavour; Unbroken be the golden chain, Keep on the song for ever; Safe in the same dear dwelling place, Rich with the same eternal grace. Bless the same boundless Giver. —T. H. Gill. THE CHURCH THAT STANDS FIRM "If every church were filled every Sunday, crowds waiting to get in, services duplicated—if all men agreed that we were right and admired us for the wonderful work that we were doing—then we should have achieved what the world would call success. But would Jesus call it success?” ‘ What about the Broad and the Narrow Way?” asks the Rev. Frank Stone, M.C., M.A., in his Lenten volume “So They Crucified Him.” "What about taking heed when all men speak well of us? Few can stand success if any! The best men regard it as a snare. Certain it is that the Church could not survive such ‘success.’ was l u st such a ‘successful’ Jewish Church that was finished that day. It was highly organised, rich, dominant and unchallenged. It was served by a devoted priesthood, guided by able men. Crowds flocked to its centre of worship—many of them making that one devout pilgrimage in the whole course of their lives braving the perils of the sea and of robbers by land. It was a great Church! Even Rome respected it. "But Jesus created quite another kind of Church . . . That Church was derided, stamped upon, apparentlv often stamped out. With what result? That to-day, nineteen hundred years later, it is the greatest spiritual and moral force of the world!” Canon F. R. Barry, D. 5.0., in an Introduction says concerning Mr Stone s book, that it ‘‘can stand firmly on its own merits."

living faith VISION AND VENTURE Faith is the living- witness of the' soul to the fact that man is related I to a source of being outside himself. It looks outward to an object higher than man, passing behind the veil of t'mp and sense to a world of eternal realities. Faith would indignantly reject the suggestion that the object in which ipbelieves was a projection of its own fancies, and would assert that it owes its existence to the prior activity of that object upon the human spirit. Man is a religious being only because God has implanted in him the instinct for religion. Faith is response to a Divine initiative. Faith is not intellectual belief, or the acceptance of a system of doctrines, though any faith which seeks to give account of itself will And that it possesses a doctrinal basis. But faith starts as a movement of the soul before reason has developed its work of interpretation, and is an activity of the whole personality. Volition and emotion are integral elements of faith, and remain of fundamental importance through its whole life. We trust before we speculate; we venture beyond that which reason can demonstrate. The fact that Faith Goes Beyond Reason does not mean that it is irrational. On the contrary, reason comes in to sustain faith; but in the last resort faith lives by conviction, not by logic. Faith nurtures itself upon its own affirmations and by putting its beliefs to the test of experience. It is both vision and venture, and rests upon the tested certainty that things unseen are more real and permanent than things seen. If we analyse Christian faith we And that, in adidtion to being an affirmation of the mor£ enduring reality of things unseen, it interprets those unseen things in terms of certain large moral certainties. Christian faith implies belief in the reality and Anal triumph of moral good. Its dominant interest is ethical. For It the universe is an unintelligible enigma if there is nothing in ultimate reality to correspond to the moral struggles and spiritual aspirations of mankind. Faith ventures all upon the belief in a God of moral purpose, and seeks by creating ethical values to bring the Divine purpose nearer realisation. Faith may be most simply described as trust, and in the teaching of Christ this is the meaning which the term generally has. Our Lord bade men trust God and live the life of obedience. But Christian faith is concerned not only with our Lord’s teaching about God, but with Ills own relation to God. It sees in Him the supreme revelation of the character and purposes of God, and a proof on the Aeld of history that love and goodness are throned at the heart of ultimate reality. Moving through a career to a destiny of spirtual sovereignty the Person of*. Jesus Christ has become an object of faith. The faith and hope of the Christian are bound up with His triumph, \vhich is the ultimate ground of the disciple's assurance. But faith will evaporate unless its affirmations are translated into action. Between faith and works There Is No Final Opposition; the tree is known by its fruit. Christians prove''the reality of their faith by doing in daily life the things which

are pleasing to God. Faith, while It aspires to heaven, has its feet firmly planted on earth. As It expresses itself in action it grows stronger because experience brings confirmation of the truth of its beliefs. If faith is to remain living it must walk hand in hand with patience. It will meet yyith difficulties; it will enter upon periods of doubt and perplexity. The long view is needed, the vision which can divine that out of temporary eclipse may come a steadier illumination. Faith in Christ is trust in a crucified Lord of life. The Cross gives the Christian’s faith that quality ! which enables it to endure in days of [ storm and stress. tmintftitittr::—:;i;;;;;mttmtrotttm;