All Saints'Day.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume XVII, Issue 5, 1 November 1926, Page 6

All Saints'Day.

(From the " Church Standard"). The Commemoration of All Saints' is very ancient. St. Chrysostom m the 4th Century tells us that the Eastern Church observed a day m their honor, probably It was Trinity Sunday. Pope Boniface IV. m A.D. 610, dedicated the ancient Pantheon m Rome, as a Christian Church, to the Blessed Virgin and All Saints. From this the Festival arose m the West, and became general by a decree of Pope Gregory IV; m AD/ 834. After the Festivals of Our Lord's .birth, death, resurrection, and ascension, no Festival is more inspiring. Our P. B. Collect for the day marks its significance: — Almighty God Who hast knit together thine elect m one communion and fellowship, m the mystical < body of Thy Son Christ our Lord. This is the spritual nexus of the Church. In these days of freedom and religious liberty it is good for us to keep alive the memory of those holy men and women, of other times and races, who have endured hardships for the Faith, and have left us their outstanding witness that the faith m Jesus Christ as the Son of God, risen from the dead, and reigning m Heaven, the hope of salvation and immortality through Him, was more to them than the praise of men, or worldly goods or life itself, and that no hatred or torture or scorn could overcome their immovable determination. Had not men and women m thousands thus firmly stood to their faith m the ages of persecution, the Christian Faith, humanly speaking, could not have survived to bless us to-day. We do well to have days of remembrance for those specially held m honor from early times. The Holy Apostles, the Fathers, the early saints of the Eastern and Western Church also for our own early British saints. But All Saints' Day bids us honor and thank God for the great cloud of witnesses of every age and clime. The saints of the Old Dispensation "of whom the world was not worthy," the unnamed thousands of men, women, and even children, who suffered tortures and; miseries ill the prisons and arenas of the Roman world. Also the known and unknown men and women of later ages down to our own time, who have lived holy lives, and suffered and died, bravely fqr the Faith m many lands, For the march to join the great cloud of witnesses has always been going on, and m our day many of , various races from Africa, ; China, the Pacific Islands and other lands have joined that goodly multitude beyond the veil — can we not

imagine their receiving a welcome m the spirit 'world, answering to John Bunyan's idea m the Pilgrim's Pro* gressf . And all the trumpets sounded.; when they reached the other side. We also commemorate a perhaps greater number who have led obscure and quiet lives m peaceful places and times, and left no record, but have worshipped God and kept the faith and served their generation m ways known to God only. When we think of the heresies and divisions and scan, dais which make Church history often such sad reading, it is gooduto remenv ber this silent multitude who, m every age and every Christian land hay« been handing on the Faith to people like themselves. v And our Communion and fellowship is not only with the saints departed. It should be also with the saints on earth now. The call to Re-union of all who name the name of Jesus. Christ is a movement to make the Communion of Saints a visible reality* There are no doubt many difficulties yet to solve, and barriers to be broken through, but the growing ideal of fellowship between all Christians m Christ our Lord must be a powerful influence m the direction of Union. Both Collect and Epistle for All Saints' Day point onward to the greatest of all Festivals. But, 10, there breaks a yet more glorious day. when that great multitude, from' all d.own the ages, stands before the 'Throne and ascribes ' ' Salvation to our God and to the Lamb." ' '> Our faith needs stimulating by an enlarged spiritual imagination. Just as we are unable to grasp the infinity of space and time, or the size, distance, and multitude of the stars; yet the little we can know opens our minds to the reality of the far greater part beyond our capacity. So also the wonders of Faith must ever be beyond ouii powers. But earnest thought will help us to realise that m the great event to which the whole creation moves, Gdd has prepared for that great multitude 1 , and for those who love Him, such blessings and glories as eye hath not seen nor ear heard, "nor the heart of man 'conceived. '^ ; ! f