"WHO IS THIS JESUS"

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume XXI, Issue 2, 1 August 1930, Page 15

"WHO IS THIS JESUS"

This- is the title of a new book, by W. Kirkland, issued by Hodder and Stoughton, at 3s 6d. RevieAving it m "The Church News" the Editor quotes the following beautiful passages: "Who is this Jesuisp" the authoress asks. "The answer is the boldest hype thesis human imagination has ever con. ceived. It is time peihiaps for each Christian to declare the resurrection faith within him. For myself I believe Jesuis to be the Creator m human shape because of his inexpiiicaible power to create personality m His associates. Anyone who dares to make even the feeblest- attempt to .test- Jesus' philosophy of conduct feels an expansion within himself, a • mysterious sense of enfranchisement. . . Present anel future merge swiftly m these times. No one can predict what the effect may be of the present -widespread renaissance of Christian faith, but it would be perilous to deny that this mounting tide of feeling exists. It has always proved dangerous to neglect the torrential force of idealism. Statistics do not reveal spiritual revivals. There is a strange sense of expectation all over the earth to-day, like the hush before the dawn, palpitant with unseen, unguessed energies. Does the new interest m Jesus portend nothing? Everywhere people are asking to see Him, most unlikely people, some of them. . . . Never did the Christian Church and the individual Christian have such an opportunity a-s m this h°uv,

Materialism is no longer a novelty. It has endured long enough for its results both to public and private life to have become alarming. . . . The noblest priests of science are now standing before a veiled altar, saying, 'Behind this curtain of mystery there is Something 'beyond our examining.', , , , Here and there everywhere bewildered souls are asking for the God of ancient faith. . , The aoncepHJion of the friendship of God, 2000 years engrafted, is not easily torn from us, or safely. Where is the God-man, whom we have . so feebly followed, yet cannot do without? Anud all the noise and confusion and declared cruelty, there are voices not to be denied, and they are crying, 'Give us back Jesus.' It is the Church's supreme opportunity, for, after all, with all its human limitations, there is no other instrument to restore to groping humanity its divine and shining dream,"