Whitsunday.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume 35, Issue 4, 1 June 1944, Page 1

Whitsunday.

Acts 1, 8: "But ye shall receive power when the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be my witnesses bbth in Jerusalem, ■ and in all Judaea and Samaria:, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." i

One day a mother took her little, crippled son to an art gallery, and there they came upon a beautiful statue of Apollo. , The mother stood rapt in* admiration at -its beauty, until she suddenly heard her son sobbing. She looked down and" saw him gazing first, at that image of a perfect man and then at his own little shrivelled body, and crying, "Ah, I can never be like that." And if all that. Christ did was merely to set us a' perfect example then we would be like that crippled boy. Knowing only too well our own imperfection we would despair of ever being ' able to follow that example arid become worthy ; disciples: of * pur Lord. Yet there are many who do think like that and tell us that the life and teaching of Jesus Christ has indeed left us a wonderful ideal, but, of course, it is not pos-: sible lor us to live up to it in the workad'ay world. So they give /up' the attempt. But the message of Whitsunday is that it is possible to follow the example of our Saviour Christ and be made like unto Him. Whitsunday is one of the great festivals of the Church, but it does not seem to have the same popular appeal as do .Christmas and Easter. Everyone must be / conscious of -the appeal which the story of Bethlehem makes. That simple story of a Mother and her Baby born in a stable, and cradled in a manger, appeals even to those who are Christian only in name. • And the story of Good Friday and

Easter has power to set our hearts on fire with thankfulness and joy.Appeal to Every, Heart. The thought of Christ on the Cross has an appeal to every heart, and especially in times like these, when so many are willingly giving their lives that we may live,- it is a story that becomes more real.. Then it is with .hearts full of thankfulness that we . enter, into the joy of Easter, which brings a message answering the deepest longings of our heart— . the . longing to know that the sacrifice was not in vain, that death is not the end and that evil can be conquered. But when we come to Whitsunday the .appeal is different, and many seem to. be unmoved by it, though it is just as important for us as the events of Christmas and Easter. There are the disciples, to whom the risen Lord had appeared, gathered : together in the Upper Room. Their. Master had withdrawn Himself from their sight. -and ascended into Heaven. But before He left them He had promised that they would be "baptised with, the Holy Ghost? ' arid that they would receive power when - the Holy Ghost came upon them. So in faith they waited quietly, and on the first Whitsunday the promise was fulfilled arid "they were all' "filled with the Holy Spirit." It is a wonderful story, and yet to many seems rather . remote and unreal. I wonder if that is because

they f have never had any experience even remotely similar, or perhaps because they are" afraid of having" one. Afraid because such enthusiasm might upset the even tenor of their respectability. / It was certainly a tremendous ex-. perience that the Apostles had, so wonderful that they could only describe it in symbolic language by saying it was like a "rushing, mighty wind" and "cloven tongues as of fire." That means that when they were filled with the Holy Spirit it was like a. mighty gale rushing through them, sweeping away all the rubbish of their lives and carrying them forward irresistibly, and yet it brought' too the feeling of the warmth and light and power of fire. Mere knowledge of all our Lord did and taught •is not enough. The Apostles had seen with their own eyes and heard with their own ears all that Christ. did and said. But that in itself did not enable them to be his witnesses. Nor is even a personal devotion to Christ as our Master enough; The Apostles had that personal relationship in a way that none of us can ever hope to have, but even that did not give them the' power to follow Him. They had to wait uiitil the Holy Spirit came with power to dwell in their hearts to knit them in- a new and wonderful way with Christ their Master. So it is with' us. ' ,-' '