BIG BEN MINUTES

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume 35, Issue 5, 1 July 1944, Page 9

BIG BEN MINUTES

"Lift Up Yaw -Heart*"

(B^ the English writer, Claude Brown and given as a talk to the N.Z. Correspondence School by the headmaster, Dr A. G. Butchers.) "An old man by the fireside _ % puts -down his evening paper, and taking a tattered card from his pocket, reads it silently. A soldier, facing the night's action, says "What's the time, Mate?" and .gets the answer, "A minute to go," . . . and yet it isn't zero hour. In a_city hotel men put down their .glasses. Quiet Sails. A few stand up. In an enemy-occupied country, folk who would not dare to use a

rradio if they had it, check their watches and exchange understand . glances. At a London Service Club people go unobstrusively to the quiet room . and wait. " , A Pilot says over the "inter-coni" "Nine o'clock, Boys" ... and on a Destroyer all the loudspeakers " broadcast the chiming of Big Ben. These are some of the countless thousands, throughout the Empire, m North and South America, m oppressed countries and remote places, a#d along the battle-fronts of the world who— with you— pause m

silence when Big Ben strikes Nine. This is the Silent Vor Dedicated Minute, the time before the Nine o'clock news during which Big Ben strikes the hour. V . Why "do we do this? Or, first— what do we do? A beam of thought goes* to our friends— that reaching-out of heart that we sometimes call good wishes —that which lies behind the laughing toast at a pal's wedding— that which comes to us m a friend's handshake at a dark moment. Whatever we think of thought transference, we each have known the time when the vivid thoughts of an absent friend have brought us help. But for those of us who have a faltering trust m God . . when we can think of Him as "well . . . it is as though He touches our frail wishes with His Light and Life and Power, and THAT comes to our friends. This is one form of prayer. We need not ask why we do this — be it strong thought or simple prayer — for those we know . . . but as we pause our hearts reach out to countless more whom we don't know, and whose needs we only guess . . . and then we see the' dark tangle of the whole wide world. Here is no target for good^vishes. We want to know the Way — the Way to sanity and peace. We know what we wejre meant to mean when we were taught to say "Thy will be done." This Observance has its roots m the words of a man who m 1917, opened his heart to a friend. This was m the hills around Jerusalem, on the eve of a battle which he knew he wouldn't survive. Those who are not Christians, but reach out to GOD m other ways, will forgive me if I say that for those many of us who are, this is a straight reminder. It was on a hill outside Jesusalem that THE Man — whom we adore — showed through fierce agony, what perfect self-surrender is, and lit the way to eternal Victory and Peace. So don't forget to use the Big Ben Minute. You have an appointment not only with your friends, but with millions more, including our lads who are prisoners. They have no radio, but they are reminding you of -- the moment for meeting, when they write home, as they often do- — "Give my love to Big Ben." ' \.[ Nine o'clock then! When Big Ben chimes and strikes-— lift up your hearts!" ■ " „'■ . '■