THE ONE OVERWHWLMING CONVICTION

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume 36, Issue 1, 1 April 1945, Page 15

THE ONE OVERWHWLMING CONVICTION

A short time ago I was present at an interesting luncheon. Cabinet Mm-, isters, well-known clergy, famous {Scientists, and business magnates had .gathered to do honour to. an man who had been given a peerage. The new peer was referred to as "a fine citizen, a loyal friend, a grea.t gentleman, and one who had striven ceaselessly to serve his fellow-men." All of which we knew to be true. ' Our guest made a brief and moving reply m which he said, "When I was a boy I sold newspapers m the street for 3s a week. On this great day m my life I want to acknowledge that all I am and all I have are due to a mother's faith and a mother's prayers. Her one overwhelming conviction was was that God had a work for me to do. And her belief became my faith." In much'of my reading I have been impressed by the power and influence of the one overwhelming conviction. Let me give one inspiring •example. In his autobiography, Up from Slavery, Booker T. Washington tells that when a lad of 12 he was employed for 14 hours a day m a <ioal-mine. One day he chanced to •overhear two men talking about a school where poor students could learn and at the same time pay their way. by working. There and then the boy resolved that he would go to that school, although he discovered it was 500 miles away and he realised he would have to walk the whole •distance. Brooker T. Washington rose to .greatness as an educationist and reformer over the almost insurmountable handicap of having been born a Triack slave. Wherein lay the secret. Here are his own words. "I was on fire constantly with the one ambition to fit myself to accomplish the most :good m the world." The danger with so many of us is that instead of concentrating on one supreme aim m life we dissipate our energies m so; many directions. It is so easy to be "a jack of all trades and master of none." The late Sir Landdn Ronald described one of his pupils as "wasted masterpiece" — "he can play seven instruments tolerably well but he would have been worldfamous if lie concentrated upon one." By contrast the Apostle Paul was a man of many gifts. He was keenly interested m athletics. , He knew all the rules of the game; the hard training involved, the deprivations that

Imust be ""'endured,' the prizes ' to be won. ■ Then he was. a military strategist. . He ; rauld talk? interestingly, convincingly about "the: kind of equipment required for victory. He would have been. at-home. with tile J Montgomery of his day. He had a great knowledge of the literature of Jthe times. He used to delight m setting off one reader against another. And what seems surprising, he understood the art of pugilism. On one occasion he said, "So fight I not as dne that beateth the air." But St. Paul brought all his interests to one end. Everything was made subservient to his consuming passion. "This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are. before, I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God m Christ Jesus." — '. . The Church of Christ to-day must have one overwhelming conviction. The revival of religion will surely come when we resolve that all our words and works, have but one objective— the bringing of men and women into direct contact with our Lord.