The Devotional Period

White Ribbon, Volume 29, Issue 1, 1 May 1957, Page 4

The Devotional Period

What Holiness Means in Daily Life Scripture Readings: II Timothy 3:1-5, 14-17. (By Mrs H. A. F. Wood, Timaru, given at Nelson Convention.) It means most utter faithfulness; most transparent truthfulness; most decided honesty; and every word we speak is perfectly true. We never flatter or slander anyone; we never try to convey a false impression; we are all through alike in business, religion, home-life. It means we set ourselves to bring every thought into harmony with the will of God. We do to others as we wish to be done by. It means purest chastity. “Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” Today a fog is descending on the peoples of the earth and it blurs the splendour of God’s smile upon us. As we look out on the world, chaotic conditions dim the horizon of the future. There are reasons for this. 1. The Atomic Age. Rumours of wars. Scientists are tampering with forces far beyond their realm of understanding. An uncertain insecurity enshrouds the atomic wonders. This promotes unrest. 2. Godlessness. The old-time solid foundation of Church life for the majority of families, has gone. Godliness is tolerated but not embraced. Family worship belongs to the odd minority and as a result, headstrong youth dashes into life down the delinquents’ road and once again bewilderment rears its head. 3. Music. Music, to a large extent, has reverted back to the heathen trend employed more often than not, as a means of working up the listeners into a state of uncontrolled hysteria Few people tolerate beautiful harmony and lilting music now-a-days and the mind becomes jangled into a state of tense activity. Loud blasts of animal noises are considered clever by admirers of such. But is it clever to pervert a soothing medium into a jarring nerve shatterer? God is not in it—His creation is beautiful and‘wholly beneficial to man-

kind. The balm of music lias lost its charm to a large extent.

. Art. Even this gift of expression is being per\erted and thrown down the surrealist drain. Henry Moore and the like, create the abstract. The art of reproducing the beauties of nature as they are, is being displaced'* by weird productions visualised by an artist who lias passed into some kind of coma, enabling hin* to ‘ 4 ieel” rather than “see’’ what he is modelling or painting. Again the fog of the unreal—odd—distorted and unnatural if coming to the fore, blunting the clear cut mentality that God has given us. SPEED, roars past us, and leaves us panting. Sex. The most advertised topic of today. It us in the eye as we open our papers. Chastity is becoming unknown; Magazines displaying half naked women are commonplace. Nudism and sex arc the main sales attraction. Sex appeal is a new acquisition to the character. Brazen articles on the subject of sex appear continually in widely publicised magazines. One, by a man, who advocated as a solution to all our sexual problems, free unrestrained sexual life, with few laws to hamper, what I would say the'descent to animalism. God created us superior to the beasts. These distorted and misleading approaches to the most sacred function of life are read by our yjung, who feed on these magazines, advertisements and books. Theatre. 1 hammer the theatre almost as hard as I do the liquor trade. “The world’s greatest critics applaud Ava Gardner in the BAREFOOT CONTESSA. One of the most fascinating films from the brilliant pen of jhe four-time-academy-award-winner. 44,(XX),000 people can’t be wrong. A film that’s got spectacle, sex, sin, sorrow, and sophistication. Ava, the world s most beautiful animal —hardly a mcment when some part of her delightful anatomy is not being hinted . tf at. Witnessing this portrayal of violence, sex, vulgarity, crime, the ine\itable triangle and broken marriages and things unlovely, has far too large a place in the lives of those who stand for the

maintaining of purity and sanctity of the home. If young people once acquire an avid desire to frequent the theatre, the deeper things of the Christian life are never experienced to any great degree. The stars portrayed so glamorously lead lives that are hardly worthy of a Christian’s patronage. And so, an atmosphere of violence, sin, glamour and noise, tends to unsettle the tranquility of the mind.

Drinking and Gambling. Films condone these as a must in social life. The inevitable tuition our young people get from habitual attendance at the theatre needs a very strong Christian education to combat the evil displayed, if we hope to pla.it their feet on the narrow way that leads to salvation and communion with the Almighty. The liquor trade, at the moment, is systematically producing propaganda which is having the effect of making the non-drinker a social outcast. What can we do in this confused and bemused state of affairs? When we think of all these irregularities and then consider the standard set for holiness in the daily life, we see a wide gap between. We all can, quietly and graciously, span that breach for those within our immediate \icinitv Read Matt. 5:13-16. "Ye are the salt of the earth; ... Ye are the light of the world . . . Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Cling to* our Bibles; have daily communion with our Saviour; practise holiness in the life; remain pure and unspotted from the world and then we find we are fighting fit and able to go forward in God’s strength to do His bidding, and the youth of today—our youth, have something solid behind them. Homes that are good and pure and reliable; a calm within the centre of today’s turmoils and storms; a retreat, where tranquility, peace, and God are found.