Everyman’s Hut

Camp News, Volume 3, Issue 112, 6 March 1942, Page 8

Everyman’s Hut

‘Except it die’ — soon the tale is told •- The corn of what must perish in the mould, Ere harvest treasure from the field is borne, U Or song of reapers greet the smiling morn. And life is like a seen in April sown, Our pleasures like the blossoms swiftly blown; Except the vision fade it cannot stay, Unless it fall, it cannot win the day. No heaven-born seraph sounds the glad refrain, Unless we strike the deeper notes of pain, z Unless we brave the blast of cares unkind, Unless we die to self, the soul is blind. Oh! bleeding feet that find Life’s royal road; Oh! broken strains that reach the heart of God; Oh! dying Love that rent the vail apart; Dear wounded hands that bind the broken heart. Life’s grand success appears in lowly guise, Thorns on His brow but triumph in His eyes; To —‘The Life’— Keys of Death belong; The golden Silence, and the world x of Song. “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit,” so spake the Lord Jesus when the Gentiles had come desiring to see Him. In this wise did He foretell His own atoning death, the voluntary laying down of life by the Son of God; the very source of life —so that through that death, eternal life might be brought to many millions who otherwise were condemned to eternal death. As the seasons roll round, we see this principle operating in nature on all hands. Not only does the plant spring from the seed buried out of sight in the soil, but as plants and vegetation decay they give back to

the soil those life supporting elements, ' for sustaining and strengthening the new life that has sprung up from the seed. A hymn writer has thus written of,, the death of Christ—“ln weakness like defeat, He won the meed and crown; Trod all His foes beneath His feet By being trodden down. He hell in hell laid low, Made sin, He sin o’erthrew, Bowed to the grave, destroyed it so, And death by dying slew.’ The great secret of Christianity is that Christ is not only the Giver of life, but He is also the sustainer of life. He has made provision all along the Christian pathway. He saves and He keeps.