SUNDAY COLUMN

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 107, 18 February 1950, Page 3

SUNDAY COLUMN

CALLING MEN BACK TO THE OLD PATHS (Co^PrVr9?m^ BY TRE ASHBURTON MINISTERS' ASSOCIATION). God’s man of old have kindled in me some of their flaming zeal for nghteousness, their scorn for meanness, pride, and worldliness, their jealousy for the living God; their fear of those who forgot God and live as if He were not, their courage in denouncing sin, and calling men back to uie old paths of righteousness. I stand in awe as I note their intrepidity, their forgetfulness of self in denouncing sin and facing tile contempt, the scorn, and then the wrath of princes, priests, and kings. Tradition tells us that Isgiah was finally thrust into a log and '"sawn asunder.”

They counted not their lives dear unto themselves. They were “moved by the Holy Ghost.” They wore surrendered men, selfless men, devoted as soldiers unto death, if needs be, that they might save the nation, and if not the nation, then a remnant who clung to the old paths, who would not bow the knee to Baal, who would not yield to the seductions of fashion and the spirit of the times. They -were men of the age but they lived and wrought mightily for the Ages, They were men of the times, and their message was meant for the times; but it had a timeless value because they lived in God and wrought for God and spoke only “as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” They were different men by nature. They shrank from the prophetic office: They did not seek it. It was thrust upon them. God called them and they went forward under divine constraint.

Listen to Jeremiah’s story of his call: “Then the Word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou earnest forth out of the womb I sunctified thee and ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.” But he shrank from the great task and the fearful responsibility and pleaded: “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak; for I am a child.” “Say not, I am a child,” said the Lord in reply, “for thou shalt go to all that I send thee,, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces; for I,am with thee to deliver thee.”

But God did not send him forth at his own charges and in his own strength. He never does -so send forth His prophets. ,He equips them. He humbles them until their is no conceit or strength left in them, like Daniel in Babylon and John on Patmos, and they cry like Isaiah, “Woe is me! For I am undone; beacuse I am a man of unplean lips . . . Mine eyes have seen the king the Lord of hosts,” and then He empowers them. As the Lord touched the lips of Isaiah with a living fire, so He touched Jeremiah: “The Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth. And the >Lord said unto me, Behold I have put My words in thy mouth.” That was equipment for his great and dangerous office. And under God it is ours also. Then the vastness of this man’s mission was unfolded to him: “See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms”—this lad, who never left the land of his birth, except when dragged down to Egypt against his prophetic protest! “Set over nations and kingdoms, to root out” the rank growth of evil, “to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down,” every high and vicious thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God: “To build and to plant.” “Thou therefore gird up thy loins

. . . and speak unto them all that I command thee. Be not dismayed at their faces lest I confound thee., before them.” 'lt is a fearful thing to shrink in fear from the face of man and fall before the frown of God, but that was the alternative set before this young prophet. Speak boldly and feel the strength of the everlasting arms girding you about. Slink away from the face of man and be confounded by the Almighty! It was not a joyous, rose strewn path the prophets trod. It was perilous, lonely, blood-stained, ambushed by malignant foes, by the entrenched monopolies of vested interests, confronted by -established custom and the unquestioned practice of kings and princes, priests and people. He was, to set himself in opposition to the nation and the nations. Oh, the loneliness of it! The danger! The thankless task! “For, behold, I have made thee this day a defended city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, and against the people of the land. And they shall light against thee.”

What a spectacle —. a lone rnan ~ against the world! “And they shall f fight against thee; but they shall not I prevail against thee; for X am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee.”

Ah, I see! He is not alone. They that be with him and more than all that are against him. “If God be for us, who can be against us?” “The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and He delivereth them.” Hallelujah! The prophets were lone diffident men, but they had access to God; the key to secret resources of exhaustless power and wisdom and grace was given them. They were equipped with God—God the Holy Ghost. He moved them and they spoke, and their message reverberates through all time, judges all men and nations, and illuminates history. Their value to me ever since God' called me has appeared to consist not on the light they throw upon generations yet unborn, but the light they throw upon my own generation. I want help to interpret my own times. It is because their messages came from God and are timeless that they are so timely. Their prophecies are meant to enable me to understand the present, to recognise my own duty, to interpret the will and ways of God to the men of my generation, and to guide the steps of the youth of the next generation, to fiitncss for their solemn, unknown tasks. (Samuel Logan Brengle).