Thoughtful Moments

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 163, 3 October 1941, Page 2

Thoughtful Moments

(Supplied by the Whakat

ON PLAYING THE FOOL

By Dr. George H. Morrison, Glasgow

"Then said Saul, I have sinned . .. . behold, I have played the fool." —I Sam. xxvi. 31.

While every man who sins is playing the fool, the converse is not always true. There are different ways of playing the fool, some harmless, others intrinsically noble. It is a charming thing to play the fool with children, and none but the humble and the wise can do it. You never find starchy people 011 their hands and knees, transmuted into elephants or horses. On the other hand, there was something very noble in the conduct of the great apostle when he became a fool for Christ's sake. What! renounce' his brilliant prospects to become a follower of the Nazarene? I take it there was not one of his relations who did not say, "Paul, you've played the fool." Very often the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, and the world's fool is the wise man of heaven. But if there be one thing written clearly in the Scriptures, it is that he who sins is playing the fool. That is the message of the book of Proverbs. That lay deep within the heart of Jesus (Luke scii. 20). And I think we have only to keep an open eye, and to "ask those who go by the way," to see how tragically that is true.

One mark, for instance, of a fool is that he pays too dear for what he gets. We Scots folk all appreciate that. If an article be worth a pound, and a man pay twenty shillings for it, we Scots, hold hiifi in regard as a very sensible and prudent person. But if an article be worth a pound and a man' pay five-and-twenty pounds for it, we shrug our shoulders and write him down a fool. To pay too dear for anything is one of the abiding marks of folly, and thai Is where every sinner plays the fool —he pays a thousand-fold too deas for what he gets. With a dulled intellect. or a corrupted body, or a shrunken heaven, or a blighted home he pays for the satisfaction of an hour. The sinner gets; let us always face that fact. "Verily I say unto you they have their reward." The thing in itself may be innocent or beautiful, if men but reach it by the ways of heaven. But the sinner pays such a terrific price for it that at the end of the day, when the reckoning is made, he has to cry with Saul, "I have played the fool."

mark of folly is a credulous and easy confidence. It is because the-world contains so many fools of that kind that Knaves and tricksters flourish. Some medicine is foisted on the public which analysis proves to be entirely worthless. Yet let it be flaunted in advertisement, and thousands of men and wo men buy that medicine. Some flashy company is floated, which from first to last is nothing but a swindle, and the amazing thing is what multitudes of people go and put their money in that company. We Scots folk say such are playing the fool; we are far too douce and canny to do that; but I say that every man does that who invests his capital in sin. Sin is the greatest imposture of a medicine that was ever placed upon the market. Sin.is the flashiest concern that ever lured an unsuspicious public. And yet what multitudes take sin's prospectus as if it were a gilt-edged security, though they have known since they were children that its promoter is the prince of lies. Sin promises liberty, and it gives slavery. It promises comradeship, and it brings solitude. It promises satisfaction and relief, and it ends in an empty heart and

ne Ministers' Association)

OUR SUNDAY MESSAGE

Inward bitterness. Sooner or later every man who sins, and who thinks cunningly to reach his ends by sinning, has to admit with Saul, "I have played the fool."

Another characteristic of the fool (s that he forgets the things that really matter. One sees that in the cleverest of criminals. A, man commits a crime, and, with infinite pains he hides the traces of it. But one thing he forgets,, and that one thing leads to his detection. And then that taan, in the solitude of prison, whether he be penitent or not, says to himself in bitterness of soul, "I've played the fool." That is what every sinnei tloes. He forgets, the very things that matter. He forgets the supremacy of conscience' and the awful reality of God. There is a story by an American writer, perhaps the finest that he ever wrote, [t is about a young fellow called Hastings Morley, and Hastings Morley was a scamp. He was perfectly dressed, entirely debonair, seemingly happy, without one twinge of conscience, though every day was foul with beastly things. And then one evening, about nine o'clock, he saw a girl waiting for u car. She was the picture of innocence and purity. Eight years before that they had been at school together. And Morley turned into a quiet street and, laying his head against a lamp post, said dully, "God, I wish that I could die." ['t is a fatal thing to forget conscience. The fool hath said in his heart there is no God. Be sure your sin will find you ouf, often in the hour when you seem safest. That 1 is why every man who sins with a high hand, and thinks to get the better of high heaven, sooner or later has to say with Saul, "I have played the fool."

FAMED GARRISON CHURCH " Among the good things a New Zealand Battalion will like to remember in the Middle East is the opportunity recently presented of holding the Sunday Church parade In a beautiful garrison church set in surroundings so picturesque, that it could easily have been a Church parade in a typical English village.

The unit concerned had recently arrived in the town from a wilderness where a new camp had been established, and where they lacked many of those amenities usually found in a camp well established. The battalion is really in barracks where the comfortable quarters are appreciated after t£>e rigours of a ented camp in which the barracks small town in which the barracks are situated is thickly wooded with a wide variety of trees which give a freshness fully appreciated only by those whose sole scenery has been sand and more sand.

The fine garrison Church, which has for some years served British regular troops of the Church of fingland, completes a pleasing picture. Built in stone, the church ia large and well ventilated, making the interior very 0001. Many of the seats have been donated by regular units of the British Army.

lit was only naturali that at the first opportunity the New Zealand battalion held the Anglican Church parade at the church, the service bejing conducted by a Ntew Zealand padre. On the same Sunday Catholic members of the Battalion attended mass in the garrison Catholic Clhurch and all soldiers present were given crucifixes sent to the Middle East by Cardinal Hinsley, Archbishop of Westminster. Appropriately the motto inscribed on the back of the crucifixes is "the pledge of Victory."