Thoughtful Moments OUR SUNDAY MESSAGE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 10, 30 January 1942, Page 2

Thoughtful Moments OUR SUNDAY MESSAGE

IN WHATSOEVER STATECONTENT (Studies in Philippians 4) By George Henderson. IV.—Contentment: verse 11. "I have learned in whatever state I am, therewith to be content." The man who can make that statement.ill all sincerity, may be said to have solved the discords and to have found the final harmony. For the condition of heart which it implies, represents a stage in earthly happiness beyond which it is impossible to go. Socrates affirmed that 'Content' is natural wealth; Lord Bacon, that a contented mind is a continual feast; and one of the Elizabethan poets, that "There is a jewel which no Indian mine can buy, No chemic art can counterfeit; It makes men rich in greatest poverty, Makes water wine, turns wooden cups to gold, The homely whistle to sweet music's strain-: Seldom it comes, to few from heaven sent, That much in little—all in naught— Content." What the philosophers and poets eulogise so . highly must be well worth possessing; and, although I shall not follow their prescriptions for it, I propose to enquire how it may be obtained., No man who is a stranger to God can truthfully utter the Avords which head this article. He may possess the wealth of a Vanderbilt, the learning of a Newton, the fame of an Alexander, the eloquence of a ■Demosthenes; but any or all of these things will not satisfy the human heart. Disraeli, one of the most successful of men, declared that youth is a blunder, manhood a struggle, old age a regret. Barry says that 'there is always throughout Greek Literature, a haunting sense of melancholy, a sense of frustration and unfulfilment; and even LongfeMoAV, one of the most optimistic of our poets, confesses that

"Our pilgrimage begins in tears, And ends in bitter doubts and fears, Or dark despair; Midway so many toils: appear, 1 That he Avho lingers longest here, Knows most of care." I hasten to re-affirm that this is not the fault of the good things; of earth, but that it lies in the very nature of things. In the margin

(Supplied by the Whakatnna Ministers' Association)

of [lie revised version of Ecelesiastcs 3:11 we read that Cied has set eternity. in the hearts of men; and to seek satisfaction apart from Him Who has fashioned us thus, is a futile task. You might as soon expect that the lish that was meant for the freedom of tire seas, would be eontent in a little water vessel; that the eagle which was designed for the skies, would lie at home in a manmade cage; that the rabbit, in whose heart is the freedom of the veldt, would be satisfied, with the hutch which the children prepare for him. 11. Contentment and satisfaction can be found only in Christ. Our lives are ruled from within; and He meets the needs of the inner life* and (its the requirements' of our complex personality, as the sun meets the needs of the flower, as the key fits the wards of the intricate lock. To begin with: (a) His atonement satisfies the claims of conscience. "There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good and sinncth not," Ecclesiastes 7.20; and everywhere in varying degrees men have the consciousness of that fact. You find it reflected in the songs of ancient Grecce, in the Vedas of India, and in the Koran of the Mohammedans, as distinctly as in the Old. and New Testaments. John Morley speaks of "that horrid burden and impediment upon the soul which the churches call sin; and which, by whatever name you may call it, is a real catastrophe in the nature of man." Precisely here, however, comes to us the gospel of Christ with healing in its wings.. To the man bowed down with the sense of guilt, it says: "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they lie red like crimson, they shall be as wool." "The blood

of Jesus Christ God's son cleanseth us from all sin" (Isaiah 1:18; 11.I 1 . John 1:7). The redemptive work which was cfleeted on Calvary will form the theme of a song that shall engage the lips of countless multitudes through .endless years; and in vast numbers of contrite but profoundly grateful hearts that song has already begun.

"Thou centre of all time and space. Thou throne of law, thou fount of grace, Thou meeting point of earth and heaven, Thou lightning rod, 'neath skies Avrath-riven, Thou altar where Christ died for me My soul salutes thee—Calvary."