Thoughtful Moments

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 05, Issue 25, 6 March 1942, Page 2

Thoughtful Moments

OUR SUNDAY MESSAGE

(Supplied by the Whakatnna Ministers' Association).

MOTHERS ALL Your boy is in the fray, Your heart is with your boy, You think of him all day, For he's your pride and joy. He never was so far, He never was so near; For when lie went from home, He then became more dear. You often breathe a prayer That God will bless the lad; He knows where "Somewhere" is: A thought that makes you glad. Maybe your sen has died Upon the battle-field. The sacred cause of right With his own blood he sealed. Your boy is still "Somewhere," We need not fix the spot; Suffice that God knows all, And He appoints our lot. VEILED EYES How oft the gates of death unlatch To let our dear ones through— On earth Ave see the darker side— Had we the vision true To catch the inner radiancy. The "bright land" hid from view! Then through the gloom and .bitter loss 0/ presences we crave. A ray of God's celestial light Wotfd pierce our souls and leave With sense cf Life's omnipotence, And hope beyond the grave. Lord, g've the child-like faith that sees Beyond earth's circling rim, The i:v,vr glories, love-enshrined To eyes earth-shadowed, dim; Then we shall know love ne'er is lost When Ave are true to Him. WHY I GO TO CHURCH An American Avoman, Avho had been living in Berlin, is thus quoted in "Reader's Digest":—"FeAA r of our generation AA'ere churchgoers. We prided ourselves on our emancipation from all dogma. We did not belieA-e in the Devil. But our fiA r e years in Ave re neA'cr free from a constant and peculiar strain. Slowly it dawned on me that

L was face to face Avilh I lie Devil and a i his works —the DeA'il at which f had always scoffed. Then, with despair in my hem t, I tin no'.; to B-jrlin's American church. The congregation Avas small, (he service unpretentious, yet Ave took it as a hungry man takes lood. the pastoi had no great gift of oratory, but he was young, he Avas earnest, and he gaA-e us a weapon against the powers of darkness closing in on all sides. Thus, in a hostile, sinister environment, I Avent back to the religion of my ancestors because life had lost all meaning Avithout it." SOME BATTLES AND SOME BABIES A century ago men Avcre following anxiously the march" of Napoleon, and Avaiting impatiently for news of the Avars. And a'l the Avhile, (n their own homes, babies avcvc being born. But avlio could think about babies? Everybody was thinking about battles. In one year, midway between Trafalgar and Waterloo, there stole into the work! a host of heroes. Gladstone Avas born in Liverpool, Tennyson at the Somersby Rectory, and OaA'er Wendell Hoimes in Massachusetts; and in the Aery same day |cf that same year, Charles Darwin was born ,at Shrewsbury, the Abraham Lincoln drew his first breath in old Kenluckj'. Music Avas enriched by the birth of Felix Mendelssohn at Hamburg. But nobody thought of these babies; everybody Avas thinking of battles. Yet which of the battles of 1809 mattered more than the babies of 1809? We fancy that God can only manage His Avorlcl Avith big armies, Avhen all the Avhile He is doing it with little babies. When a Avrong wants righting, or a truth wants prcaching, or a continent wants opening, God sends a baby into the Avorld to do it.—F. W. Boreham. The following lines Avere sent to me some years ago at a time of mental strain and difficulty, and the beauty and truth of them often changed Avhat might haA'c been a sense of frustraton to one of peace and gladness. I' am glad to share them Avith your readers. "An act of love that fails is just as much a part of divine life as an act of love that succeeds, for love is measured by its own fullness, nc ! t by its reception."