Thoughtful Moments.

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 05, Issue 53, 15 May 1942, Page 2

Thoughtful Moments.

A CANADIAN BETHEL By Lev. F. A. Robinson, Ph.D. "And lie called the name oT that ■ jlucre Lethe': but the name of that e.ity was called Luz at the first."— iSen. 28: ID. These words have been much in my mind the, past few days. They were suggested by the handclasp of a friend and a few words in relation to an experience of his. In a certain Canadian village is a cumble-down shack. It is an eyesore i.o most of the passers-<by, yet the man referred to looks upon it with strangely hallowed thoughts. Some years ago lie was an outcast from society. Sin had almost completed his ruin. Lonelj', penniless, hopeless, hard—lie had wandered about scarcely knowing or caring to knew a,ught but that he was hungry and despised. The day would probably end as many other days iiad ended' —the lockup—as a vagrant. That da}' one who <oved the Friend of sinners spoke, to this homeless wanderer, took him to his own dinner table and talked with him until sympathy loosened his tongue, and he told of his past —his sinslained past, and of his hopeless future. "Got!! I might as weL be dead." A hand was laid kindly on his shoulder, —and the touch of a friendly hand may be a divine thing. No erne, so far as he could remember, had ever touched, him, except the policeman. His name had never been spoken except in terms of disgust and contempt, and now a man was eal'ling him "My friend." • And then the same voice Avas tell-' fng him that God had a place for him, if he would only listen. "Yes! I am sure He can, and will, make a good man out of you: if you will give Him a chance. Ycu will come back with us for tea and stay overnight. You need a rest. Perhaps you'd like to take a wa'k and think things over a bit, and we can have a chat after tea." With confuted thoughts and yet with a glimmer of light on his beclouded mind he walked, he hardis

OUR SUNDAY MESSAGE (Supplied by the WTiakatana Ministers' Association).

knew whither. And now, he was looking at the tumble-down shack. Scarcely knowing why lie entered, he crossed the rotting, sunken doorsill, for the door had long since disappeared. When he was sure no eye could see him, lie dropped on his knees and uttered a cry that only God could understand. "Tiie wind bloweth where it 1 istctli and tliou hearcst the sound thereof, but canst net tell ■whence it cometh or whither it goethi so is everyone that is born of the Spirit." And the delapidated building was no more the tumble-down shack, but Bethel, for therein God met him. Twice tiiis man has journeyed back over many miles to the place that means something more to him than it does to any other person. Like Jacob he awakened to a dilTerent world. Other people may call the place Luz —to him it will ever he Bethel. And like Jacob, too, he has his clays of fears and forebodings, but in the goodness of God lie is reminded of the place where lie had a very definite realisation of the Divine presence, and to him also has come a voice bidding him, "Arise, go to Bethel," and the place reminds him of the God who answered, him in the day of his distress and was with him in the way which he went. FULFILLING THE LAW The gentle Christ, with quiet mien Waits still outside the door Of erring human consciousness. And knocks, has knocked before. No matter how cast down the soul, Or body toved in sin, He waits to raise the fallen ones And give them peace within. Shall we not, then, attempt to rise And grasp His outstretched hand, And leave the ways of selfishness To let Him take command? So simple in His teaching guise, So freed from earthly flaw, A child can understand that love's Fulfilling of the Law.