Thoughtful Moments

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 59, 29 May 1942, Page 2

Thoughtful Moments

OUR SUNDAY MESSAGE

(Supplied by ibe Whakatr BOOK OF BOOKS Two things go together Which no man can partDust upon the Bible, Drought Avithin the heart. Art thou parched and weary 9 Take thy Bible down. The dust on its covers has turned the edges brown But inside, ah! inside, there are living waters. Enough for all the sons of men; Yoa, for all the daughters. Comfort for ail sorrow, For given ess for each sin. Take de.vn the Bible—there's Bread and W ; ne within. Lyric and drama; war's: disgraceful story; Prophecy and epic, And true salvation's glory. Songs for your joyousncss. Balm for your grief. Tree of life within one BookRoot, fruit and leaf. My mother was in a London Nursing Home. She was making a very slow recovery frcm a painful accident. On my way to the Home I used to try to think of interesting or amusing things to tell her during ray afternoon visit. I was not always successful. The claim of the baldly smashed anklet was sometimes more poworful than the art and craft of my tongue! Then would all my news, yes, and even my jokes, fall flat. One morning following a particularly griun failure on my part as gloom-dispeller and pain-killer, a letter arrived which sent me helterskelter to the Nursing Home. Such an amusing letter. Mother would laugh when I read it to her. No need to wait until the afternoon. Laughter is a tonic. She should have a dose before lunch. Waving the latter at her I said: New, listen to this mother. I've had some, funny requests since [ began writing "The Fragrant Minute," but never one as amusing as thi's." I then proceeded, standing at the foot of the bed, to read a short note from the Rev. Albert Belden of Whitefield's Tabernacle, asking me to address his men's meeting on v certain Sunday afternoon. Having read it out with as much gusto as possible, 1 awaited the, burst of laughter from my mother. She would see the absurdity of Mr Belden's request. Not only had I never spoken in public, but this was to be a men's meeting—.think of it! I. speaking to several hundred men! Oh, how foolish! But mother Avasn't laughing. She Avas saying something, and the tone of her voice carried me back to childhood. She was no longer the sufferer to be petted and amused. She Avas She-Who-Must-Bct Obeyed.

ne Mimst ers' Association). "Of course you Avill go," I heard her say. "13 lit mother," I stuttered, "what on earth ca>n 1 talk about to a lot of men?" Without hesitation came, her reply: "Talk to them about the Bible. All your life you have been interested in the Bible. Well, then, give thorn your views." For what seemed like an hour, I suppose it was only a minute, I stared in horror at mother over the brass bed rail. Talk in public, to a lot of men, About the Bible! 1 simply couldn't do it! But I had been brought up in the Victorian era when daughters did not argue with their mothers. They obeyed . . . "Very well, mother," I whispered, "I'll write to Mr Belden, and tell him that you say I'm to come ' . . . Had Mr Belden not written that letter, or had .1 not taken it to amuse my mother, or had she not insisted that 1 respond to his request—this bock would never have been written. For that afternoon, at Whitefield's, when I spoke on 'The Human Interest in the Old Testament,' was the beginning of Sunday engagement's that have taken me all ever England, into North Wales, and even as far afield as Belfast. To date I have fulfilled: one. hundred and forty Sunday pulpit engagements,, and through them I have come in contact with a tremendous' lot of people, men and women, the old, the middle-aged, and the young. Many have spoken to me at the conclusion of the services. Many more have written to me. So great has been the interest evinced in these Bible talks, that I havei been encouraged to write this book. In it I have attempted to do with the pen what has always been my endeavour from the pulpit—to rekindle interest in the Bible as a living, pulsating literature whose spiritual value, far from diminishing,increases: with the years that separate us from 'those ancient Hebrews in search of God. Benefactor's of the human race! How gratefully and humbly do we thank them for their imperishable legacy. Sometimes it has been my tremendous) privilege not to re-kindle but actually to awaken interest in the. Bible. Never shall I forget one Sunday, -il had spolten in the afternoon on some of the most human passages in the; Old Testament. As. I was leaving the Church, a girl' in the twenties rushed up to me, clasped my hand, and; said: "I never knew there was all, that in the l Bible. I am going home to read it for myself, now!" . . . I gazed after her, tnrilledi and proud,—yes. proud and humbly grateful. (Copied from Women of the Bible by Wilhelmina Stitch) .