Thoughtful Moments

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 61, 5 June 1942, Page 2

Thoughtful Moments

(Supplied by Hie WhakaUme Mimst ers' Association).

THE CHRIST OF GOD

Ho who is the Bread of Life began His ministry hungering. lie who is the Water of Life ended His minis try thirsting. He Avas weary, and yet He is our Rest. He paid tribute, yet He is the King. He was called a devil, and cast out dcA'ils. He is sold for thirty pieces of silver, and redeems the Avorld. He is led as a lamb to the slaughter, and is the Good Shepherd. He dies, and gives His life, and by dying destroys death. I MET GOD IN THE MORNING I 4et God in the morning When the day "was at its; best, And His presence came like sunrise— Like a glory in my breast. All day long His presence lingered, All day long He stayed Avith me, And Ave sailed in perfect calmness. Over every' troubled sea. Other ships Avere bloAvn and. battered Other ships were sore- distressed, And the Avind that seemed to blow them Brought to us both peace and rest. Then I thought of oilier mornings, With, a deep remorse of mind, When I, too, had loosed the moorings With His Presence left behind. So I think I know the secret, Learned by many a troubled way. I must meet God in the mornifig, I.f I Availt Him through the day. "I WAS AFRAID" These Avords Avere uttered, not in an air raid in 1942, but in the Garden of Eden. When sin entered, fear entered. Someone has said, "No emotion that stirs the human heart is more disastrous than fear. In its intense forms, it often paralyses the brain, stuns the entire body, and produces the cold SAveat of terror. Less seA~ere, in the form of a hundred Avorries, it often helps to streak the hair Avith grey, and' to dig furroAvs into human countenances. Fear besets its victims Avith shadowy phobias; it rides in hysterical flights; it sucks joy out of life, and chokes of! all peace of mind. Its victims arc often afraid of life and: afraid of death until, caught in the riptides of Hooding fright, they frequently seek the cowardly suicide's exit in the slow suffocation of a closed garage or in the spatter of blood, from a high building." Because of the universality of fear,

OUR SUNDAY MESSAGE

the exhoration, "Fear not" constantly addressed by God to (earridden humanity. And when lie speaks the word, it is. a Avord ( power, Let us rest on this assurance, "Fear thou not, for I am will's thee ... I will help thee-" •"What's tin? jiood of you- religion if it cannot make you smile, What's; the got/.I of being pious if you're ghxuviy all the while, What's the good of a religion that will never help you be V joyous happy creature full of love and. sympathy? What's the good of your profession as a follower of the Lerd, If you're not made sweeter, better, and your life with His accord; What's the good you're being a Christian if none are helped thereby; Just as well be born a heathen, and a heathen live and die." WHY PRAY WHEN YOU CAN WORRY ? I had chatted pleasantly Avith Mrs Rhoda Hinkey, a retired, widowed missionary to China, and was about to leave her tidy apartment Avhen my eyes fell upon a little motto pinned to the lace curtain. That was a rather unusual place for a motto, but even more unusual Avas the message of this one: "Why Pray, When You Can Worry?"' I read it again to be sure I had it straight. Yes, that was it. Heterodox, but oh, so human, this bit of philosophy! The very heresy of the thing made it impressive and heart-searching. Here was a piece of paste-hoard that dared to declare the actual attitude of many a Chris- , tian Avho would blush to confess it. But the shock of coming "face to face with my OAvn tendency to. dcuht and anxiety was tempered by the humour of that sarcastic question. 1 ehuckled aloud. Mrs Hinkey, observing the reason, laughed with me. Then she informed me that nearly every visitor to her home r-picd that little card as he was leaving, and that he Avenl away smiling, just as I was about to do. And I suppose each one' remembered it as distinctly as. I have, and was as deeply probed 1 as I. Next prayer meeting night I passed it on to the church. 1 have since used it in personal conversation with troubled Christians. Ami often, Avhcn I myself am tempted to fret and fear, I am caught by the nape of the ne?k and 1 shaken out of my prayerless. unbelief by the memory of that saucy, .shameless inquiry into my faith, "Why Pray, When You Can Worry?"