THE CHRISTIAN DIFFERENCE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 05, Issue 70, 26 June 1942, Page 2

THE CHRISTIAN DIFFERENCE

By Edward Priestley. Tolstoy lias said that he became a Christian because he noticed the fact that the Christians possessed a peace and a joy which was unknown to others. There is in existence somewhere also an early letter about the Christians Avho lived in the first century. It says that although they were reviled, they loved all men, they obeyed the established laws of their countries, and they surpassed them in their lives. This difference betAveen the world at its best and Christian character was a good argument for God. Christians Avcre proofs of God's presence. They seldom are to-day. Why is tin's so? Is it because Ave have alloAved the centuries to dim the freshness of Jesus Christ, a freshness the early Christians felt within a hundred years of His resurrection? And. yet Ave possess a New Testament that these people never knew. Surely if it is read it will keep Jesus Christ alive in the believing heart. Scottish Shrewedness Somewhere in Scotland during last century a candidate for a certain pulpit Avas preaching Avith a vieAV to being invited as the minister of the church in question. There was someone there whose desires were fixed upon the candidate they had heard the previous Sunday. The preacher gave out his text, "I am the light of the world.'" The member who Avanted the other candidate spoke his thought aloud. "Ye dinna look like it, then," he said. The world will find it said of the Christian. "Ye are the light of the worid.'" and finds it hard to believe. To-day there is often very little to ■differentiate between ourselves and the world. We act much like it on committees, on toAvn councils, and in a crisis and during an illness. The only difference they see is that Ave go to church and they don't. Enough Is Too Little The normal Christian ought to be a super-man. The least in the kingdom of Christianity is greater than the greatest in the kingdom of world goodness. He Avould' have us do more than the goodness of this world. He would have us practise the truth that sets men free and then preach Avhat Ave practise. Outlives may approximate to His and become full of divine surprises. He was above the Avorld, yet never aloof; beyond it and yet never remote, and modern disciples may be like that., There is little virtue in just -doing, what men expect of us, of rising up to the moral standards and conventions of society. These tilings belong to the measured mile of life, while Christianity seeks to draw our lives into the extra mile, into a

difference that Jcsns makes. It' wo would hcconu' artists, we must not only be men of artistic gifts, Ave must practise. IT we would become musicians, it is not sufficient that wc should be musical, avo must practise also. Now Avatch some children practise the piano. When they are compelled to practise one hour each day they practice that, and no more. Their glance goes from the piano to the clock and back from the clock to the piano, their eyes see a London name on the piano, and their minds are off at once on a trip to that city. The Extra Effort Imagine another child who. practises many hours more than is required, and then remembers that it is the extra that makes the musician. It is the extra that makes the Christian, the extra that makes the difference and lifts us above the average in the art of Christian conduct. The truth is that a life that is filled. Avith a sense of the presence* of Cod cannot be an average life. vVe are living in a avo rid that -demands the extra, and this is so in many Avays. "\V*c call for the specialist in medicine, in music, in psychology, and in the Christian Avay of life most of all. The disciples of Jesus became specialists in a Christian Avay of living in the Avoiid When Life is Carefree The mind of their Master had'in it no hatred, resentment, Avorry, fear, these mental attitudes that are playing havoc in people's lives today. When these are absent, there is a sense of freedom, happiness and lightsomeness about life despite its minor note of sadness. These things are not found in the measured mile. IT someone has done you a wrong, duty does not say that you must not carry a resentment in your heart against that person. It permits you to do so. Forgiveness belongs to the extras of life, it is beyond neeessitjr and compulsion, but it works miracles in a mind that has allowed itself to be loaded with resentments. This is the Christian way of life. Are Christians living it? W T e are so often very poor arguments for God. | "What Do Ye More . . .?" Men find heaven on earth in doing things for others. They remember the little extras about the home, paying the small pence of affection which makes such a difference to life, as Avell as paying the pounds and shillings. As Jcanie Deans, in "The Heart of Midlothian," says, when we come to our last moments here on earth it is not what we have done for ourselves but Avhat avc have done for others that avc think of most pleasantly. "What do ye more than others?'" A day Avill dawn Avhen you Avill 'hink of that most pleasantly.