Thoughtful Moments

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 06, Issue 100, 20 August 1943, Page 2

Thoughtful Moments

(Supplied by the Wliakatone Ministers' Association}.

ARE YOU ON ACTIVE SERVICE ? The following article is taken from "The Australian Christian World." In the question column this question was asked: "Should J go to Church, if r< can't find a suitable Church and Minister?' 1 ' The Rev. C. 13. Cocket,. M.A. of the Pitt St. Congregational Church. Sydney, supplied the answer:— "You evidently feel that every Christian has a duty to the Church, and should attend divine service', for surely we go to Church as worshippers . . . as well as learners*, who seek inspiration and wisli to enjoy human fellowship. If you can't find a suitable Church of your own,, near at hand ... if you cannot locate a suitable Church of your own denomination near or far, there, you must seek in other denominations, hear or far. In your comments our Minister, I am wondering if you are choosing them as you would a cinema show . . . and expect your money's worth in amusement. Arc not Ministers supposed to be j r our co-workers with and comrades in Christ? Have you ever thought what help you could give to a Church and minister, instead of stressing what we want to get from a minister and Church? The heart grows rich by giving. Do j r ou act in this, fashion when catching a train or tram? . . . Do you refuse to travel; in a certain train if you don't like the look of the driver? Protestantism has over-stressed liberty until it can degenerate into licence, and freedom until it can evaporate into and do-as-you-like — spiritual, anarchy. Will you ask yourself whether you are indulging in nationalisation? Yon really don't want to go; you are growing lazy and apathetic, and want to cease your regular Christian duties and share of service, by leaving all the responsibilities to others. While imagining you can retain your Christian nature without any more nature. When a garden acts like that it is filled with weeds instead of flowers, and slowly reverts into a wilderness. . . . Beware lest that happens to your own soul. Have you lost your first love, and are you covering that fact with excauses? We are apt to do what avc really wish, and then invent excuses.

OUR SUNDAY MESSAGE

Anarchists and atheists rationalise their reasons for dissent, and mast of them are not intellectual pioneers, but rebellious little boys who have forgotten to grow up. Face the question that you may not want to go to Church, and that you have little love, desire, or Avish left. The fires of devotion are dying down on the. altar, and if you are not careful they may-go right out, and then it \\ ill grow da ilk and cold, and you may even find it difficult to get a box of matches . . . Arc you, covering your oavu lack of interest by blaming the your own Church- and minister? The roots of the trouble may not be Avitli them, but with yourself. Face the facts, and get a re-education in interest, duty, loyalty and love . . . You j-eraember the picture of Christ, knocking at the barred door of the human heart? If Christ finds it difficult tO' make any adequate impression on that heart, Avhat chance has any Church, or any minister? Would you be ashamed and horrified to think you had lost interest in religion, and that this excuse you arc giving will eventually trick and cheat your own .soul until you become a lazy and lapsed soul . . . an unconscientious objector to enduring hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. See the truth, and then go and do the right thing. Your action, on a world scale., is behind the present tragedy: so many Christian soldiers Avere absent Avithout leave, and when the enemy attacked there were not enough on active service to hold the line, and so the hosts of hell broke through. We shall only drive them back, and make, the Avorld a decent place again,, when every Christian is conscripted by the spirit of Christ for active service. The Church needs you, and you need the cliurclu Go. bacik to it again in the right, spirit; find a niche, and fill it. Many people to-daj' say religion and the Church are the only hope, and then they do nothing to help, but leave, all the work and witness to others. It's like Avatching a bushlire, and refusing to jump on an under-manned lire engine: in the long run your own home will go up in flames. During my holidays I have attended different types of. services, and it has been an inspiring experience to discover that 1 have been helped by every Church and every minister.