Thoughtful Moments

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 42, 21 January 1944, Page 2

Thoughtful Moments

(Supplied by tlic p.is Association)

THE MINISTRY OF MEMORY

Let memory have its wav„ ''It is a minister of God." ( This is an arresting thought. What memories will our children 1 carry into their adult years?, Many ■ of our readers arc indibted. to Fay I,nchfawn for help and inspiration. 1 The following extract, copied from the "Woman's Magazine." gives us a peep at her background, and causes us to think again of the power of a Christian home: "The transition from a country house to a suburban dwelling had its trying side. The new garden was pitifully small. Other houses were overpoweringly near. But there were advantages. My mother, who on acocunt of ill-health hail felt so isolated, found, herself a bole to be "in" things again, and each Lord's Day found the family in an unfamiliar meeting house it is true, but with many old friends around them . . . My father, deprived of his. garden, found occupation and pleasure in finding out what could be done Avith a. small border. He Avas so far successful that Bunty, who was still a small' child, paused one day at the gate, and surveying it critically, said with conviction: 'This is the. best garden in the road,' a remark which gave great satisfaction to the gardener. It has been said of us that, as a body of Christians, avc are too fond of pie-carding lurid texts 1 in public places —''Prepare to meet tin' God,,' "Flee from the Avrath to come" — may in the mercy of. God have been use.l to arrest the careless although this sudden button-holing of a personality, Avhether by the spoken or the printed Avord seems to me likely to arouse, antagonism, and. has become a subject of foolish jesting. But my father, avlio Avas so shy, so retiring, s*o inarticulate, had a text written on parchment and fixed to the lattice Avork close to his front door. I cannot imagine any passer-by being hurt and offended by it. Some might, and probably did, smile at the naivete of a householder A\ r ho in these materialistic days could set up such a statement. But others were glad of its reminder, and rejoiced in its truth. For this; was the text. 'The Lord, is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He noweth them that trust in Him.' Strangers, reading it,, sometimes asked if such a verse really Avas in the Bible, and if ;so-, Avhere? Tramps, asking lor alms, pointed to it,, and many professed faith in it. The milkman constantly referred to it, and presently around that text gre.Av up a scries of experiences.

OUR SUNDAY MESSAGE

An unknown reader ol' my books who called to see me i« my father's house, wrote to me afterwards a letter which warmed my heart. 'That text at the door,' she. sai l 'just set I lie keynote of the who . thing. II l»"tl to tell nl >* alt about it from the first word to the last. 1 lover your mother with her voung face and her beautiful white hair, and your father is 1 jut like one of the prophets . . . t have never seen anyone jiU>t like him.' Up till then I do not think 1 had realised that lie was taking his. pi arc among the veterans. He. was becoming one of the old brigade. lin manner he had always been staid. His spcech was always restrained. He had drilled us thoroughly in the line art of using suitable words. He hated extravagant expressions ; would never suffer us to rail food "beautiful"' nor to .say we ''loved a favourite dish. That, he declared, was yn improper use of two great words. . . His garden was gay with crocuses and. scillas when lie and my mother kept their golden Avedding. We all went home on that day, and had our quiet resjoieings together, the hou- e was full of nodding daffodils; there was a bridal bouquet of white roses: and scented lilie.s. . . From our ancicnt album their children had by .stealth removed phootgraphs of those two taken just before their marriage. These they had had mounted and' framed in gold,, and beneath them, in neat lettering. were these words "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my .life: and 1 will dwell in the house of the Lord for . ever." As that anniversary passed my father kept recalling incidents of ; his wedding day. "Just now we were starting." ''Just about now we were coming L home in the. carriage." And a little later "We should 5 have been going away together, just r round about this time." I Later, as evening came on, and , we sat together round the fire, first one and then another of their spirit- . ual kinsfolk came in to see the bride and bridegroom. And then, because the day would have, been unfinished and immature without it, the Hook was opened, and, there was reading. I and there was thanksgiving. Looking back upon that day. it seems to me to be representative of > the wedded life it commemorated, i Simplicity was 1 its note from start , to finish. On.lv those of the inner I circle entered into it at all. Xts : keynote. was an acknowledgment of I Him Whose name is Merciful and t Gracious, Whose goodness follows all of us; all the days of our lives."