Thoughtful Moments

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 86, Issue 7, 30 June 1944, Page 2

Thoughtful Moments

(Supplied by the Whakatnnn Ministers' Association).

TO A BRIDE

Little lady at the alter, Vowing by God's Book and Psalter. To be faithful, good and true, Unto him Avho stands by you, Think not that romance has ended, That youth's curtain has descended, And love's pretty play is done: For its only just begun. Bitter cares will some day find you: Closer, closer they Avill bind you; If together you Avill bear them. Cares grOAV sAveet when lovers share * them. Love unites two happy movtals, Bringes. them here to wedlock's portals, And then blithely bids them go, • Arm in arm, through Aveal find Avoe. Little lady, just remember Every year has its December. Every rising sun its .setting, Every life its time of fretting; And the honeymoon's SAveet beauty Finds too soon the. clouds, of duty; But keep faith, Avhcn trouble-tried. And in joy you shall abide. Little lady at the alter, Never let your couragc fal'cr. NeA r er stoop to unbelieving, Even when your heart is grieving. To Avhat comes of Avintry we-ather. Or disaster, stand together; Through life's darkest hour of night Love 1 shall bring you to the light. (E,A # G. in "People's Friend"). Professor Peabody, of Harwoo:! Uni\'ersity, said:— A Christian marriage expects to have, its friction of interests and its moments of turbulence, like a stream that has its rapids and its falls; but these incidents do not block the movement of life, and the stream of love groAvs deeper and morejxa;iquil "V "Tlie Christian family gets its unity and stability, not by outAvard regulation, but by the natural processes of its inward life. It has its troubles and they draAV hearts, together. It has its joys, and they are multiplied by being shared. When the children of that family hear of larger truths —truths of the Kingdom, and of the Father in heaven, and of the son for whose return the Father is AA Taiting—then they interpret these great mysteries of the eternal world, as Jesus prompted them to. do, in the language, of their own loving .and united homes. Are there many such Christian families? Millions, Ave confidently ansAver. This is the normal type of the civilised home. The teaching of Jesus, so slightly accepted in many Avays of life, hais actually taken firm root in the soil of the family. Homes, enough there are, Avreckecl by storm, and lives enough which are tossed 011 rough. Avaters with nothing that can be called a home, to hold them up, but the continent of our civilisation, is not seriously threatened by the 1 encroaching sea. The pure love which creates a

OUR SUNDAY MESSAGE

■stable family still sanctifies multitudes. oT such homes, set far back from the agitations of the times; and among .such homes the spirit of Jesus enters from clay to clay as one day He _ came. to the newly-married pair at Cana, and changed the water of common place and prose into the wine of romance and joy." A London journalist writes of the Home:— "Somewhere in the writings of Longfellow are the words, 'Sunday is the golden clasp that hinds together the volume of the week.' The volume of the week is not. the only thing that Sunday binds together; its adhesive properties act upon other precious things in our lives. It is the secret of the happy home circle, and it keeps that circle intact. There is a vital connection between the 'British Sunday' and 'the Englishman's Home.' Britain is noted among the nations for both those, "institutions, a reputation of which she may justly be proud. Let her guard both with jealous care, and let her know that the one is bound up Avitli the other in .such close bonds that if one decays, the other dies, Avith it. All the great things of life are the common things—the beauty of the sky, the charm of the sunilght, the loA r eliness of spring flowers, the love of the home, the sympathy of familiar friendship, the quietude of the Sanctuary. Familiarity creates the peril. We see them day by day, and end by not seeing them at all. Home is such, and Sunday is. such. They are both pure pearls, beautiful symbols, rich divine bestOAvals, but tliey are so common, wc have got so used to them that Ave are inclined to forget their value, and AA r e are in clanger of letting them slij) from our grasp .... If Ave desire to preserve that old and well-tried institution, the 'Eng r lishman's MoiiTe.,' tllCn" ieT preserve our Sundays as days of rest and Avorship. The tAvo things are clasped together. They are gems well worth preserving, but they must not be guarded in the museum of our memories., but in the practice of our lives." A BRIDE'S PRAYER Here, at. this sacred alter set apart I give to you my all, my A r ery heart; That you will 'keep it safely, this I pray, And thankfully I take your heart and say : "Give, too, O GiA r er of LoA~e, patience to share The Avhole of life, now seeming Avondrous fair, The troublous times, the daily common place, The hours that need a special need of graces And may this sharing make all darkness light With love that fringes on the infinite." By Hilda I. Rostron.