OUR SUNDAY MESSAGE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 45, 2 February 1945, Page 2

OUR SUNDAY MESSAGE

(Supplied by the Whakat

THE STORY OF A TRANSFORMED LIFE

By Andrew Stewart. A number of years ago I a very remarkable , journey through India. The memory of it seems like a wonderful dream. I had landed at Bombay, crossed in stages, to Calthen struck up to the North West, touching Allahabad. Benares with its myriad temples, Cawnpore and Lu::know, with their tragic memories of the Mutiny, up past Cawnpore and Lueknow and Rawal Pindi to the Kliyber Pass. After some time in Lundi Kotai at the head of the Pass 1 .struck South again down the dusty valley of the Indus to Karachi and back across country to Delhi then South >9 through Rajputana to Bombay again. From Bombay I went on by Poona and other places to Madras and from there, with a time in the Nilgiri Mountains, to Ceylon.

The Missionary The story I wish to tell is of an experience in Coimbatore, a town at the foot of the Nilgiri Hills. I Avas the guest of a very interesting man, a wealthy planter and owner ol' cotton who was afterwards, knighted. Although he lives in almost princely driving out with running footmen in front o" his carriage, he was a humble devout Christian. He ha'd a school for British and Eurasian children, a church in the town and another at a railway centre a few miles away. I spent some happy days in his home, meeting, amongst others a missionary connected with one of the large societies whose attitude to Evangelical effort, was one. of superior criticism and almost contempt. I returned to In'dia at most a year later. Back in Coimbatore for a few days, after an interesting Sunday of work, I was in my room when the missionary to whom I have ,was shown in. He sat down and at once, began to tell the following story. He "I have been in India for 15 years. For most of that time . I have been dragging through my

\vork j finding it utterly irksome sometimes feeling that Avere it noi for sliamc, I would rather give it al up and go home even to break stone; by the roadside. About six -weeks ago 1 went out ;nto tlie district with my native helpers to live in camp. There ) I felt that I could go on no longer. I got away with God and cried out to Him for help. I told Him I could only lling myself on Him for mercy and strength. As I waited there alone in helpless surrender a strange } indescribable experience came to me. I knew that God touched my spirit lifting my burden of failure and giving me hope and power. From that moment I have been a changed man. My work has been transformed. In the six weeks that have passed I have seen more fruit than in the 15 years spent in India. I am just starting for a Conference of missionaries in Southern India, and I mean to tell them how God has transformed my life and service and to plead with them to seek the power that has worked in me." The man's face glowed with a moving radiance. Something had come to him that had wrought a marvellous changej altering his whole being. New life eventually surged through his soul new purpose, new

ittfe Ministers' Association).

[ Tremendous Power i This, was only what might be the Christian life being what, it is } God's Spirit entering and working in a human soul. The great closing promise of the Lord Jesus Christ was ( "Ye shall receive POWER after that the Holy Ghost is. come upon ..you." Power should be the outstanding characteristic of the Christian Church. Not so much strength of intellect or depth of but a force evidently divine j and that can only be explained by the fact of. God's indwelling and working. In reading carefully the story of the Life and Work of our Loud as the Gospels tell it, one is struck by the. tremendous strength and courage of the Master. He had power. A spiritual revival is just . the surging through human hearts of the abundant Life of Almighty God. Is this not the supreme need c>t the present hour ?

hope ? iiew .strength were there. As Paul said. "All things are become new." That was ali as it should be. Not some abnormal, suspicious experience, false in its origin and doitbtful in its effects Since to come to God in humble repentant surrender means to be received by Him and in'dwelt by "His Spirit of life, something like that might well be expected to happen. Of course the coming into a man's soul of the' Life of God may Result in very different experiences in different minds and circumstances,. But. in every case it should mean a manifest change of outlook and purpose and especially a new attitude towards God. There was an interesting sequel to this story. About two years later I was in Brisbane taking part in some services in a Presbyterian Church. Seven of us ministers and lay were conducting simultaneous services in different parts of the city j meeting together in the centre every day at noon for reports, conference and prayer. I was with a line young Scots minis-

ter, an able man ) very popular with 1 his people. On the Sunday before the meetings, commenced he had preached on the subject "What would happen If the Holy Spirit, came upon this congregation." One nighty early in the week I happened during my address to 'tell about the missionary in Coimbatore and his striking experience. On the following day ? at the noon conference of ministers, evangelists and workers, the young minister, stood up to tell of his own- action on the previous night. He had gone home thinking of the story he had heard. He said to himself, "I have, had 15 years of Christian service. To me it has often been unbearably irk- . some. There has been something lacking and it may be that God has some power for me that will change life and revive my work." In his quiet room the young minister got down before a God in surrender sought new strength and and as he waited there some, 'tiling" like that which moved the missionary in India came to him. He told the gathering in his natural? sincere way, how he knew in his very being that God had come, to him with fresh power. The story of his happy meeting with God di-d more to stir the hearts ol' the listeners than all the evangelistic meetings held that week. On the following Sunday he took as his subject "What has happened since the Holy Spirit came into the congregation." I