Facing The Possibility Of A Fresh Start

Chronicle (Levin), 4 January 1949, Page 4

Facing The Possibility Of A Fresh Start

"When the excitement of the season passes many folk feel that time is defeating them and that opportunities they had they have no longer. It is good for Christians to remember that the Gospel of God is greater than their feelings, and that the message of the New Testament is'one of great hope," said Rev. A. Salmond, preaching in St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Levin, on Sunday. The Gospel of God called every man to face the possibility of a fresh start, he continued, and Christians believed it could be made, not through the strength of human ideals and aspirations, but because of the nature of God, declared and shown forth in Jesus Christ. God counted men and women righteous that they might become righteous. God looked on sinful men as those who, in Christ, could become loyal and devoted sons. The handicaps of the past could fall away and men need no longer feel tangled hopelessly in a web of circumstances. "We are all influenced by our environment," said the preacher, "but we are not formed by our environment. Every man can create his own environment, and by the grace of God a man can ,make God his environment. When a man does that he can begin to live in the midst of spiritual truths till they give rise to the faith that oyercomes the world."