AN ACT OF GOD

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 119, 5 June 1937, Page 15

AN ACT OF GOD

The Bible is full of stories of tlie activity of God. God is always at work for people who trust Him. He is al wa,ys intervening, doing things for thein, working miracles of deldvcraneo. We have largely lost this note in our thought of God. To us He often seeni* to stand back from life. He is a kind pf encouragin^; spectatox. It ckeers us

to think of him there, looking on and vvanting us to win. But He does not seem to act. And we have lost the habit of expecting Him to act. But tbe Bible thought of Hdm is different. It is more like Browning's pictur© of Him; — God the strong, God the benelicent, God ever miudful in all strife and strait, Who for our own good makea tlio need extreme, Till at the last lie puts forth might and saves. We get this thought of God also in the story of people who have taken risks for God. The story of great niiesionaries is full of it. In the Life of Hudson Taylor, for instance, We are not reading about what he did, but what God did. He saw a vision of God's plan for China which nebded twenty missionaries and the money to send them out. He set out to find them in the spirit of consecration, and n banking account was myster-ouely opened in London for his mission. It was an act of God. Two years ago, three women missionaries set out across the Gobi Desert in obedience to Divine gudding. They had hairbreadth escapes. Their days were filled with emergencies. But always "something happened." That is the title of their hook. It is the story of the acts of God. There is something here wortk thinking out. Our western virtues are the active virtues. We urge one another to get things done. We are always re'stless to do something. We are very busy creatcng machinery and epending time and strength in keeping lt going. i But somehow we often get the kollow feeling that there is much bustle and noise without any real things happening. A good deal of our Christian service is like that. And we are often discouraged and weaned and ineffeetive. We forget that all tjhe real achievement's in the Kingdom of God are acts of Goct? This does not mean that we need not work, or that we have uierely to sit with folded hands waiting for God to work. On the contrary, God needs our service at its best. He wanta one hundred per cent. efficiency. But that activity must come from an inner dependence on Him, which keeps our hearts at rest. A steam engine must be bolted down to a bed of concreto before it is safe to work. Without that basis of rest it would shake itself to pieces iu no time. So it is with us and God. Dr. C. H. Dodd, writing about St. Paul's work aud experience, puts hds finger on this point. " The/mmense energy of the religious life is rooted in a moment of passivity in ■vtfhich God acts." The experience of salvation is always an act of deliverance. It is something which God does. The words of the 18th Psalm describes it: "He sent from above, He took me. He drew me out of many waters." If we harve no experience like this, there may be various reasons. We may not be expecting it. Our attention may be on ourselves. We light with doubt, for instance. We try to argue ourselves into belief. And it only increases our confusion. The way out ds by oponing our hearts and consciences to Christ in His life and His Cross. For His coming was an act of God. And in Christ, God has still the power to reach ub in the deeper levels of our spirit, and make us sure of Him. — Rev. James Reid, D.D.