WHAT IS A SAINT?

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 202, 11 September 1937, Page 12

WHAT IS A SAINT?

(By Rev. Frank H. Ballard, M.A.) ! Called to be saints. — Romans i, 7. — j But what is a saint? Christian people ! genei-ally by saintliness mean skuple 1 goodness. It is not eminence in Church j j business, or ijublie philanthropy, or | 1 ability in defending the faith. A man j i truiy giye a .fortune or even lay down I ! his life in martyrdom and not convinee j j us that he is a saint. A bisfkop may j j administer his dioeese so faithfully that 1 everyone says he is a good bishop a minister may tend his floek with such diligence that oiany congregations seek his services; yet it may be some unassuming clerk, or some unpretentious weat'herbeaten iisherman who wins the popular verdiet of "saint. 77 It isn7t that either is perfeet: there is no such tking as a perfeet man in this world of ours. It is an indefinable but easjly recognisable quality whieh some possess and others do not. It isn7t what a man says or does, but something that in 'his inmost soul he is. But men have | not always thought about saints like that. You will hnd that there was a time when it was almost equivalent to the word "taboo,77 whieh represents a eomplicated system of prohibitions formulated by the priesthood. Certain foods were said to be sacred and tlierefore must not be eaten. Or fhey were devil-possessed and therefore must not be approached. The Zulus, out of xeverence for the departed, tabooed the names of dead kings. The Oews refused to pronounee the word Jahweh, substij tuting some other like "The Lord77 or 1 "The Name.77 The fundamental idea in I every case is t/ke same — it is the setj ting of something apart as a conse- | erated or an accursed thing.

| The Hebrew Theory of Sanctity j In the religion of the Hebrews, Israel I was a holy nation — i.e., not a xighteous I or enoral nation, but a sacred oue — a I people scparated unto Jahweh, The ark is a holy objeet whieh must not be louc&ed by profane hands. The temple is a holy place: there sare outer courts where Gentiles may assemble, bnt if tkey trespass beyond the appointed boundary the whole plaee is deiiled — and in Ihe ccntre of all is the holy of j holies, to be entered only by the priesfc on stuted occasions. And Christianity arose on this soil and bears many marlcs of its origin. All Christian • people are saints, not because they i have actually attained tinto beauty and fulness of ckaracter, but because they are separated unto Christ. That xs j why Paul, writing to disciples in Rome, 1 { is able. to call them ' ' saints. 7 7 He used j the same word in writing of the Corinb'hians — and the contents of the letters make it clear that some of the members I of the Church there wer.e far from I ! saints in our sense of the word. But I j Paul addresses them as saints because ! he is thinking not of their attainments, but of their profession and relationship. Factious, flieady, even immoral they might be, but they are separated unto Christ. But in all religions a separated person is expected to beeome like his god. And in the Christian religion gradually the emphasis fell, not on the separation, but on the likeness. And so we arrive at the popular idea of to-day. The saint must do more than profess fhe faith or labour to propagate it: he must convince you that he has lived with Christ and learned of Him. You expect not only the words of formal Christianity: you expect the strength and serenity, the peace, the magnanimity and the Tadiance t'kat marked the life of Christ Himself. Saints in Unexpected Places Saints arise in unexpected places and at unexpected times, with the result that a study of the lives of the saints cuts right aeross many of our conventional ideas. -We have got into the habit of talking about the importanee of environment. I am not going to say tfhat we have been altogether wrong. You can see the influence of geography and climate on character. You know the necessitv of good social condPions if you would have good citizens. But you must be prepared for surprises: plcasant and unpleasant surprises — for the facts are eontinually upsetting the prophecies. You can have the best environment men can devise and yet produce moral wrecks. As someone has said: "Eden gave fhe deathblow to tkp idea that environment can save a man.77 On the other hand, you can have most depressing eonditions and yet bring forth the finest flowers of Christian character — like lilies growing out of mire. And one of the jthings that strikes me when I read the lives of the saints is the number of them who bring forth virtues ahd graces in spite of every handicap. And this may be an encouragement to some of us. From some points of view we are certainly favoured persons, but the dangers of over-eivilisation may be as serious as those of under-civilis-ation. If so, I 'have this reassuring word for you. The sphere in whieh you lind yourself may be made a srhool for the training of saints. Paul found the real thing, even in Rome, whieh might have been considered "deadly air for the regenerate soul.77 "I am sure, 77 'he writes, "that you are brimming with gooduess.77 No Uniform Pattern of Saintliness Another practical point whieh may Lring encouragement to some of us is this: that there is no uniformity in Christian saintliness. There is a tendency to tliink of the more passive virtues as saintly and the more active as something else. T'ke patient person who never says a hot word: the forgiving persons who never nurses resentmen: the humble person who never advertises himself or thrusts himself forward: he is the saint. Quite rig'ht. But so is the indignant person who gives vent to his indignation: and the just person who reminds us that even forgiveness does not always abrogate punishment': and the man who feels called to stand .forth as a herald or a leader of men. Saints are not always smoofh and compliant. They are often out of step in the march of humanity,

| because in mind and heart they are ! j ears ahead of the crowd. I claim William Blake — who has taught us to sing about "England7s green and pleasant land7' — as one of the saints, thougli , "t'here were very few to do him konor in his life timo. They called hiln a heretic : and a madman. They poured ridicule ! on his works and let him die unwept, j unhonoured and unsung. Yet. now he j stands forth as a prinee aniong men — [ a seer, a prophet, a rebel— far from J the plaster saint, but a saint nonertht | less; fierce in 'his denunciations, but unmovable in his loyalties. Need I point the moral. Don7t think you are far from saintliness because • you do not conform to a conventional tvpe of goodness. You are not to conform yourself to localised patterns. You are to be intensely yourself. Or, rather, you are to be so separated to Christ that He will make you what you ought to be with your own distinetive type of Christian character. If you are called to be a rebel, dare to be a rebel in Christ 7s name. If you are meant for u conformist, let there be no eowardice or time-serving in your conformity. yueli saints are made, not by the im- . position of ecclesiastieal discipline. I don7t mean that there is np place for discipline. We have to learn to pray alone and togetlier: to serve aeeording to our sphere and. our talents: to live togetlier in peace and eo-operatlon. I mean what men mean when tliey say that poets and artists are born and grown, not made. It is even possible to spoil everything by a too conscious concentration on personal 'holiness. It isn7t by much effort that the greatest poems and pictures are created. It is by an attitude of reeeptivity: by listening at least as much as striving. x*. is even so in the making of sainte. We abandon ourselves to the power of j Christ and He works the miracle, That j is the really Christian Church w'hick 1 rejoices in a great succession -of j Christ-like men and women. Against I such a Church the gates of Hades shall not prevail