PRESBYTERIAN SUNDAY SCHOOL.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXII, Issue 4334, 26 October 1921, Page 3

PRESBYTERIAN SUNDAY SCHOOL.

anniversary services.

The most successful Sunday School Anniversary Services evej; held in the Paeroa Presbyterian Church was the general pronouncement, about the services of last Sunday. The' choir and children sang the special anniversary hymns with fine appreciation of their musical and rythmic values. The conductor, Mr W. F. North, is congratulated oji the splendid result .Of his training. The following reni dered the various special parts : Miss Muriel Wells (soprano), solo ; 'Miss V. Raffil, solo; Miss V. Shand, solo; Misses J. Mclntyre and F . Leach, duet ; Master and Miss North, duet. Miss Ivy McKenna officiated at the organ in her usual brilliant ittyllo.' The morning service was addressed specially to parents. The text was from Psalms, 68, 6, “God setteth the solitary in families.” The minister said the greatest event in the world, is the birth. of a child. The greatest trinity in the earth-is expressed as father, mother, child. The greatest institution on earth is the home, and more especially the Christian home. John Bright said “The nation rests on the’ cottage.” A distinguished Indian scholar who recently visited England said “The greatest thing I have seen in England is the English home.” John Mills, who was. the first .man in America to provide for the training .of. orphans, used to say: “I have travelled far and wide in the world, but I never found anything' fe make men out of but boys, or to make women out of but girls, or make a Stat.e out of but homes.” “The training of childhood,” says a writer; “is the thermometer of the world’s pro.-, gress.” The Spartan mother trained her child for the State. That was also Plato’s ide,al— to raise children for . the State as a farmer raises beasts for ‘the. market. The'Christian ideal is for other. It is that home on earth is the type of the home in heaven, and that the business of the' earthly home is to train up citizens: Jor the Jieavenly home, . -

The life of the child is a sacred thing. It is a Divine gift—an offshoot from the Divine life. Parenthood is almost Divine. To our children, when young,, we parents stand in loco parentis of the Divine parent. G.od entrusts us with these young ~*l!ves, and we shall have to give account to Him for the influences we have brought to bear upon them. Ono of the crying sins of our age is the practical repudiation of parental responsibility. People bring children into the world and as long as they do not interfere with their pleasures and pursuits leave them to have pretty much of their own way. Practically every magistrate in New Zealand Las emphatically commented oh this fact. There is apparently no training of the child for GodParents are the first to suffer from their own sin to the child. With few exceptions, what the parent is to the child, in later years the child will be to thcT parent. It is not enough that "our children be well fed and clothed. They are more than animals: they are immortal spirits travelling- with us to the Etern,al world. We must keep that thought before our own minds and endeavour to impress it upon the minds, of the childpen. We must train them for God. This is a, job w,e cannot delegate to another. The Sunday School does a great work, but it ■is a special work; and it can never take the place of the home. The Sunday School has your children for about one hour a week, .and you have them for many hours. That, accpunts for the fact that in numerous cases the influence of the home outweighs that of the Sunday School. “One good mother,” says George Herbert, “is worth a hundred schoolmasters.” Thomas Paine said most tragically, “The first five years of my liffe made me an infidel.” John Randolf. the statesman, wrote: “I would have been an athiest but for one recollection; namely, when my mother used to take my hands in hers, and on bended knees taught me to say “Our) Father who are in heaven.’ r ’' .

A young man was listening to the arguments of a brilliant aghostic, who was exposing the so-called fallacies of the Christian faith. “What have you left,” said the agnostic. Said the young man, “I have my mother’s life.” A writer in the “Western Advocate,” commenting upon the serious menace to civilisation presented by nonChristian homes, says : “What can a nation built on a foundation of democracy, expect for its future, when the primary force that maintains its spirit and produces the men and women that give it power is not inculcated into the very bope and marrow of child-life by the home-life. The restriction of the religious life in the home is fundamental to Democracy.” There is too much--worship to-day of money, social position, and pleasure. We worship the great god “Get on,” and teach, our children to worship and serve this idol of our making. But you may get on, and yet ger nowhere; and what have you gained then ? Your children may succeed at school,.in business, in society, but if they fail in character they are losers all the way through life. You cannot build a great career unless you first build a great character. 'lt was the low ideal of life and success which seems to be still dominant in our home life which, when projected into national life, brought upon the world the agony and loss and sorrow of the Great War. And unless we cast out this devilish thing and teach our children to hate it as the most horrible of all sins, it will plunge them and their world intp a whirlwind of hate and a maelstrom of blood and tears. To save them from that we must bring them to God. Give them all that is within our means to make them successful in the outward things of life, but let us remember that these arer-not enough. For its completion and for its protecting the child-life needs God.”

The afternoon service was specially for the children. The sermon was from John X, 9. ‘‘He shall go in and out,” The preacher spoke to the children about the Entrances and Exits of Life .

The church was crowded, many not being able to get a seat. The same applies also, to the evening service, when there were a number who could not get in. The preacher took ' his text from Genesis 3, 17-19, and spoke on “The lessons learned from an Interrupted Honeymoon.” He told the American Indian account of Creation and of the fall, which agreed with the Genesis account in meaning if not in letter. The ground was cursed for man’s sake. It is not good for man.to be idle. Work is a blessing in disguise. Work gives love ..a chance. This truth was illustrated by a reference to Rex Beach’s “Neer-do-welL” By throwing himself into .work the neer-do-well became a prince among men. By . a refejjgnce -to the “Rpadmender,” by Mid|Ml Fairless, . and to the Gospel story of the Resurrection, the same truth was enforced. Work is always good. Mary left her fears and her tears when she went from the garden to tell the story of the Resurrection. The reason why people are bored with iife is that they live idly and selfishly.. The ! State balls for statesmen and teachers, and for clearheaded and righthearted voters ; lor men and women, who study public questions and have the coupage to put public interest above private ambition. The Church calls for preachers- who wiM apply the great verities of the Gospel of Christ to the problem of the age, and preach righteousness, not as weas sentimentality, but as a vital and practicable thing. There are open doors of service everywhere to those who .’have the will to see and to do. You young people must find some mis - sion, if, life is to be worth while to you. After showing from' the life of John Bright and David Livingstone, and from Dickens’ story of the transfiguration of Mrs Gummeridge, the blessing tha,t comes with the doing of worthy work, the preacher, weiH on to speak of the lives of those who are. work-shy.. Life fails those who turn from duty. The curse of , life is aimlessness. Find your job, and get to it with both hands, and with your whole heart.

“For this is the gospel of labour, Ring it out, ye bells of tlfe Kirk, The Lord from above came down in love, To bless all the people who work; This, is the rose that He planted. Here in this thorn-cursed soil Heaven may be blessed with perfect rest, But the blessing of earth is toil.” “Heaven may be blessed, "etc.,” said the preacher; “I don’t believe it is blessed so. Some people’s idea of heaven is expressed in an ancient epitaph” “Here lies an old woman, by name, Mary Wyatt, She lived in a place where she could not get quiet; Don’t weep for her now, nor don’t weep for her ever, For she’s to do nothing for ever and ever.” “That’s not my idea of heaven,” continued the preacher“nor is it that of the seer of the Apocalypse, who lays emphasis upon the ceaseless and untiring servicei of those who live in the light of the King’s house and see Him and bear His name in their foreheads. We shall still have work to, do—plenty of it.” “Where only the Master shall praise us, ‘

And only the Master,-shall blame. And ho one shall work for money], And no one shall work for fame ; But each for the joy of working, And each in his separate star, Shall draw the thing as he sees it, , For the God of things as they are.”