THE PRINTED WORD

Lake County Mail, Issue 1, 29 May 1947, Page 5

THE PRINTED WORD

Once again the Lake County has its own Newspaper, and perhaps your first thought, on picking up this copy, will be one of pleasure. When the “Lake Wakatip Mail” ceased publication a bond of unity went from among us. So powerful is the printed word, that what we had taken so much for granted, really came to be missed. The Press is the great recorder for us and for history, recording the important events in the life of the community. We found that no provincial paper met ths need, for not provincial paper could afford the space to give full details of the life we live. It is important that we realise that we are living history, what we do to-day will be in the historical annals of to-morrow.

In this column, week by week, it is hoped to bring to your mipd to bear on the most important influences in each individual’s life —religion. There has never yet been found a race of people who had not some form of religion, be it the spirit-worship of Melanesia, the Emperor-worship of Japan, or the worship of Buddha in India and China. So whether we try to deny it or suppress it, there is still that indelible characteristic of the human race —men must worship something. We, as a nation, call ourselves Christian, meaning that we follow the teaching of Christ, and believe Him to bo “God of God, Very God of Very God”, as one of the ancient creeds puts it. Before we can worship God properly, wo must know much about Him as possible. If we want to know as much about a foreign land, Russia for example, the best way would be for us to go there, but I very much doubt whether I, for one, will have sufficient money ever to do so, so the next best thing is to borrow and read as many books about that particular country we can. If we want to know about God, we must do likewise, read books about Him, study those books, and hear lectures by students of those books. We have at hand such a book, or rather library of books about God easily available. This library of books is called the Bible, and it tells about God and His dealings with men. The difference between ordinary books and the Bible is that ordinary books tell about man’s dealings with Man, but the Bible is God’s Book, the Word of God, and it tells about God’s dealings with His creatures.

In this library there are various kinds of books —history books, poetry, songs, books of wise sayings, the writing of the prophets, men who told out boldly the truth of God in dark and terrible days; it includes also four accounts of the life upon earth of Jesus Christ, and a history of the early Christian Church. It has a collection of letters written by leaders of that church in the first years of its existence to their followers in various places, dealing usually with special difficulties and dangers which had arisen in the local churches they were writing to, but the immense value to any of us in any age who read them. But whatever kind of book you pick up from this divine Library called the Bible, there is always the main theme running through it —God’s dealings with Mankind.

Many thought that with the invention of the radio -and the periodical broadcast of Overseas and New Zealand news, that the day of the printed word was gone—but not so. You still buy and read the newspaper as well as tuning into the nine o’clock news. So you have the Bible at home, and I hope you read it regularly and wonder over its message, as well as attending

some place of worship where you heat the Word of God expounded. Yes, the printed word is one of the big educative factors of modern life, and the Word of God rightly interpreted and rightly used, can have and has to those who study it (more than just a story or history of a rather favoured and priggish nation), a lesson and message and a vitally important newsvalue for the world to-day and the individual in the world. The Gospel is the Good News, some never think of it as News at all, let alone the Good News. PHILIP C. WILLIAMS.