THE VILLAGE CHURCH

Lake County Mail, Issue 19, 1 October 1947, Page 7

THE VILLAGE CHURCH

Otago and Southland are well supplied with good solid church buildings, thanks to the pioneers. But there are still some places with simple little wooden buildings which breathe an atmosphere of praise and worship. It was outside one such that a woman once said to me, “ I love every board in this church.” Yes, she had the wit to see past the plainness and the meanness to the eternal things by which, of which, and for which it was built.

I am sure that she did not think of it as a place to come to only once a week, if then, and that coming depended upon the weather and her feelings! She thought of it as a “ tryst-ing-place ” for the people of God, with their Heavenly Father. Certainly she thought of the services as appointments to be kept, but often when passing in her busy life she Avould slip into church and say a few prayers. Not for her the excuse that she had no time. Better ’not to go into a shop than to miss her few minutes of quiet talking with God. She never imagined for one moment that she could live life well without her church. Here, too, she came with regularity and great reverence to be re-equipped for life. If she did not always get quite what she expected from the service, she had the grace to put it down to some obstacle within herself. But time and again she had had the same experience, coming there tired, disappointed and perplexed, she would go away with a new light in. her eyes, fresh courage and strength to face life’s many problems. She did not expect the people she met there to be perfect, she knew they were not; but mingling her praise with theirs, sharing their worship and their prayers, she found new insight, new resources of faith and character. Had she fallen into verse, she might have said with Horatius Bonar: Here O my Lord, I sec Thee face to face; Here would I touch and handle things unseen, Here grasp with firmer hand the eternal grace, And all my weariness upon Thee lean. Here would I feed upon the bread of God, Here drink with Thee the royal wine of Heaven; Here would I lay aside each earthly load, Here taste afresh the calm of sin forgiven. One of the glories of the English Church is that fact that her churches arc always open for prayer and meditation. We can grasp the opportunities of frequent prayer in the House of God. The church in your town or suburb is

not just a building made by the hands of man, it is a House of God, the meeting place where Heaven and Earth come together. Do you remember Jacob’s vision at Bethel? The Ladder set up on earth and reaching to Heaven with the angels of God ascending and descending upon it. And Nathaniel in his prayer seeing ' again the same vision as he read his Scriptures with Christ assuring him that he would see the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. Jesus Christ Himself would be that ladder, and the Church is the body of Christ on Earth. Still carrying on that great work of uniting Heaven and earth. God uses earthly things to convey His life to the earth. He uses men and women, and the common things of life, such as bread and wine, and even buildings made of stone or plain plank boards, or the thatched bamboo buildings of the Pacific Islands for His wonderful purpose. It is thus the Church is thought of in the New Testament. It is God’s act through Jesus Christ whereby He created a new community, a community into which all may come and find life more abundant, a life which is. maintained by constantly sharing the Holy Spirit by constantly proclaiming the Gospel, by constantly using the means of Grace. How should we not prize so great a gift? Does your church mean all that to you? It did to the woman, I hope it comes to mean that to you, if it does not as yet. Philip C, Williams.