THE LARGER HOPE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 602, 2 March 1929, Page 8

THE LARGER HOPE

THE QUIET CORNER

(Written for THE SUN by the Rev. Charles Chandler Assistant City Missioner) HEN EVER the vicar of a certain parish not a hundred miles from - prays for rain, all the members of his congregation carry umbrellas. Having asked, they expect to receive, and are, therefore living testimonies of a simple faith. Unlike most of us, they do not pray for rain and expect a drought. They do not endorse the hackneyed slogan of ”trust in God and keep your powder dry.” If we really trusted tnere would be no need for powder. As it is, the powder is kept in reserve in case God should let us down, or should not be as good as His word. That sort of faith would not move a mite, let alone a mountain. In spite of all our churches with their attendant priests and ministers, the fact remains that ice do not really trust, nor do we wliolelieartedly believe. Why not be perfectly frank about the whole business* Let us boldly acknowledge that religion with quite a number of us represents the sum total of what ice hope rather than of what we KNOW to be true. We stretch lame hands of faith, and grope And gather dust and chaff, and call To what we feel is Lord of all, And faintly trust the larger hope. We faintly trust, hence the apparent failure of religion, and the glaring inconsistencies of war and, party strife. Faintly trusting never helped a man to swim, or a bird to fly. It has never fired a courageous heart with a great incentive, but has instead kept thousands marking time, where else they might have bequeathed, not .only their ‘‘deposed bodies to the ground.” but also the inspiration of an accomplished hope, or of a splendid victory. NEXT WEEK: UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT