NORTHCOTE METHODISTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 811, 4 November 1929, Page 14

NORTHCOTE METHODISTS

SUNDAY SCHOOL SERVICES VALUE OF AVERAGE PEOPLE The evening service at St. Paul’s Methodist Church, Northcote, was a continuation of the Sunday School anniversary', when the children’s choir was heard in two part hymns, duets, solos and choruses, under the conductorship of Mr. Sharp The preacher was Mr. J. W. Cocks, town clerk of the Birkenhead Borough Council. “The world will never be right,” declared the preacher, "till the mind of God is the measure of things and the will of God the law of things. In the kingdom of heaven nothing else is acknowledged; and till that kingdom comes the mind and will of God must override every other way of feeling, thinking and judging.” The gifts which God had endowed His people, the power of choosing right or wrong, had given unlimited possibilities and tremendous responsibilities. His insight into their lives must mean a sense of satisfaction or disappointment. He asked not brilliance, but just that faithfulness to the higher powers with which all were entrusted. God made allowance for limitation of powers. It was one of the glories of His kingdom that every energy, small or great, powerful or weak, could be absorbed iu its enterprises. It was said that every age produced its great preachers and organisers. It also produced its thousands of more obscure but never-lost choice spirits, -whose work and faithful, gracious, loving ministrations made the earth a richer place. The violet was not expected to fill the space occupied by the sunflower, but its perfume was sweeter. “And so God loved the service and devotion of the less pronounced workers, and He knew the measure of possibility' of what life might be. “Solomon asknowledged that God was absolutely alone in His knowledge of human life. He liad spoken to God concerning the varying circumstances in which man would need to cry to God: that humanity yvith all its distress, disappointment, guilty conscience, drought and famine, pestilence and unequal warfare, would seek the temple as a nark of refuge, where the cry could be sent up to God, and he prayed that forgiveness might be given to the people of Israel. “If only we had as a city and nation,” said the preacher, “the same sense of the ear of God being open to our need: of the Divine ordering of all things; of the Divine purpose and insight into human life and character, we should realise more deeply the meaning of the Christian life."