The Better Way.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 406, 28 September 1889, Page 3

The Better Way.

Tub Rev. E. H. Gulliver concluded an eloquent address at the Temperance Hall last Sunday with the following lines, which convey the cist of his teaching :—: — Be brave and honest, this alone can give A creed that counts it treason to deceive ; A law which may avail to rule thee well. As thy ship shudders in life's sullen swell. A, joy which may gleam sunlike o'er thy path, Earnest of tairer things than what man hath. Leave the old ruined dogmas that uprise Like some quaint abbey that confronts our eyes, Tel 1 ing its story of the ages past ; A dying shadow from those ages cast, 'Tis'ivy-clad with beauty and moss-grown, Nature's rude boscage clothes each mouldering stone. How changed from what it was in those old days, When human footsteps rang athwart its ways ! When the rich pulse of life beat full and high, And heart and brain throbbed there in harmony. E'en so decays, wild tendrils intertwine O'er much that we are wont to call divine. The soal of ruin rests on thought and word, Wherein of yore God's voice was surely heard ; Ai'e, then, our only messages of God Gleaned in the paths divine that men have trod l No moro than the hoar leaves which flutter by, The driftage of last year, wind-seared and dry, Teii of the summer that is with us now, Kindling the earth till it respond in glow. Ah, no ! new thoughts are given us ; He is there, In the new life He calls His worshipper— 'Tis consecrated c'en as that of old, Herein, as then, God's words to us are told ; Each day we bask in a new risen sun, Each age recounts some new achievement won. See further and more clear what man may be, Descry the lands beyond Time's western sea— A wider grasp is ours of life and earth. New d roams are trembling in the throes of birth, And God inspires them all ! Awake and learn, Gifted with keener vision to discern His purpose in us -for us ; c'en through strife Rise to the true significance of life. Welcome its gospel : God is with thee now ; Glitters a fuller baptism on thy brow — Badge of a brotherhood that knows no sect ; To whom mankind are. one and all, elect. The bai riers old outworn, of church and creed In the new splendour vanish— we are freed ; "God with us" as our watchword, love and truth To point our quest and melt our hearts with ruth. Oh ! thoughts of grandeur, welcome ! Even now The eastern hills are flushing with the glow Ot a fair luturc that ere long must be. When the pale mists of prejudice shall flee, And truth unper al in its wide dtmain Claim high prerogative o'er heart and brain. Live thus expectant; strength shall come, tho' late. And life assume for thee its proud estate. Truth-Guided, love-enlightened, brother mine, That way alone may man become divine.