WHAT A PITY WE CAN'T FIND TIME TO READ A REAL BEST-SELLER

Taupo Times, Volume XIV, Issue 65, 19 August 1965, Page 3

WHAT A PITY WE CAN'T FIND TIME TO READ A REAL BEST-SELLER

One of the important aspects of speech-making or story-telling is the impact the story makes on the hearers, says the Rev. N. R. Martin in this week's Voice of the Churches. After all, the only reason for making a speech is to persuade people of a point of view, or to enthuse them into some kind of action. Those who stir up strife in various parts of the world certainly know this. The fiery, impassioned speeches of the leaders send men out on strike, or stir up men and women, young and old, into mob violence and riots. It has always been so, even if the speech be couched in such majestic words as the speech of Mark Anthony at Caesar's funeral. The same thing is true of the written word, the written story. There is no point in writing this article, for example, unless it leads people to think and to act. The writer of the modern novel tries to say something concerning life, but because of the over-emphasis on certain aspects of living, leaves us confused and undecided. We come away depressed by the hopelessness of the story. Yet not all writing is like this, for we can be deeply stirred and enthused by one who has something worthwhile to say. Those who read it with their minds open find that the Bible is such a book. It stirs the imagination, andJ

j lifts us out of the doldrums or hopelessness of life by the magnificent picture it gives of the true nature of man, his place in the universe, his relationship to God and to his fellow man. Long before Karl Marx wrote of man's inequality, Amos thundered out the truth that God demands justice and mercy between man and man. Long before the suffragettes marched the streets of London demanding equal status for women, Jesus of Nazareth gave them their higher right as persons, not things. Long before Magna Carta ensured freedom for the individual, Jesus chose 12 men to be with him in the service of God which is "perfect freedom." When we read it with an open mind, the Bible impresses us with the rightness of what it says, and if we accept its implication, it demands of us a verdict, a course of action which makes us Christians. What a pity that although it is the most easily obtained book in New Zealand, we liaven't got time to read it!