Devotional Column

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 428, 8 May 1937, Page 2

Devotional Column

Prayer for the Week. O God,, the God of all goodness and of all grace, who ar worthy of a greater love tMn we can either give or understand fill our hearts, we beseech Thee, wi h such love toward Thee tha nothing may seem too hard for us to do or suffer in obedience to Thy w’ll; ?nd gran’ that ' thus loving Thee, wo max become daily mor? like unto thee an<‘ finally obtain he crpwn of life which thou hast promised o those that love 'hee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. The Ascension of Christ. There is a simple child notion of the Ascension —of His body passing through earth’s a. mosphere into the ether beyond,, and then on and on through infinite spaces to the throne of the Eternal Heavens. Bi is a child notion. Literally conceived it leads to childish questions; is Heaven a place or a state of being? Is it a place in some fixed local direction? How can here be any above or below on a planet constantly revolving? But our child notion, though a misapprehension is not so bad for a rough working idea —a simple symbol of the truth which the Ascension presents, that the Lord in His spiritual body was passing into the invisible order, returning to that sphere of being from which He came. We believe that the visible event which we call the Ascension was His kindly condescension to simple human minds. We naturally connect that higher life which is beyond our present comprehension with the blue heavens above or the s'arry heights beyond the blue. In concession to

this simple thought, instead of just disappearing as at other times af er His Resurrection, He rose from the earth and a cloud received Him. It only meant that He had passed: from our present sphere of existence to mother ephere beyond our ken. His mission is accomplished. He returns vith poor humanity • on His leart for ever—returns triumpant to the Infinite life, 'o the p hrone of the Universe, to the Pre- ' f the Father and the Heavenly 4os- s. “Lift up your hads, O ye gates; nd be ye liftsd up, ye everlasting dors; and the King of Glory, shall ome in. Who is the King of Glory? von the Lord of Hosts. He is the King of Glory.” Love. The ivo great commandments, acceding to Jesus, are to Ibve God vith all one’s heart .and soul and i, nd and strength, and one’s neighour as oneself. Both are positive I cmmandments. To love God properly demands <he exercise of every faculty that- we possess—heart, soul, mind, strength. To love one’s neigh--1 hour as oneself means to do to all men what one would they should do o oneself. It is illustrated in the gospel story by the parable of the good Samaritan, showing that whlat is required is active and practical charity. One has only to look at the life of Jesus to see -what an .active thing is. the love that He preached. He ,was continually showing up hypocrisy and cant, exposing men’s lack of charity, and trying to galvanise them into putting their beliefs into active commission. He was continually using His power to heal both mind and body. To fight all the forces which tunt and corrupt and limit life; to break down all the conventions and traditions and prejudices which paralyse man’s freedom to live and love; and so to make the world more a kingdom of the live-giving and loving God, this was the task of Jesus and His disciples. And the fire of inspiration which flamed up in words and

deeds of power came from their faith—the vision of God. Survival After Death. Comparatively few people have the opportunity to study ancient literature, and yet we should know something about it because in many ways he present is the child of the past. Humanity in its essential features is more or less the same all down the ages. As we study ancient literature one of the ideas we find mos't frequently expressed is that of a belief n man’s survival after death. This belief is expressed in many different forms and some of them seem to us io be very primitive and crude. Many people has ily brush these on one side «ss mere superstition, but a sincere seeker after truth will always try to sift the wheat from the chaff, and to discover the idea expressed under these superstitious forms. When this is done we realise the surprising faet that the belief in man’s survival after death is as wide as humanity itself. It exists in all ancient literature and is found among the beliefs of all primitive peoples at the present, time; indeed, there is very strong.' evidence that it was an important past of the spiritual make up of prehistoric Another curious feature about this belief is this; it is not only the com. mon heritage of .all mankind, but it becomes more pronounced: and definite among the more advanced races. It is indeed a part of the faith of all religions, but it is the higher and more ethical religions which £« ress it most s'trongly. As we are well aware, it is impossible to disentangle 'this belief in man’s survival, from the teaching of the New Testament without destroying the whole fabrics, of Christianity. The .Resurrection of Jesus which is the keystone of the Christian faith, is almost meaningless without the background of a belief in immortality. The persistence of this belief is all the more remarkable because if can. not be substantiated by any definite, direct proof which is convincing to the majority of people. We have tc wait for *ho definite proof until we pass from the scene of this life, and then we cannot come bark to give our experience. This wide spread and 'almost, un 4 . versal bet, ?f can only be explained as l an instinct. M.an has an instinct after immortality and feels that this world is not his real home. However crudely this instinct may be expressed, and however superstitious may be the practices which may follow from

it in primitive races; inhere is no gainsaying the fact that the instinct is there; and that the man who lives and; acts according to this instinct is being itrue to one of the characteristic features of humanity.