Devotional Column

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 451, 5 June 1937, Page 2

Devotional Column

PRAYER FOR THE WEEK O God, who are the Eternal Mind and Life, in which we liv e and move and have our being, make Thyself known to us 'through Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, that in Thee we may find strength and wisdom, joy and peace. Amen. One of the most outstanding thinkers of our day is the Russian, Nicholas Becdyvev, who after being a university Professor under the Bolsheviks, was expelled from Russia and now lives in Paris, acting as director of the academy of the Philosophy of Religion. He has turned from 1 atheism and materialism to be a humble believer in the Christian Gospel. He writes: “Modern man, trying to live without God, cannot stand up against his own loneliness and his own direction. . . The transitory reign Of man, of man sufficient to himself, is' going to pieces. The limits and limitations of humanity can be seen, and the boundaries of human possibility have been overstepped: man is not eKough. . . Man without God is no longer man. Interiorly divided and drained of his spiritual strength, man becomes the slave of base and unhuman influences; his soul is darkened and alien spirts take possession of him. . . If the modern world is to be reawakened, religion must again become ALL, the force which transfigures and irradiates the whol e of life from within; its spiritual energy must be set free to renew the earth.” It is only th e vision of God that arouses in man the full sense ot his unworthiness and weakness, but it must be remembered also that only communion with God can assuage the restlessness and misery which is in our generation, so often the cloak for a sense of sin from which men try to escape by refusing to face up to their needs of God. The soulsickness of modern society will not be cured by anything else than the full liberating power of faith in the pardoning and redeeming love of God. This' we come to know in Christ Jesus. It is still true es Augustine wrote nearly a thousand years ago: “Thou hast, made us, O God, for Thyself, an.d our hearts are restless until they find rest in Thee.”