SUNDAY READING

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 306, 22 June 1912, Page 1 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING

THE LATENT SPIRITUAL FORCE IN MAN. ( By the Rev. Frank Hales.) The apostle is here speaking of some divine gift that was in Timothy. This "gift" it would seem in this case was something distinct from those natural faculties and susceptibilities which are in every mind and which in all eases are God's gifts. But what could Paul convey into the mind of another by the "laying on of 'hands" upon the head? Was it some electric impulse, or was it some moral virtue; some spiritual grace? The first might be possible, the second is impossible. Moral virtues are generated from within, and never bestowed from without. Whatever the laying on of apostolic hands effected, all history shows that the laying on of hands of the minister, whether Popish o- Protestant, is nothing but a miserable mimicry, a crafty priestliness. But one thing is clear, that the human mind itself, with all its wonderful mental a*td moial possibilities is the gift of God, frr "in God we live, and move and have our being." Looking at the text in this Lght. is suggested : First, that there is in man some spiritual force which is in a special sense the gift of God. Our very existence with all its physical and mental attributes is His gift. Were this truth recognised as it ought to be there would not be such a waste of physical and mental power that is going on amongst us. Too much time is spent on the things that are passing, and not enough on the things that remain. But this spiritual force is something special, and it may be said to comprehend at least three elements: First, the sentiment of religious worship. Faith in a supreme Being comes to a man, not by evidence, but by birth. It is inherent, it is born with us. Every child that comes into the world is God's child and born with the sentiment of worship. And this spiritual force also comprehends the ond place the sentiment of moral obligation. Every man has an inbred feeling that there are laws which he should recognise and obey, laws which if he breaks, entail suffering and anguish. This spirituay force also comprehends the sentiment of social love. And this is something more than a mere animal sympathy. It is benevolence, a well-wish-ing for the race. This is in man's nature although sadly perverted. The text also suggests that the urgent duty of man. is to rouse this force into right'action, and along proper channels. "Stir up," fan into a flame the force that is in you. The command carries its own implication, that man has the power to obey it. If instead of praying for some power we used the power we already possess the world would be all the better for our living in it. Some of us have yet to learn that every righteous obligation I implies the existence of adequate power of obedience and the sooner we learn it the better. But how can a man "stir up" the force that is within him? How are we going to "stir up" the sentiment of worship into healthy action? To my mind the only way to do it is by devout meditation on the moral excellencies of the one true and living God. The spirit of worship lies dormant in the mind of thousands that could be roused into healthy action, by meditating upon the holiness, the mercy, the sympathy, the compassion, the love of God as seen in the person of His Son Jesus Christ. How can we "stir up" the sentiment of moral obligation? This may be done by contemplation of the Divine will which is the supreme law of life. When we do this we make right the guiding star of our lives. Every man that knows right from wrong is' morally bound to do right whether it pays 'to do so or not. Every man is morally bound "to do justly, to love mercy, and walk humbly with his God." This obligation presses on man with all the force of the Divine power, and the man that disobeys must reap the harvest of what he has sown, either in this life or in the next. I

How can we "stir up" the sentiment of social love? Surely this is not a lifficult task. Any man may do this by devoutly studying the claims and needs of his fellow men. We are allowing selfishness to eat up the best part of our natures, for surely if anything be Godlike it is the faculty of living and serving others. The great unrest in the labor world to-day lias been brought about largely, I think, by selfish and devilish greed. Hundreds of men who fare sumptuously every day, and are clothed in fine linen, never stop to enquire about the thousands of poor beggars who lie at the gates of poverty and hunger. Poor wretches who never get a chance, who ask not for mercy but for justice. The appalling emptiness of their lives is well described an this little poem that I recently came across: Hushed are the engines of the mill, Out of its gates the toilers go Into the twilight, damp and chill, And down the paths of the sloping hill To the town below. There are children there -with faces sweet, But pinched and pale and worn and thin, And they hurry on with dreary feet To the wretched home in the dreary street, Ere the night begin.

Home to the drunken curse and a blow And the meagre meal of poverty; To crouch by the hearth where the fire is low, While golden dreams in the embers glow, That can never be. And when the early gleam of the day Glitters upon the steeple vane, Through the streets in the morning grey, With liurrying steps they haste away To the mill again. Back to the ever-rolling wheel, Back to the never ceasing loom, To toil till the dazed senses Teel, In the din of the crashing steel And the smoky gloom. By and by comes the twilight chill, Then out of the gates again they go Into the evening dark and still, And down the paths of the sloping hill To the town below. It is not too much to say that upon the faithful discharge of these duties a man's true dignity and happiness depends. Man can only become great by the right use of his God-given powers, by bringing out into right action all the forces of his spiritual nature. There are latent forces in nature. There is fire enough in every atom of dust and in every drop of water to bum up the universe. There is power enough in an acorn to cover continents with majestic forests. There is a spiritual force in man. which if rightly directed will lift him to the highest heaven of being. God has endowed man as he has endowed nothing else" —with powers that are God-like and Divine. May God help us to use them for the well-being of our fellow men for the ennobling of our own lives, and both these things honor and glorify the Supreme Being that made us.