FORCES FOR FRESH LIFE.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 January 1916, Page 2

FORCES FOR FRESH LIFE.

STRONG HEALER OF HEARTS WANTED. "THE HARVEST WILL BE MIGHTY." "St. Luke's summer is the most punctual and reliable, I think, of all the seasons of the year," writes Mr. A. C. Benson in the Church Family Newspaper. "It is a time of still, fresh, sunlit weather, when the woods turn to gold, and the air is full of the fresh and pungent odor of the dying leaf. It is not a time of death, but rather of wholesome repose, when the sap sinks in the tree, and the root gathers its life into itself in the moist earth. "In old days, when I was an Eton master, SI. Luke's Day being a school holiday, a friend of mine used always to make a little expedition among the great woodlands out by Burnham and Tledsor, to see the autumn, gold. I went with hi in year by year, with two or three Other companions, and 1 never seem to remember that the day was anything but still and calm and sunny. We used to drive and walk and eat our sandwiches in some hillside nook, with a view of gold-splashed wood-. It was a pleasant custom, and I observed ii to-day though 1 went alone. "Now, if ever, we need the work of some strong Healer of hearls. The world cries out to he healed; and yet there can be no flinching, no hanging back til) the gYeat mournful task is done. The healing must come that way, through a stern purging of evil, a foundation of peace sorrowfully and truly laid. I wished with all my heart to-day that the conflict could be over, but I would not stop it, even if I could, lill the work is utterly accomplished. Much that Is easy and beautiful and useful and dear has gone already; and all this' is willingly thrown overboard, if the ship can be lightened. We have to set our teeth and harden our heart-'. Tn spile of all thai has happened, it has been a mighty sowingtime, and the harvest will be mightv.

"Once more t remember that day of St. Luke the Healer; it is healing we need for our hearts, and now strength of purpose and will. If (here is one tliins,' certain about the principles of Christianity it is this, that even if we must try to banish the desire of personal revenge, we. ere not to sit helpless and ineffective in the presence of active wrong. If the noblest thing that a man can do is to lay down his life for his friends, filial can that mean but that he is to intercveiie if he sees them wronged and ill-used? We may desire our sorrows and losses to lie healed, tliat we may be strong again to resist all violence mid aggression. '•'the rest of nature is not n. mere defeat; it is the deliberate storing of forces for fresh life and activity: we are not to be merely resigned; we must bear our losses as gladly as we can; and when we are. comforted and made whole, it is only that we may be made stronger for life and energy and victory."