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RELIGIOUS WORLD

PRAYER. Our Father, we thank Thee for all the way by which Tiiou hast led us; ami row we lift up our hearts and pray Thee to guide our thoughts, to quicken our desires, to draw us near to Thyself by the strong magnet of Tliy manifest love ir. Jesus Christ, and lay upon all our spirits the quickening energies of Thine own Spirit that for us, in a very special manner, it may be Christ to live. Hear, bless, foreive and accept us. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. *'♦ « •

KEEPING THE FAITH. Help us to keep the faith through pertain hours, "When the hand falters and the courage fails And nothing but the grime of toil seems ours. Help us to keep the faith through certain nights Of doubt and apprehension, when we lose Sight of that hope which is the light of lights. Through toil, through sacrifice, through very deathHelp us to heip our souls to keep the faith. —Theodosia Garrison. » » • * AN INSPIRING PASSAGE. At the conclusion of his reverent anil thorough examination of the character of Jesus Christ, Dr. Horace Bushn'cll wrote the following words, which form one of the most sublime passages in all theological literature:—

"But before we drop a theme like this let its note more distinctly the significance of this glorious advent, and have our congratulations in it,. This one perfect character has pome into our world, and lived in it; filling- all the moulds of action, all the terms of duty and love, with His own divine manners, works, and charities. All the conditions of our life arc raised thus by the meaning He has shown to be in them, and the graee He has put, upon them. The world itself is changed, and is no more the same that it was; it has never been the same since Jesus Christ left it. The air is charged with heavenly odours, and a kind of celestial consciousness, a sense of other worlds, is wafted on us in its breath. Let the dark ages come, let society roll backward and churches perish in whole regions of the earth, infidelity deny, and. what is worse, let spurious piety dishonor the truths; still there is a something here that was not, and something that has immortality in. it. .Still our confidence remains unshaken, that Christ and His all-miickening life are in the world, as fixed elements, and will be to the end of time; for Christianity is not so much the advent of a better doctrine as of a perfect character; and how can a perfect character, onee entered into life and history, be separated and finally expelled? It were easier to untwist all the beams of light in the sky, separating and expunging one of the colours, than to get the character of Jesus, which is the real gospel, out of the world. Look ye hither, meantime, all ye blinded and fallen of mankind, a better nature is among you, a pure heart, one of some pure world, is come into your prison, and ivalks it with you. Do you requffe of us to show who He is, and definitely to expound His person? We nuv not be able. Enough to know that He is not of us—some strange being out of nature and above it, whose name is Wonderful. Enough that sin luis never touched His hallowed nature, and that He is a friend. In Htm dawns a purity has not corne into our world, except to purifv. Behold the Lamb of God that takeih away the sins of the world! Lialit breaks in, peace settles of the air,'lo! the prison walls a:e giving way—rise, let us go." ♦ » » . FOLLOWING A STAR.

I will leave my maps ami charts In port, And follow the Northern star. Whether wrong or light, I will follow that light To a country fine and far. My vc-ssel i.s laden with goods of worth But I'll risk its cargo fair On a starry beam—on a fleeting gleam; What can be dared, I'll dare! Tuat port in the North is passing grand, And beckons me night and day. But in whole or part, 'tis on no chart, So it's sail by a star, or stay. Tne mariners wise cast up their eyes And say I will conic to grief—u\\ hen gales are high, with a cloudy sky, Tis then you'll run on a reef." But a beautiful ship I knew right well Set out by a star to sail; And she sent back word, on the wings of a bird, "Fear not, for you cannot fail." —Edith A. Talbot. * * * * "CAPTURE THE CHURCH." "Leave Parliament alone, and capture che Church," was Dr. Orchard's counsel at Kling's Weigh House, London, on a recent Sunday night, to the industrial revolutionaries. Capture the Church, crowd its buildings, take hold of its life, and of the mighty spiritual power that was still there ready to hand. Earlier in his sermon he had confessed that when he thought of the industrial development of civilisation which had condemned a great number of our people to purely mechanical and monotonous toil it was a wonder to him that people were not a thousand times worse than they were. There must be something inherently good in the human soul. The idea of some of those who took "direct action" was by shock tactics to make the present controllers of society in sheer despair hand over the economic macihne to them; but the great majority did not know why they believed in such action; they wanted merely to smash the machine because they felt that they must be out of it or perish. People imagined that in the case of tlie motormen on the tubes it was some stupid notion about thirty minutes for dinner. How long would any in that congregation be motormen on the tubes, looking at the "beautiful scenery" from morning to night, without wanting to go out and smash something? Christianity, he went on to say, was on the side of revolution. It did not believe in tinkering up the old order. The mighty were to be put down, and the humble, and meek exalted—not that these latter were to climb up into the high seats and play the old game. It proposed the abolition of all classes save one—one in which the nobility were the servants, and the servants the nobility.

All those troubles of our time were neither economic, nor intellectual, nor social in their fundamental significance. They were signs of the unrest of man's soul. Men wanted—though they did not know it— to achieve a divine destiny, and that with a divine Companion, and there was none other save the Lord Christ, and he still had hope that these dear wild Bolshevists would discover Him as their Captain yet. t « • « "HEAR OUR CRY." MARSHAL ITCH'S PRAYER. Prayer written by Marshal Foch on flie eve of July 18,1918, when ho launch. the great counter-offensive against the Germans in France:— ''o Eternal Father, God of the armies, il offer Thee the most precious blood of Jesus Christ, Redeemer and Prince of Peace, at whatsoever hour of the day or night, in whatsoever spot on earth it znay be when this Thy good gift flows upon Thine altars in atonement for my sins. For all the needs of Thy Holy Church, lor consolation of the souls departed, for the conversion of the unbe-liever-i and for sinners, for the dying, now and throughout the days. I offer it also for the expiation necessary for the dreadful deeds of war, for our poor soldiers, for their families, for those who command, for those who obey, for those who suffer, for those who die, for the wounded, for the side, for the afflicted in mind and body, for all poor prisoners, for all helpers in each and every degree, by the saving virtue of the Wood of the Lamb, ever living yet ever immolated by faith, hope, and charity, given by Him. "0 Cod, our God, hear our prayer and giant, Father of Mercy, all compassionate, that Thou Thyself be with us to Thy glory and the salvation of our souls. "Hear our cry for France, for her friends, for her enemies, within and without. Do thou from Heaven help us and by Thy Holy Spirit send true peace on earth and goodwill among men that all may love Thee for Thy sweet sake, that all may love their fellow men. Amen. ( Heart of Jesus, have pity on us all. 'Queen of Heaven, hear our cry."

LARGENESS OF HEART.

By Rev. J. H. Jowett, D.D. "God gave Solomon largeness of heart." —Kings iv. 29. largeness of heart is the great primgift in which all other moral and spiritual gifts become possible. Littleness of heart makes all big things impossible. The little heart has no capacity for noble entertainment. Only petty things can get in. Indeed, meanness is an .imperative condition of entrance. A large heart is precious, first of all, just because of its roominess. It has marvellous powers of expansion. It always has room for something more. Think of some of the big things that dwell with easy naturalness in the large heart. There is a roomy communion with God. The prayers have a rich and inclusive fulness. The spiritual expectations are of a wealthy order. The praises go forth like well-laden argosies carrying export^from a rich and bountiful land. The joys are big. quiet satisfactions, and not small merriments that empty themselves in an hour. And, wi'h nil these, the large heart has a roomy receptiveness. When God comes to it He finds abundant room wherein to bestow His goods. In such lives the good Lord always finds room in the inn. And while the large heart sustains a roomy fellowship with God it also cultivates a roomy fellowship with men. It is magnanimous in- all its judgments, Its sympathies are like brimming springs anil they flow freely on every side. It is given to hospitality. It has the twin places of the open house and the open hand.

Now here is a strange discovery of experience. A large heart cannot entertain a small thought or a mean mood. Littleness cannot breathe in an atmosphere of largeness. Lord Morley says of Herbert Spencer: "He was not one of those large minds in which small outward tilings have no place." That is a word which almost defines a law of humln life. A large mind is immune from small invasions. And therefore our first and finest security against the petty enemies, which carry such a deadly poison, is to grow a bigger soul. "No man, by being anxious, can add a cubit unto Ins stature." But in the lealm of the spirit we can, by reasonable thought and consecration, put ourselves into such relationship to the Lord that we can surely obtain spiritual enlargement. The enlargement may not corue to us solely through the ministry of supplication. It may come by our supinations co-operating with God in the control of apparently unfriendly circumstances. Our present lot may' seem very unfavorablo to spiritual growth, and yet the very antagonism may he the appointed minister of our enlargement. "In my distress Thou has enlarged me!" That is the divine paradox l . We arc shut up in straits, and we come out bigger men! Perhaps we entered our imprisonment as pilgrims who were only endowed with feet; we came out as birds of God, equipped with wings! But however the enlargement may come to us, and whatever be the manner of our circumstances, our growth is absolutely sure if we reverently relate ourselves to our God in faith and prayer, through the merits of Josus Christ our Lord .

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TDN19190531.2.86

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Taranaki Daily News, 31 May 1919, Page 9

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,958

RELIGIOUS WORLD Taranaki Daily News, 31 May 1919, Page 9

RELIGIOUS WORLD Taranaki Daily News, 31 May 1919, Page 9

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