SERIOUS THOUGHTS.

Waikato Argus, Volume VI, Issue 449, 17 June 1899, Page 2 (Supplement)

SERIOUS THOUGHTS.

PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY [By Zam/.ummim.]

The opinion has often been expressed that the Christian religion, as a faotor in the betterment and uplifting of the masses, if not exactly a failure, has not been an unqualified success. There are many in these colonies—and the Frovincial District of Auckland is not without its share— svho scoff at the system laid down by the Gentle Nazarene as 'obsolete ' and ' worn out,' and profess to regard its truths as • old wife's tales ' and its votaries bb hypocrites, etc There may be some grounds for the latter of these opinions, but the detractors, if they would think a little, would not be so prone to ' put the saddle on the wrong horse '—in other word*, blame a system for the short comings of its professing votaries. Stripped of all its man-made the Christian religion is 'love to God manifested by love to man,' and when this simple creed has been brought before the roasess bv its earnest, self-sacrificing subscribers "we find that Christianity, as an uplifter of the fallen and degraded, has no equal. When the Salvation Array contemplated iuvading the Australasian Colonies there were many who thought that, though the countries of the Old World might benefit from its operations, there was hardly any need for its ministrations in the new lands under the Southern Cross. Nevertheless the Army came. It spread quickly from colony to colony, and, in spite of active and passive opposition, its citadels and fortresses are now to be found in every town and nearly overy hamlet throughout Australasia. It gathered a large following- not from the cultured and so-called intellectual classes, but from the artisians a»d labourers —prototypes of the early disciplee, and gradually it* operations increased. It was constantly on the lookout for fresh fields of usefulness, the inauguration of 'Prison-gate Brigades, Rescue and Maternity Homes, Night Shelters, Industrial Colonies, etc., etc.', followed in rapid succession, with the re ■ult that the Army to-day is a living testimony to the power of Christianity, when rightly applied, to uplift and bless the human race.

I have before me as 1 write, the Army's 1 Australasian Social Report for 1899.' and ritfht well hare I enjoyed perusing it. The book, which is profusely illustrated, is entitled ' Sooial Triumphs,' and a more appropriate title it would he hard to conceive. The introduction was written by General Booth, and in it he says : "In this new world the evils of abject poverty in its friendlessness, of vice in its degradation, and of crime in its helplessness, are to be found. Although not in the same proportion as elsewhere, still they exist, acoording to reliable and authoritative statistics, to a painfully large extent, and appeal powerfully for a helping hand to those of the community who have been more highly favoured by Providence. I hope I shall not be regarded as boastful when I say that a great deal of work, excellent in quality, having in it beneficial bearings on every thing that is most precious and important to mankind, has been done. To go down to the depths of the dark ocean of poverty, vice and crime, and deal faoe to face in the practical manner hereinafter desoribed, with the poor creatures who in hopelessness and helplessness suffer there, to create the desire for better things, and the belief in the possibility of their realisation, to aid these lost and desolate creatures to fight their way to the shores of the dismal sea, and land them on the solid ground of honesty, of industry, and of lenewed character, and then to help them to the neces>ary courage and ability to maintain the position they have won, must be good. Who can or will suggest that it could be otherwise ? . . . . This

work, as is well known, is in its infancy, and yet some remarkable results have been already achieved. We have now 450 separate institution? in various parts of the world, under the care of 1832 trained officers, all worked in harmony with the principles we have laid down for helping the lowest and poorest and most unfortunate of the people. No fewer than ) 8,000 desolate human beings are in some way or other beneficially dealt with day by day. Nearly 15,000 wretched, ragged men, women and children are comfortably housed under our roof evpry night, having their needs supplied, combined with sympathy and prayer and friendly counsel. Fully 4600 women, taken from lives of darkness and ruin, are safely sheltered in our Homes each year, and helped on the way to virtue, goodness, and religion. From past experience we have satisfactory reason for believing that some sixty per cent, of them will be permanently reformed. Over 350 sx-criminals are to-day in our Homes of Reformation, having another chance given them for this life, and in many oases their first for the next. There are now in existence fifty-three Elevators or Labour Factories, over the doors of which might be written: 'No man need starve, or beg, or pauperise, or steal, or commit suicide. If willing to work, let him apply within.'"

None but the most callous or bruta aould read the stories of orime and misery with their sequel of virtue and happiness, narated in the report without feeling, thankful that wo have snoh a mighty philanthropic organisation working amongst the fallen and outcast of society, and he must be a narrow-minded bigot who, after perusal, professes* to see in the Salvation Army officer a man who hag fallen out with work, or expresses the opinion that the General and the officers are merely animated by iclf-interea and are ' making a fat thing out «f it.'

A rmy methods, perhaps, do not suit all —tbe'r idea and ours on the fitness of things sometimes clash, but it is unmanly—-nottOßayun-Christlike—to withhold credit where credit in due, and I say all honour to General Booth and his devoted band for their glorious work. The phenomenal success attending their labour is ample proof that their organisation wa'; wantod; and if they were to cease operations to-morrow the world would he the poorer for it. The Army deserve? well of all, and the General's appeal for workers and money, in order to still further extend the scope of the work, will, it is hoped, not be made in vain.

'Facts are stubborn things,' and I think that the operations of the Army, as recorded in ' Social Trumphs,' amply bear out my assertion at the beginning of this article" that when preached in its beautiful simplicity, devoid of man-made lore and legonds, and backed up by the conscientious practice of its tenets on the part of it* professors, Christianity as an uplifter of the fallen and degarded has no equal, The mere fact that' Go to the Army' is the common advice proffered in the slums when in tronblo of any kind speaks volumes. The poor and outcast know their friends evidently—they know they are not those who loudly proclaim thoir beliof in a universal brotherhood, but whoso ideas of fraternal responsibility fail to rise above the Gospel of Self.

THE HARDNESS OF GOD'S LOVE. (Written by one hid up for years on a

couch of suffering.)

I kept for nearly a year the flaskshaped cocoon of an emperor moth. It is very peculiar iu its construction. A narrow opening is left in the neck of the flask, through which the perfect insect forces its way: so that a forsaken cocoon ! s as entire as one still tenanted, no rupture of tho interlacing fibres hating taken place. The great disproportion between the means of egress and tho size of the prisoned insect makes one wonder how tho exit is ever accomplished at all and it never is without difficulty. It i» supposed that the pressure to which the moth's body is subjected in passing through the narrow opening is a provision of nature for forcing tho juiceß into vessels of tho wings, these being less developed at the

period of emergence from the chrysalis than they are in other insects. I happened to witness the first efforts of my imprisoned moth to escape from its long confinement. Nearly a whole forenoon, from time to time, I watched it patiently striving struggling to get out. It never seemed able to get beyond a certain point and at last my patience was exhausted. I thought I was more compassionate and wiser than its Maker, and resolved to give it a helpiug hand. With the points of my scissors I snipped the confining threads to make the exit just a very little easier and lo ! immediately, and with perfect ease, out crawled my moth, dragging a swollen body and little shrivelled wings. In vain I watched to see that marvellous progress of expansion in whioh the wings silently and swiftly develop before our eyes ; and as I traced the exquisite spots and working of divers oolours which were all there in miniature, I longed to see these assume their due proportions and the creature appear in all its perfect beauty, as in truth it is one of the loveliest of its kind. But I looked in vain ; my false tenderness had proved its ruin. It never was anything but a stunted abortion, crawling painfully through that brief life which it should have spent flying through the air on rainbow wings. Tho lesson I got that day has often stood mo in good stead. It has helped mo to understand what the German's call ' the hardness of God's love.' I have thought of it often when watching with pitiful eyes those who were struggling with sorrows, sufferings or distress, and it has seemed to me that I was more merciful than God, and I would fain have cut short the dicipline and given deliverance Short-sighted fool! how know I that one of thoHe pains and groans could be spared ? The far-sighted perfect love of God, which seeks the perfection of its object, does not meekly shrink from present transient suffering. Our Father's love is too true to be weak. Because He loves His children He chastens them, that they may be ' partakers of His holiness ' With the glorious end in view, He spares not for their crying, • Made perfect through suffering ' as Christ was, the sons of God are trained up in obedience, and brought to glory ' through much tribulation.'—F.