DISCIPLINED LIFE.

Waikato Times, Volume 119, Issue 19899, 30 May 1936, Page 25 (Supplement)

DISCIPLINED LIFE.

TENDENCY TO DRIFT. LESS THAN ONI'S BEST. ’ Perhaps our greatest danger in life is in easy satisfactions, low expectations, spiritual lethargy, and moral inertia. Our tendency is to drift—and when we drift we drift into danger. Ships never drift into harbour —men‘ have to slave and suffer and sweat to get them there. We all require some sort of discipline to keep us up to the mark. One of the advantages of joining a church is that it is something to live up to. You might feel inclined to take things easily, but you cannot let down the church to which you havc voluntarily given your loyalty. You are compelled to investigate your own life and probe your own character with ruthless sincerity. Our failure to reach the highest is frequently due to some weak spot. some small infirmity of temper or disposition. A man may possess many fine and noble qualities—he may have lofty ideals and undimmed courage—and yet [be held back by some ridicuilous frailty of temperament. The man who has a weak spot in his body does not trifle with it, but seeks a specialist. And we shall be wise to take our spiritual weaknesses to the great spiritual expert, the great Physician whose “touch has still its ancient power.” Idle parasitic people may be easily pleased with the froth of things, but surely we must be dissatisfied if we do not achieve a certain spiritual mastery over life. The self satisfied man sunk in insipidity and stagnation is the weak man. If you are sure of yourself you do not know yourself. The strong man must of necessity be the one who knows his failures and limitations and trusts only in the limitless power of God. Old age need not be tiresome and stale and dishevelled if we have a ‘vital contact with life, if we insist on never being less than our best, if we ikeep the invigorating- enthusiasm and ‘penetrating curiosity of the student. if in solitude and prayer we drop all our selfishness and pretence and gain power to live the disciplined and dediicated lifEr—F. A. Atkins.