THE SABBATH.

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20734, 18 February 1939, Page 20 (Supplement)

THE SABBATH.

LENT Once more the solemn season calls A holy fast to keep. And now within the temple walls Let priests and people weep. But vain all outward sign of grief. And vain the form of prayer. Unless the heart implore relief And penitence be there. We smite the breast, we weep in vain: In vain in ashes mourn. Unless with penitential pain The smitten soul be torn. 0 God, our Judge and Father, deign To spare the bruised reed. We pray for time to turn again For grace to turn indeed. Blest Three in One. to Thee we bow. Vouchsafe us in Thy Love. To gather from these fasts below Immortal fnuit above. BPIRITUAL SOLITUDE THE RIGHT USE OF LENT

There can seldom have been an age with a greater need than this of welcoming Lent (which will commence next Wednesday) and putting it to wise use. If there is a risk to-day that people may be increasingly secu- [ larised by the pace and stress of mundane affairs, all the more useful should ! be a season which encourages them for , a few ? weeks to think often, and not j on Sundays alone, of their souls and ! of God. j They could not, and are not invited I fo. abrogate their ordinary duties. The J numerous week-day services and addresses which the churches supply at ! this time of the year, helpful to many j though they are, are merely aids to j Lenten observance. Temporary abj stention from certain forms of amusej ment, or by reading religious books, I profitable in various degrees as they I are, are but subsidiary aids to the main I purpose of Lent. The End In View That purpose Is to bring the Individual soul of each Christian Into close , communion with God. Every kind of j “Lenten observance,” rightly understood, is meant to be contributory to J this single end. Forms of self-denial, j pious books, special services, all are ! worth while Just in proportion as they j encourage the quest of the soul for ■ direct touch wlth'God. But only when j Hie quest Is achieved, and the soul : has stood alone with God, is Lent really | “well kept” and its true purpose ful- j filled. | Communal worship, by transferring j

the mind and the eye from their ordinary surroundings, may help the soul to seek for God’s realised presence. The search itself, however, must he made in solitude. This need of spiritual solitude is among the most valuable of the lessons which Lent can teach. Its supreme necessity is set forth in that description of our Lord, spending 4fi days alone in t.he wilderness. He insisted repeatedly on withdrawing Himself from all men, of ; escaping from insistent claims, in i order to be alone with the Father. | This, it may he said in all reverence, I He accounted the first necessity of His | own spiritual life. ! To-day’s prevailing conditions incline | the average man to dread solitude. | Many people have lost the capacity for ! thought and for concentration. Btut ! these are regained by those whose religion has become vital. However remote they may be from their fellowmen, they are conscious of the nearness of God. This is no mere phrase for them, but the expression of a continual experience. To find in Lent an opportunity for gaining or intensifying this experience is assuredly to put the season to the best use, and to “keep j Lent” far better than merely by exterj nal observances. Silent Communing | Of late years the spiritual aid of j “retreats” has been increasingly -welcomed by Christians of all schools of ! thought. Yet they who lack opporI tunity or. as yet, inclination for this j temporary withdrawal from the nor- ! mal round of life can make times for I silent communing with God. j The timps may be brief, and they ' need not necessarily be passed in j places of worship, though to spend even a few minutes now and again in an empty and silent church will often prove an immense help. But the solitary man taking a walk in the country, or even seated in train or bus on his way to business, can train himself to dotach his thoughts for a few moments from his immediate surroundings, and raise them to God. So doing, he feels himself in touch for these few moments with the ultimate Reality. And ! they bring new strength and happiness into all his life. There is no need to preach the necessity of penitence to one who places himself often In the presence of God. There Is no need to Insist upon the Divine Love and Power; constantly he is learning more of them. And these moments of solitary com- i munlon with God have in them no tinge of spiritual selfishness; it is by thus finding his own soul that a man I best fits himself to serve his fellow- |