SUNDAY READINGS.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXV, Issue 10312, 22 January 1927, Page 4

SUNDAY READINGS.

THE NEW YEAR. (By the Rev. James Aitken, M.A.) Another year has ended: another rear has begun. Thus we mark the flight of time: and it is good tor us, who are the children of tune, to take note on occasion of its. flight. The flight of time means changes. The children of time are also the creatures of change. The changes we have seen in the world about us have been bewildering in the number and rapidity of them. How the external conditions of life have altered since the childhood cf men who. are not yet old! Means of communication and of transport, the conveniences and amenities of life, methods of business and industry, have all been revolutionised. We live in a new world, and the constaut effort to readjust ourselves to ever changing conditions has imposed a severe strain upon us. And more trying still have been the programme changes in the world of thought—more trying because more important. Science has added vastly to our knowledge of the universe we live in, of the origin and history- of the human race, and is even now casting new light oil the secrets of pur own personality and or our relations with our ancestors and our contemporaries. Bewildering are the changes taking place in the spheres of politics and economics, in social customs and ideas, and in religion. So rapid and universal are the movements that are in process, that it is little wonder many people are afraid. ‘‘What is the world coming to?" is the timid question on many lips. But fear—it can never be too clearly recognised—is a form of unbelief. Fear is lack of faith. A living faith resists the temptation to be afraid. The impulse behind all the whirl of movement and change is ifcit evil but good. It is not blind chance, but God. Those manifold changes which we have seen in our day and which we are still seeing, are the signs not of decay but of life and vigor. The world is not going to wreck and ruin. God has not let go the reins. Rather He is fulfilling His purposes in many ways. Our dim sight cannot take in the whole view, nor our limited faculties comprehend the significance of it all. We are blind; but we are the blind whom God is leading by a path which we know not. Unbelief may tremble, but faith faces the New Year with confidence and courage. We apply the same thoughts to our private circumstances. The end of i the year sees none of us situated ex-

actly as we were at the beginning. Changes, greater or less, have overtaken us all. There is a stage in life at which change is welcome. In our , youth we live lor change : AAc are impatient of monotony. There is nothing then we dread so much as things remaining as they are. But there j comes a time when we are apt to dread change. AAe would stay the I flow of the river if we could. And yet to the end change is good for us. it ! is stagnation that is bad. The water j that gathers in pools and lies there j soon grows putrid and fills with all ; sorts of noisome things. It is the stream which is for ever rippling down the gravel beds that keeps ; wholesome and sweet. In the long run stagnation would be misery to us. To go lor ever round and round the old routine would be intolerable. YYe should soon weary of life. God means us neither to grow weary nor to be afraid. , We cannot see* far into the future, it is true. Here at the gateway of the New Year we see the path immediately before us. But there is a bend in the road just a few yards on which hides from us what we are coming to. AYe are blind travellers to 1 all intents and purposes. AA T e can look behind, and on either side; but in front —no! And yet there are one or two —perhaps three—things of which we may be certain. A\ r e may be sure that God will be there wherever our path may lead. AVe may lie sure that He lias many joys in store for us in the future, as He lias had in the past. And we may he sure that ) there is no experience which does not J bring a blessing with it. if we take it I in the right way. '

Fear, facing the New Year, . Tliinketh, “What shall it bring And is dumb Dreading the hidden ways. Faith, looking upward, saitli, “Good is -in everything ; ' **“•“ Let it ~ corhe- - God ordereth the "days;”