By Rev. W. H. Rowdon, Vicar of St. John’s, Parkstone.
SOMETIMES things are conspicuous by their absence; that is, you notice them because they are not there! Here are a few things which make one think. Sign posts, but no directions! Street lamps, but no light! Church bells, but no sound!
There was a time when we thought we could not do without these things, or at least to be deprived of them would mean a serious hampering of our national life. However, we are still carrying on without them and it is astonishing how quickly we can adjust ourselves to these entirely new conditions. But have we thought things through?
Under normal circumstances the vast majority of people do not think deeply. Shallow thinking might compass what we call daily life (our home life, our work, our recreation); occasionally our imaginations expand as we hear or see something unusual or sensational, but generally we revert to the well-worn groove of pleasant and easy thinking. This for some is completely changed when the whole of the civilized world, in spite of all its scientific discoveries, its accumulation of knowledge and its standards of life, is convulsed with a moral earthquake which brings everything tumbling about our ears.
We have to clamber out of our groove of thinking when things we regarded as most stable come crashing down, and if we do not move out quickly there is the danger lest that groove become our grave.
The logical grave results of not thinking may be summed up in what the Bible calls “the second death,” that is, eternal separation from God.
Getting Behind It.
Let us look away, therefore, from second causes of this present phenomenal war and see what lies behind. Here is a new slant for some. There is no question about war being Satanic in origin, neither have we any doubts as to the source of “inspiration” behind Hitler and the Nazi regime with his campaign of lying, falsehood and broken pledges.
We all know, too, that the present chaos is the inevitable result of man’s misrule and misgovernment in a world far adrift from its Creator and Redeemer; also “The Battle of Britain” is but one phase in world events; but as it passes over our island do we as individuals realize the significance of things?
God is intensely interested and concerned with the individual man and woman while He is using war as an instrument of judgment or chastisement for nations. It has been said: “It is not our nation’s enemies but our nation’s sins that alone can bring our mighty Empire down.”
The remedy is obvious— “get rid of our nation’s sins”! The nation consists of individuals, so the individual needs to check up with God’s standard and see what adjustments are necessary in his or her own interests as well as in those of the nation. Hence the slogan, ‘‘It all depends on me, and I depend on God.”
We Depend on God.
If you, who read this, do not agree perhaps it is because you have not yet arrived there in your thinking? It is significant that the leaders of· our great nation give such prominence to our dependence upon God (vide H.M. the King’s broadcast, the Prime Minister’s reference to God and the Foreign Secretary’s recent speech).
Think this over! We have no fear as to the final results of the present conflict for Great Britain, provided that every individual citizen plays his or her part to the full. This does not merely mean by physical efforts in H.M. Forces, or A.R.P., or industry, absolutely necessary as such things obviously are; neither can it be fulfilled only by the mobilizing of our cheerfulness, courage and resolution, or lending to defend.
Beside the physical and moral realm there is the spiritual, which gives point and power to the other two. God is seeking to reach the minds of men through world happenings today while Satan is endeavoring to keep them static lest they should think themselves out of the sleep of spiritual death, and out of his clutches and into God’s eternal salvation.
This means a conflict of the spiritual sphere which predisposes man to let things drift rather than think things over. If only men will think with their minds there is hope that they will believe, trust and love with their hearts. A nation of such men could never be anything but victorious.
God means to teach us spiritual lessons through simple things around us which He uses as-parables.
Sign Posts.
We had them long enough (though perhaps we never fully appreciated them) to indicate where we were, and how to get to our destination without difficulty. These directions are now removed as a wise precaution. God has given man “sign posts” to show him where he stands, where his road will take him, and how to get on the right road that he might finally reach Heaven.
There are still faithful witnesses like signs pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ as the only, but perfect, Saviour from sin. They may have told you that you are in the “City of Destruction” at the moment, and that you need to set out at once by way of the Cross and get into the Way of Salvation, so that you will find yourself in the “Celestial City.”
If having checked up with the Bible you find this to be true you may resent it, and reject it, and fall back into your mental and spiritual grave; or you may face up to sin, confess to God, and accept Christ as your Saviour. Think it over!
Lamp Posts.
Lamp posts are a poor substitute for the sun, but however much we complained of them before, we miss their light now! Black-out accidents and deaths are quite a feature of this new condition of total darkness. “If a man walk in the night he stumbleth because there is no light in him”— Jesus Christ is the Light of the World and He came to give “light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death and to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
He commands His followers “let your light so shine before men that they may see.” Christians as lamps may be poor substitutes for the Sun of Righteousness, and may be much complained of by those groping their way through nature’s darkness, but the time is coming when true Christians who are ready will be translated from this earth to be forever with their Lord. How great will be the world’s “black-out” then, with no restraining influence to the powers of darkness! No doubt Jesus Christ was referring to such a time when He said “Yet a little while the Light is with you; walk while ye have the Light, lest darkness come upon you... while ye have the Light believe in the Light that ye may be children of the Light.”
Church Bells.
About two months ago the bells of our parish churches in England ceased to peal for the first time in living memory. For generations they invited families to lay aside everyday things and come to worship God and pray.
No longer is this invitation sounded out. Consciences will no longer be disturbed by church bells on Sundays! There are some who never heeded the church bells but who, when they next hear them, might take a livelier interest than they ever imagined possible in this life!
God’s invitation still holds good. He still says “Come!” to those who labor and are heavy laden, and what’s more He says “Come now!” Nothing remains for man to do but to acknowledge his own need and inability to raise himself from the dead, and to accept God’s offer of mercy in Christ. It simply means flinging away everything and coming with empty hands.
“Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy Cross I cling.”
What if we accept this invitation? There is God’s promise “him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” One day “the day of grace” will end. The time will come when the invitation, which for years left us cold, will be given no more. We shall then be left undisturbed to sleep the sleep of the second death in our spiritual graves. Think it over!
Next time you lose your way because there is no direction on the sign post give a thought to your soul and eternity, where you stand now, whither your present path without Christ leads. Think it over!
Next time you collide with a lamp post in the black-out, whether it makes an impression on your physical body or raises a bump, let it make an impression on your soul. “Awake thou that sleepest, arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light.” Think it over!
Next time you hear the church bells ring.... It might be wise to get busy before then. Think it over!