Article April 1, 1939 Issue

Signs of the Times

Topic: True Religion

with contributions from John Gass, John Macbeath, Roderick Smith, J. Price Williams

[From the New Outlook, Toronto, Ontario, Canada]

There is no assurance that good men will live easy lives. Religion is not a short cut which eliminates the hard places. Indeed, the more Christian a man becomes, the more difficult it is for him to remain at ease. Clearer insight shows him evils which he has to fight, and the sense of new responsibilities drives him outside the circle of self-interest in an effort to help those in need. ... "Endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ"—the man who wrote those words had no desire that his readers shoudl evade the difficulties of life. He realized that the important thing is the way in which people meet their problems: and it is here that Christianity speaks to a discouraged age.

Our need is not merely a method of overcoming our problems. What we must have is a motive strong enough to sustain us. We have to see beyond the present darkness to the light which will eventually break forth. When we realize that God in His mercy can create strength out of our weakness, we begin to see today's problems in a new perspective. Moreover, we remember that the eternal things are not those which press upon us now, and baffle us in our attempts to solve them. Faith is "the evidence of things not seen," and often these intangible factors prove the strongest of all. He "loved me," said Paul, quite simply, and thereby joined that noble company who have "endured, as seeing him who is invisible."

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