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

One of the most pathetic sentences that Jesus ever uttered is recorded to us in both Matthew's and Luke's Gospels. In the latter it reads: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!" Apparently, the thing that distressed him so greatly was the needlessness of the misery and the ruin which he saw to be coming upon his own people. It had not been intended; in fact, something so altogether different had been intended that the tragedy of destruction which he envisages is a tragedy multiplied over and over again, many times.

"I would—but ye would not"—that tells the story of it for the Jewish people in Jesus' day, and we must not forget that it comes very near to telling the story for many another people as well as for them. Where have our troubles and difficulties been coming from in these very troubled and difficult days? We do not need to look around much to find the answer to that question. They have been coming from ourselves. In our selfishness and self-seeking, our willful failure to fit into the divine designs and purposes and plans, we have been thwarting them and making them impossible. And that is the supreme tragedy in our situation: it seems so altogether unnecessary, such a stupid and a willful turning aside from the good that had been intended and that might have been realized.

We must not add a further folly to our lives by trying to run away from our responsibility. Our world has not just happened to be as it is; we have been making it. What it has become, and our thoughts and our actions today and tomorrow, will make it what it will be next week. That day as Jesus looked down upon Jerusalem, that great city of his people, he saw a day of judgment coming to it and to his own, whom he had labored so hard to make understand, though they seemed utterly oblivious to all that he was seeing and feeling. In one way or another, days of judgment are always coming, and coming often in strange ways and at quite unexpected times.

[Rev. Raymond C. Knox, in the Boston Evening Transcript, Massachusetts]

There are two ways in which every man can serve his country and the wider interests of mankind. The first is through his daily work, business, or profession. There the principle of contributing must dominate. However necessary profit may be, the pecuniary motive must always be subordinate to the purpose of public benefit. A man's life cannot be divided into two separate compartments, getting and giving. Debased coin is not permissible. One cannot serve God and mammon; and the eye must be single, if the whole body is to be full of light. Many evils of our day are due to our self-seeking, our divided allegiance. Christ compels us to recognize ... that only as we seek first his kingdom will other things be added unto us.

The second way of service is helping to create an intelligent, forward-looking, high-minded public opinion. Problems of unprecedented magnitude press upon us for solution. We are called upon to make decisions that will affect vitally our present welfare and our destiny. Newspapers, magazines, and the radio have left no home so remote that these issues are not known and discussed. The whole world is being educated, and unparalleled opportunities lie before us.

Shall we have such a vision of what our land with its splendid heritage, resources, and possibilities may become that, devoting to it our all, we may press toward the realization of God's reign among men, for which Christ [Jesus] bede us pray and strive? "Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?"

When Christians do what it is their duty to do, then the peoples of the earth will be knit together in the spirit of Christ.

[Dr. Bruce Brown, as quoted in the Times, Los Angeles, California]

No one can deny that Jesus definitely foretold the future. For the ... carpenter in that far-off age, there was no tomorrow. His prophecies seemed most unlikely and unreasonable. He left no writings, but he said, "My words shall not pass away." Those words grow more luminous with the centuries. He left a little church, poor and defenseless, with the promise, "The gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Facing the power of Rome, he declared that the meek should inherit the earth. The day he pictured is dawning. His divine assurance, "I am with you alway," is the most substantial fact of millions of redeemed lives.

[Orien W. Fifer, in the Christian Advocate, Cincinnati, Ohio]

In his final discourses to his disciples, Jesus said that he was speaking in order that in him they might have peace. Defeat, doubt, despair, and destruction were lurking about in the darkness like sullen demons. Yet Jesus' voice, clear and strong, spoke confidently of peace. ...

Many hearts are troubled and dismayed in present times. The causes are so well known that it is needless to specify them. The sad fact is that so little comparatively is said or written about the voice of Jesus whispering peace within. So many would-be prophets with scanty experience or training speak glibly, frequently, and loudly upon civic, economic, and political themes, but seem to neglect or not be aware of the need of the human heart for peace and courage within itself. This may be called an individualistic gospel by some. It is the initial gospel which must precede any other.

Jesus, like a pastor, faced his little group of apprehensive followers with a message that needs to be repeated again and again in present days. It need not be a vague, uncertain message. Let the individual seek the removal from his own life of the disturbing attributes of character which he recognizes. He will find this to be an exact outline of the task which he and his fellow men must join to do in order to build a new world.

[Rev. L. B. Ashby, in the Morning Post, London, England]

The great majority of Christian people do believe in the guidance of the Holy Spirit; and most of us, when we are in any perplexity or doubt, or when we find ourselves in any situation where a right choice is difficult, ask in our prayers that we may be guided aright. That is obviously the right and natural thing to do; and, if only when—in whatever way it may be—that guidance has been given to us, we were unquestioningly to follow it, all would be well.

What, however, we so often do is to accept the guidance when it happens to coincide with our desires, and reject it when it does not! We are, too often, like Balaam. We have set our hearts on doing something or other, about which we do not feel any too sure in our mind or conscience, and we feel that we had better ask God about it. Then, when the guidance of the Holy Spirit is given to us, we go our own way after all.

There is more than one way in which we may reasonably believe that we can receive the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The most obvious way is through that inward conviction which we call conscience; and you will find people who say that, so Iong as they are acting according to their conscience, they cannot be doing what is wrong.

Now it is most certainly our duty to act in accordance with our conscience, but still more urgent is the duty of getting that conscience enlightened. ... We may be living according to what we believe to be the best light that we have, but unless we really and truly desire the Holy Spirit to guide us by so enlightening our conscience that we clearly perceive what is Christ's will for us, the light that is in us may be just nothing but darkness. ...

Thus, in praying for guidance, do we pray only that we may be taught what to do in order to attain our own ends. But we cannot have the Spirit of God for our own purpose. We can only have the guidance of the Holy Spirit for His purpose; and if we ask for that guidance, then we must be ready to accept it, whatever it is. We cannot call upon God ... merely for our own selifish purposes, or for encouragement to do what is really our own will.

If we would have His help and His power, we must accept His direction for our actions and for the ordering of our lives.

[Rev. Miles Dawson, in the Record, Daly City, California]

Hope is not the means of salvation, but rather the evidence. The world can have no hope until faith comes, and even faith must follow love. The writer Paul says, "Now abideth faith, hope, love, these three: and the greatest of these is [not hope] love" (Am. Rev. Ver.).

The way out of the world mess is the way to God. ... Christ [Jesus] said he had come to give us a new law, ... and his new law, he said, was love. Here is where we must begin, and not with hope. This love must be directed, not to man first, but to God.

[Rev. Albert Edmund Gregg, in the Sun-Telegraph, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania]

When any nation has lost its vision of God, history declares it, and the laws of God affirm it, that nation has "cast off restraint." Casting off restraint, that nation has started on the road to failure and oblivion.

What, then, is the remedy for our lost vision? Thank God, there is a remedy. The whole gospel plan of salvation is God's method of winning the sinner from the error of his ways. Jesus revealed to us the heart of God. When the disciples asked for a vision of God, he said, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." And John, the beloved disciple, gives us this definition of God as he saw it in Christ: "God is love."

Our loving Lord is eternally pleading, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." ... This is pre-eminently Christ's mission: "I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." ...

Let us give God His rightful place in our ... life. Let us dethrone the gods of greed, prejudice, class hatred, and a thousand other cankerous growths which are gnawing at the roots of our strength and happiness. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness."

[Dr. T. G. Soares, as quoted in the Star-News, Pasadena, California]

The World is not going to be like this always. It is going to be better. We are going to learn to live together as brothers. How shall we think of God? "God is love."