The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1960-10-21
Our Need Of God
Lesson for October %, 1860

ASAeA . ASCA ~ 1OA Id lid llSIl-
est dignity. This was the con
clusion Of a great thinker a cen
fury ago. But he was not alone
in this discovery. Down through
the generations, people high and
low have found out that to need
God is not a sign of shiftlessness
and inferiority, but Of dignity.
The down-and-outs, the failures,
the crippled in mind and spirit,
these need God But also the
strong. the able, the wise. the
genius these also need God, and
it does no damage to their self
respect to acknowledge this.
"Reviving the Soul"
Every one Of the Psalms ex-
presses some need of man for
God. The 10Th and And Psalms
are not peculiar in this respect.
But the 10Th contains three
phrases. each one referring to
Gods law, and each expressing
a distinct human need which God
fulfills. The Christian will think:
If all this comes to us in the Law,
how much more in the Gospel!
The law of the Lord revives the
soul. How weary we grow, how
soon we faint! Where i S the soul
of man? Crushed and starved,
beaten down by life's struggles
and tolls, halt forgotten in the
bitter competition Of the week
days, on Saturday nights or on
any night one is tempted to doubt
whether one has a soul at all If
the wilted spirit withers further,
it will be very near death, indeed
many soul suffers from a kind
Of perpetual sleeping sickness.
We need God to revive the dying
soul.
making Wise the Simple"
IF youth knew, if age could
is a short poetic form of a pro-
verb. TOO soon old. too late
smart" knowledge can be alb
sorbed by a bright ten-year-old.
Knowledge comes, but wisdom
fingers Wisdom is far more
than knowledge. it is knowing
what to do with knowledge, ard
how. Calculating machines have
knowledge, Of a sort, but no ma
chine has wisdom. The greatest
wisdom, said Socrates. is realiz-
ing how little one has.
The law Of God, says the
Psalmist, makes wise the simple.
knowledge is something we have
to work for, to attain; wisdom is
gift, the true wisdom comes
from God who gives to all "gen-
erously and without reproaching"
as St. James says.
Rejoicing the Heart"
This world, said some one, is
a comedy to those who think, a
tragedy to those who feel. If the
walls of a London street were all
made transparent. wrote Charles
Dickens, who loved his city, and
if we could see all the tragedies
hidden by brick and stone and
wood. the sight would be more
than heart could endure. This is
a tragic world. and all the joke
making flor indeed some things
and people a r e funny does not
change the state Of the world, nor
of the heart. When a soul walks
in darkness. it is no help to read
that the stock market is going
up, that spring will follow winter,
that some were the sun is shin
ing. The heart bowed down knows
its own sorrows and a stranger
does not intermeddle with his
grief. Is it loss Of dignity to
need comfort? If so we are a
race without dignity. On the con-
trary, our need of God here as
always is our highest dignity
God comes to man not to in
crease his sorrow but to wipe all
tears away. God in His law. God
in His Gospel. rejoices the heart.
| Warning and Reward
| The inspired poet Of Psalm l9
sums UP in two words what God
does for him Warning and Re
ward verse ~. How desper-
ately we need these both! Again
mans need Of God is high dig
nifty. The plants, the beasts, need
no conscience. no warning voice
They cannot choose but do what
they are destined to do. But man
is free. He can and must make
choices, he can make decisions
which are tragically. eternally
wrong. We need warning. If God
did not warn us, it would be q
sign He had cast us off. We need
reward too. The poet does not
say there is reward for the keep
ing Of Gods law; there is reward
in the keeping; joy in sharing
Gods holy will.
Based on outlines copyrighted
by the Division of Christian Edu-
cation, National Council of the
Churches of Christ in the U. S. A.
Released by Community Press
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