When You Were Absent

44

There was nothing funny either in seeing the padre walking about with blue tennis shoes or stockingless sandals under his gown. I wondered how they had procured the gowns. I have always thought modem shoes incongruous with a gown. I know now that bare feet and perhaps sandals are the right thing. One Sunday one of the police who had been to a communion service said to me had had extra rations.

"That is a very good text," I replied.

True believers and followers of Christ have extra rations any time they wish to draw. There may be malnutrition of the body, but there is no excuse for beriberi of the soul. If the procession is to be one of triumph, it means no outward weariness of spirit. When we feel we can go no further, it is a matter between Christ and ourselves alone. "Come unto me all ye that are weary, and I will give you rest." This is the promise and thus He fulfills . Extra rations, extra strength-the miracle of a strong healthy, breast-fed baby of 19 lbs. at 7 months-after four months of insufficient food! I challenge any dietitian to say it was not a miracle, and honour to Him, Whose due it is. Some of the clergy, whose profession was a job, were having too lean a spiritual time to be of much help to others. There were no crumbs to fall from their table as I doubt they had any spiritual food themselves. Others were radiant and inspired. What a chance there was there. One priest (Church of England) said in effect: "If Christ is not in a certain Church it is your duty to go and put him there." Yet there were the usual bickerings over ways and manners of preaching and serving Christ by those who did not really know Him. Does this amuse or distress Christ, I wonder? He had a sense of humour as he expects us to have and what a boon it is! I think now of Tom Mulholland and his little crippled Donald. He had brought Donald by airplane to Hong Kong from the interior of China. Donald had infantile paralysis and had been in Hong Kong a year when the war broke out. Donald came to camp with the nurses and a doctor of the

Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker