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Today the great crowd are returning from a self-inflicted exile. In times of prosperity and pleasure they wandered away from God. Or perhaps it was in times of carelessness or indifference that they wandered. They and their children had suffered greater slavery than that of the children of Israel. The very God within had been made to work the works of Satan (1’). Now bent down with sorrow and disappointment, their souls hungering for God, they return to the home of their fathers, and it is our great privilege to bring to them good tidings, peace and salvation. And to say unto thousands who have never known Him, "Thy God reigneth".

There is a feeling that the peace for which the world is seeking is to be found outside the Church. People would direct our attention to the progress that science has made. They claim that science has brought the good tidings and peace, because it has shown us a more healthy way to live. They claim a great deal for knowledge, the bringing oftruth. This is quite right in so far that science and knowledge may bring to man the truth of his age, yet there is something in man that calls for more than physical happiness and intellectual satisfaction. Man is made up of body, mind and spirit, and it is the spiritual side of man that longs for good tidings and the assurance of salvation, that longs to be told that God reigneth. This is (7) the great responsibility and joy of each man who enters the ministry ofthe Church.

Today, perhaps more than any time since the Great War, people are looking to the Church for peace; not a mere satisfaction but a lasting peace and happiness within. Let me illustrate: a man about middle age came to the rectory one dark rainy November night. His shabby clothes clung to an undernourished body. His face was haggard and drawn, and as you looked into the blue eyes there was a hungry look. His very soul was to be seen in them. He came in and told his story. He had had friends, lost his money, was forced to steal to keep up appearances, was caught and imprisoned. His friends forsook him. He went from bad to worse, no one seemed to care. It was much the usual story. He had forgotten God and was now afraid to come to Him for help. What a great privilege it was to pray with him, and in the morning to have him at the early celebration, and to see the happiness and peace that entered into his soul as he realised that there was "a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother." He realised that there was One above all others that cared. The souls of men are longing for that peace which is the result of communion with God. It is to these many thousand souls of men and women, who have searched and are still empty, who have substituted pleasure for peace and are still unsatisfied, that the ministers ofthe Church can bring the peace ofGod that passeth all understanding.