"GOD'S CODE OF HONOUR."

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 161, 10 July 1899, Page 2

"GOD'S CODE OF HONOUR."

Last evening in Pitt-street Wealeyan Church the Roy, W, J. Williams preached his monthly sermon to young men from 1 Sum. 11. 80: "For them that honour me J will honour, and they that despise me shnll be lightly esteemed," After alluding to ite historical setting in the sad story of the closing days of J3H tine preach' er went on to say; The principle here laid down ia ope fhat never needed to be more clearly recognised than by the young men of to-day. I say young men because it is you who have it in your power most effectually to mould your lives on the lines of God's code of honour, There is a code of honour^-a measure of respectability current in the life of to-day that ia responsible, for no small amount of moral wreckage among the young men of our time. The very word "honour" too often stands for a debased Terbal currency, It has been emptied of all moral significance and hangs as a mere gilt tag on the. lap* pets of conventionalism. A dhild is bom in*a home that happens to be the home of an earl, and he at once becomes the honourable something, Made of the common clay, mark you, but an honourable from birth because ha happens to be bis father's son. A mart, perhaps because he has been a successful political wire puller, is elevated to the Upper House and he is to be at once addressed as tfhe Hon., Smith, Jonep, Robinson. As far as character goes be may be utter^ ly worthless, but because he sits in the Legislative Council be is dignified by the title honourable. A man is promoted to the Privy Council, and the decree goes forth that' he must henceforth be known not simply as the fipnourable y .b,ut as the Rigftt Honourable. A definition of the man based upon his moral proclivities would justify you in calling him instead the Bight Rascally John Smith. But you mustn't call him that; that would be railing at dignities, and everybody knows that a man standing high up in the social scale may be as one "whose 'honour rooted in dishonour stood." Royalty is said to be the fountain of honour. What does that mean? That the Queen only bestows the token of her royal favour upon those who have distinguished themselves by meritorious moral conduct? No indeed. We have the best Queen that England ever had, and her own life has been a conspicuous illustration of purity and uprightness in high places, But there have lieen men in this colony op whom she has bestowed titles of honour who in private life have most glaringly defied all moral proprieties. Let us remember that there is only one true fountain of honour in the uniYwse wd that is God; that there is only one true measure of that which is honourable and worthy of respect, and that is the measure indicated by God in the text, "Them that honour roe X will "honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed." To honour God means that you. are everywhere and at all times to be loyal to your conviction of what is right in the sight of God. And you are to honour God with the name regardlessness of consequences as those soldiers had who have gone forth i*> ilght and die if need ba for their Queptj. Joseph, the three Hebrew youths In Babylon, Daniel, and Paul a*e ejsampleß of fcow ©Qd sway be honoured, And God will honour you. How? Just a* a general puts the regiment he wishes to honour most in the forefront of the battle so God will deal with, you, He will select for you a more difficult and dangerous post tfhan any you have yet occupied, and will say, "Go witness for Me there!" Where the storm is fiercest, where the battle is hottest, where the danger is greatest, where the enemy is dead-liest-—right there God will call you to stand.. And by every blow you re. eeive and pain you endure and loss you sustain because of your faithfulness to God will be. the measure of the honour that God will crown you with an the sight of all your foes. What then does it mean to despise God? It IS to rule God out of recognition in the affairs of your everyday life, YOU need not deny his existence as the Atheist does; you need not consign Him to the realm of the Unknowable as the Agnostic does. You need not label Sim and dismiss Him as a theological abstraction as the infidel does. You can admit His existence in all the terms and definitions of the soundest orthodoxy, and for all tfhat you may most effectually despise Him by ignoring His right to control ths course of your life. Make a great deal of God on Sunday, and make little or nothing of Him all the rest of the week and you despise Him as surely w if. Uke Job's wife, you cursed Him and said, Who ia the Al- J mighty that we should serve Him? j And what profit shall we have if we pray unto Him? To the extent you shut tfae door either of your business or of your pleasures in God's f aoe you are despising Him. And what happens by ignoring God? "They that

deppige Me shall be lightly eeteemed-" And wb&t does th»t mean? AJaa for the spirit that comes over the age that count* it a light thing to drop out of the favour of God. Oue of your gravest moral perils as yoimg men is the fact that eonventionalipm hag established a'standard of respectability ; that can by no means be squared with that set up by God- By nothing has the Christian Church robbed itself more effectually of moral power than by accepting the conventional standard of respectabilty end paying bomogo to ia«n w'ho tried by God's own j standard could not be otherwise than lightly eeteemecl. You hear much of certain pei'sous who are labelled "reepeotjible o) tiaen.6," and you \ are grnvely wai'npd against eritieising1 them'or speaking slig&tingly of them beQayfle they »re. "very respeotable," ••highly respectably." What wakes thorn respectable? What have t! bey I done to win the reepeet of any boneptTOiudecl man? They have made it maybe by heapa of money; but is that of itself to be aooepted as a certificate of respectftbilty? How have they made their money? That will detavmine how far they we worthy of re* Spoot. Is it clean money? Or is It money foul with, corruption, rusty with the tears of the widow and orphan and stained with tlw; blood of lost souls? Don't a.»k m<s to respect a man who lias groped bis way to wealth and power with sailed bands, and a conscience smeared with un» holy gains. He may ba pious; ha may be'gifted; but t 4h»t man aa? fleapi sed God by despising His creatures, He nos trafflcUefl on tba weaknesHes of his fellowrncn; he has steeled We lienvt against the pleadings ot the broken-hearted i he has trampled on the feeble and defenceless and built up his wealth on the wreck of 'home find happiness and the hops of immortality, Think you, can God do otherwise than hold Buch a man in light esteem? And are we to esteem a man whom God can't help despising? O the moral cowardice of men, Christian men too many of them, who are afraid to speak out the thought that is in them concerning God's judgment against wrong-doing because the wrong-doer happens to be rich. Young men, it will be to your soul's health to discard the conventional standard of morality and respectability and to take your measure straight from God Himself. What if all the world flatter and favour you if the face of God be turned away from you. What if every other voice should lavish praises upon you if the voice of God should be lifted up but to condemn you? What if you should be clothed in all the honours that men can bestow upon you if »*■ the time of the rending of flesh and spirit and the rolling back of the gates of the unseen world God should pay: "Depart from Me! tbou haet despised Me and tlhy eternal doom is to be lightly esteemed?"