FROM DEATH UNTO LIFE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 185, 17 August 1901, Page 2 (Supplement)

FROM DEATH UNTO LIFE.

By the Rev. Thos. H. Warlow (Literary Superintendent of the British and Foreign Bible Society.)

"We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He . that loveth not his brother abideth in death. "Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer; and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for Hie brethren. But whoso has this world's goods, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth."l John iii. 14 to 18.

Nothing is more characteristic of our modern world that the note of actuality. People seem to have lost relish for the speculative problems. They dislike and distrust subtle theorising. When you have finished your lecture on the philosophy of life the only question they care to ask is, "Will dt work?" Now Christianity becomes all things to all men, and has an answer for each new age. It appeals not just to mystics and dreamers, but to hard-headed, practical men, and it claims to be a practicable religion. In these verses the apostle of the ideal and the absolute takes the loftiest truth of the gospel and applies it rigorously to the common, naked needs of every day.

The pivot of the apostle's argument in these verses may be stated roughly and briefly, thus: We must show our love, as God has shown His own lbve in practice. And this brings us, indeed, to the very core and centre of Christianity. It is a common and ancient error to resolve revelation into illumination, as though we were saved by information* about the nature of God.

But the gospel does not simply communicate to us so much celestial knowledge. It shows us how the Lord God has verily visited and redeemed his people. The gospel is not so much divine truth conveyed in a heavenly message. It is the divine action and passion done on this earth of ours for us and for our salvation. Hereby know we love—not as theory nor sentiment, but actually poured out in the sacrifice of the crucified.

He who stretched forth His hands on the Cross has girded us with endless obligation. His love constrains us to lay down our ease and leisure and comfort; to spend ourselves and our dearest treasures in the service of those whom He is not ashamed to call His brethren. We learn to look upon them with His eyes, to feel for them with His heart. For His sake we are to "dedicate and draw beyond ourfielves to mercy and ministration." "Love is dutiful in thought and deed." A little child who was asked what it meant replied: "Love means doing errands." Your transcendental emotions and high-flown phrases will prove perilous stuff unless they are embodied in daily self : denials—unless "they heart the lowliest duties on herself doth lay." And the homely, ordinary duty is not to die for your brother, but to help him to keep alive. The neediest brethren who claim your daily sacrifices are those who go hungry for sympathy, thirsty for knowledge, naked of friendship, diseased with their own selfishness, imprisoned in their own dulness and prejudices, and pride., But to shut your heart against claims like these is to deny and betray the very love of God. "Practice makes perfect." Saint John's tender exhortation to sinc-rity and ieality reminds us of the strange, subduing power which accompanies pnaet-cal self-sacrifice. ArhoHg all the evidences of the faith there is none so convincing as this. We argue and dispute about the gospel, but it remains airy and unreal until we ctnne face to face with genuine Christian love in action — bearing and hoping and enduring all things. And that spectacle brings the story of the divine love and sacrifice out of dreamland and ma^es it actual to our spirits.

The mighty Christian watchwords sound highfalutin until we meet them translated, however imperfectly, into life and practice^ We can never preach the ' Cross effectually except as we carry out its love—"not with word, neither - with the tongue, but in deed and truth."