RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 172, 20 July 1907, Page 10

RELIGIOUS WORLD.

ESSENTLSIJLS OF * (GKATITUBE.

By the Lord Bishop of London.;

"O, Lord, my God, I will give thanks unto Thee for ever." — Ps. ns. 12. ■

To have a feeling of heartfelt gratitude to God, mean it, and adequately express it in praise and thanksgiving, three things are essential:—

1. An honest belief in a real, personal God—some XDne whom we can address as "Thou."

Somebody has said: "Gentlemen, I feel this morning that if there were no God I must create One—>a great Being who is ever ruling, willing and directing; Whose never-failing providence, to use the language of one of our most beautiful collects, 'ordereth all things in Heaven and earth'; Who never lets the world, or the affairs of the world, slip out of His hands; Who, while He has created beings of free will, and, for their good, rules by law, has never parted with His own freedom of action; and Who is ever working on towards a far off purpose, which is the best good possible for all mankind."

Well, that is the first thing to believe; otherwise, it is unreal for us to follow the Psalmist as we often do, and call upon our soul and all that is within us to praise and magnify the Lord for His great goodness to us in the land of the living.

2. Belief in an all-wise, all-power-ful, and all-loving God leads to thanksgiving.

This is true of nations as of individuals. We read: "When Israel was a child then I loved him, and brought My son out of Egypt." These words, remember, were first spoken of a nation before they found a further fulfilment in a Person. It is, therefore, no new nor strange thing which we are asked to believe when we are told that God does choose to discipline and use nations to work out His great purposes for the world, and that such a nation is England. DISCIPLINE AND LOVE. Discipline is a mark of love, and it is a truth for all time that "whom the- Lord loveth He chasteneth," and it well may be that He has done it many times when we have been in danger of- mistaking vocation for favouritism, and of looking upon what was a stewardship for the world as a prize to be used to enrich and glorify ourselves. And where is the good and wise man who contemplates the dealings of God with us as a people and is so blind as not to see that God is no respector of persons, as He is not of nations? Each of us may assuredly believe that it is out of a pure desire to make us better and happier and more useful as instruments in His own most gracious hands that He at one time troubles us and at another time helps us, and all in order that we may the better carry forward His merciful purposes among our fellow creatures. Then it is that we can employ the Tvorderfu] words, because we feel their profound significance:—"ln my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved. Lord, by Thy favour Thou hast made my mountain to stand strong; Thou didst hide Thy face, and I was troubled. I cried to Thee, O Lord, and unto the X-ord I made supplication Thou Hast turned for mc my mourning into dancing; Thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded mc with gladness, to the end that my glory may sing praise to Thee, and not be silent. 0 Lord mv God, I will give thanks unto Thee for "ever."

3. There is a third condition which is also essential if our thanksgiving for mercies received and mercies promised is to have the true ring of gratitude, and that, is» a firm belief that God does hear and answer prayer. NO RESPONSE. It is indeed useless to deny that many difficulties may be theoretically raised to the possibility _of God's will being affected by the prayer ST man; but, on the -other hand, if there is one thing clearly revealed about God, it is that He is a God that hears prayer: "O Thou that hearest prayer all flesh shall come unto Thee." We can understand it partly from what we see taking place on earth. Response is essential even to the success of our efforts to help one another. Many a kind-hearted employer has failed to bring on some young men in his office because there was no response to his well-meant challenges. It is said the Master Himself in a certain place could do " no mighty works, because of their unbelief," and both in giving and receiving, generally speaking, if the full benefits are to be reaped there must be "plenty of confidence, no end of care, and much, very much, of try, try, try again. '-And so the possibility must ever remain as a perpetual warning, both to individuals and nations, that God can do no mighty w-ork- where unbelief reigns; whereas, if they offer to Him a prayerful -response, if they begin to look at the "world from His "point of view," if they ask -in Christ's name, "because Christ's honour is their honour, and Christ's interests their interests, then there is no- ■ thing God cannot give them and do with them. They approach towards the glorious ideal depicted in the words: "If ye ask anything in My name I will do it." In conclusion, let mc warn you that, while it is possible for us to be all fervour and devotion to-day, there is a, danger from which we must ask God to save us, and that is the awful danger of the man whose zeal for Christ cools down, and who subsequently forgets what God fcl-s done for him. THANKLESS LEPERS. It would seem sometimes almost incredible that in the Gospel story, out of ten lepers who were cleansed, nine should have given no thanks at all, if the explanation was not in all probability reveakd in the words which described their cure, " as they went they were cleansed." The relief stole gradually upon them; the first cause was hidden by the secondary causes; they persuaded themselves that nothing exceptional had been done, and they forgot their humble prayer to and failed to recognise in their cure the answer they received. wtJi i f ° ur day has said > " Lest w e bv g w,™ We forget '" and ™ uld > thereby, warn us all 0{ a ossibl ' d £r"e\r 7 t. lng be more eontemptibleix. turns te C ° nd - U , ct of the invalid wh ° turns te God in sickness, makes eood resolutions, thanks God for his recover^ h£ Ws ASSES pI « ■ % ln the da - vs of health? ■RoT. tJl . ls _ fa r from every one 0 f us