RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 31, 5 February 1910, Page 12

RELIGIOUS WORLD.

THE GRACE OF CONSTRAINT.

'(By; J. MAURICE WILSON, ALA., D2>., Canon of Worcester.^ Tie love of Carlst canstraiaetlt us. ,, — H. Cor. r. It Nine-tenths of our failures axe not from want of knowledge, but from want of grace —a burning desire to do right. Kow this desire is something outside ourselves. We cannot sit down and reason ourselves into it, and we cannot fly in the face of facts, and say that there is no such grace, for its effects are patent to the world. We have only to ask the best men and Women, living or dead, to tell us by their Voice or their books whence came their consuming desire to do right, and they will tell us, with one acclaim, that it was God"s grace; it was a gift, a. power outside themselves. This is the testimony of the Christian, apostl-es, heroes, and martyrs; and not only of them, but of the ten thousand quiet, unoibtrusive lives of Christian men and women and children, of those who bear the burden, of life, its sorrows, disappointments, pains and failures; the lifelong struggles against overpowering difficulties; the loneliness of life, the pressure of its mysteries; the burden of their own and other' 3 sins; they will all 6ay that what nerved them was something not themselves; it was God's grace. And it is more than grace; it is a power. To the man himself it seems simply a gift from God to help him to bear his lot; to others it is evident a3 a power. It gives him the trustworthiness, the quietness of soul, the single eye, the simplicity, which are unknown to him, a power and influence on others. It gives , him the strength to do what in his own he could not do; in a word, it is both grace and power faithfully to fulfil the same. To those who do not know the grace, the power is a mystery, though they see and feel it. Those who know the gTace think little of the power. Their thoughts are far otherwise occupied.

This is what one cannot help seeing, if one looks round to see what is the principle, the motive, the centre of the life of the best men around us.

And co the question I would put to toy readers is, Can we get hold of for ourEelves, or ■eonim.unieate to others in any degree, this grace, and powert What is it, and whence? How won and how given? If it is the very life and soul, not of one man only, but of myriads, it is plain that it so fits our human nature that there must be in m also the responEive chord, the faculty for apprehending

There is no such motive power among men. Men are so made that they cannot Bit down and passively accept the pure love of another; they may refuse to listen, but if they listen it evokes a response, they become restless under it; it melts hearts oi stone.

This is true of what is, thank God! the common love of men and women. The love of parents for their children wakens the love of children for parents, and at last will control and soften the stubborn will, which ao compulsion could bend, or break.

The mother's unending love for even a profligate son or a fallen daughter will prevail at last, penetrating through, every barrier of sin and selfishness. The devoted, love of brothers and sisters of mency, who in any form give their lives for others, will at last win the hearts of the hardest and most abandoned. It is as irresistible as summer warmth- on snow. Yet all this human love is but the image and shadow of Divine love: "We are but broken lights of Thee." If the power of human love is so great, if a man who has the rare and Godlike gift oi pouring out of his little human heart any tiny streamlet of genuine human, love can so attract and sway and impel the Imuran hearts and wills around ViiTn ; what wonder if the Divine stream of love that poured in full torrent on the world in the life of Christ has moved the world ever einee.

For when anyone onoe opens his ears and his heart to the story of Christ's life; when he listens to it, not with languid, Kali-awakened intelligence, but listens to it as he would to the one fact that most concerns us all to know and to understand, then its power is sure to be felt. Not can its power be afterwards exgelled.

It will remain a power in his life. He Trill never forget it. He will never be able to shut it out of his heart. The story of the cross, of the love and patience and sacrifice oi Christ, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, shall never be forgotten again by any now reading my words. It will ever be your standard, of utter eelf-sacriS.ce and nobleness and love.

Everybody, then, can say that the grace of God has influenced bim and. has been a power upon him, but not everybody can say that it constrains him. There are emotions that constrain us. iWe all know what it is to feel like this: "I cannot do that, it would be mean, ungontleinanly; were I to do so I should disgTa-ee myself, my family, my firm, my place of business, my club, my xmion, my country." Yes, everybody knows and has felt the power, at any rate, eve-n thenar it may not have prevented you doing the mean thing. Spite or fear stepped in and mastered you.

Stone walls do not a prison make, Nor iron bars a cace.

The gTPflt forces cf the Universe are (not physical: they are spiritual—the Isentiment of loyalty, patriotism,, the sentiment of honour, the sentiment of love.

And this poweT that I 'write of, •whether we yet know it or not, is one of the great forces of the world—the lore toat ChrUt poured on all mankind.