WORDS OF LIFE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 78, 1 April 1911, Page 14

WORDS OF LIFE.

if&y the REV. A. L. LUKE,. Oongrega- - - tional.^lMsrter:) " The entrance of Thy words givetti HgSht."- r -P3alin cxdx., verse 130. The entrance of Thy Words giveth Ijght" ia one of those passages of Holy Wist that eon'tain, a would of euggestive•ess. The mind, of man is illuminated Vjf words "that quicken his reasoning faculties, rouse his conscience, and stir ■is sense of responsibility, which is only ■iKVbher way of stating that words comfel men to discover their humanity. WHEN GOD OAULS. When God called, " Wttieire art thouT' ♦o the first condemned soul, that was a %ord that cast a flood of light upon a Juilty soul Tie entrance of that 'word meant death. When the woman stood ■lone wdth the" Christ, after all her accusers had fled, and she heard the electrifying message, "Go in peace and sin Do more," the words must have sounded It her trembling heart as the sound of pardon must do in the ears of one in a condemned cell. Her sin was one that, under the old law, was visited by death; but ihere stood One who was greater than lilac law, whose words had condemned the acteusetrs rather than .the accused, and seiose aaithoiity was unquestioned by expert interpreters. What a contrast! What did such action imply? Wlho is ■this tihat upeeta the order of things and renders mercy where justice hitherto had been (practised? THE NEW ORDER. Tie answer to theee questions is simply ifchfa: Christ was a revealer of a higher law than, ihart. of 'the founder of the Mosaic system and the teachings of Che school of the prophets. And all progress is revolutionary, whether in etihios fa dynamics, in political or in religious tievetopmen*. iNtat meflessarily neistrijcawe, but essentially kaleidoscopic Christ upset schools of thought and the prejudices and predilections of His times, and frrtny* oi £n& dogmas of the Church. And. if we are to advance in things social and moral and spiritual we roust be prejpared to hear new words, sound new battle cries, and herald new demands. CHRIST Df THE 20th CENTURY. One as the cry fiotr ecomomio redress. Sou bear it everywhere, and 'the pulpit is asleep that does not hear the palpitating moan of men and women and children to be considered no longer aa so many sheep, but as souls —citizens, nation builders, and friends of God. Brethren, Bβ Christ raised the Cross out of igmo--nßnybyHdsdeathinthefirat century, in tike twentieth He is engaged, by new messengers, many of ■whom are unconscious of the fact, in uplifting humanity tram the degradation of serfs. The Gospel of Christ is bemg articulated by statesmen, and supplied wherever the interests of men are considered higher than those of the individual or a class. The entrance of that thought into the mind of the boiler bo-<day is bearing the evidence of a new life. The gospel of regeneration is coHeotiye as jweU as personal. SPIRIT OF THE WORLD. The spirit of this world is that of Christ. The politician may label it by another name. The stereotyped .thinker may call it anarchical, but the man who is threatened with old age and poverty, (the woman who to banter her eoml for a mess *of pottage, and the children who are looked upon as the products of Shame, will call the teachers of this gospel true friends of the Man who cried. "Come unto Mc, all ye that labour, and are iheavy laden, and I will give you rest." kingdom; of heaven. Another word in these days tihat is giving bope, and therefore, Idfe to many,, ac the right of ithe citizen. " The Kingdom of Heaven ia within yoit" So declares itihe Bible. And it as economically Bound. That Kingdom is at baud. Christ prayed for it when He taught His disciples to cay, " Give us this day our daily bread." In other words; He enjoined upon them nhe duty of jinking the' two things together — "Thy kingdom come," and "Give vb this day our daily bread." The spiritual and the temporal are inseparable-. ■Wihether that be so or not, I know this: That there is nothing secular in tbe Kingdom of GwL lit is as much an act of religion to plant potatoes as it is to pray for your soul. And the modern liwrd of life concerns itself with the cupboards of "the poor. If tfhey are empty becaiise the ten fingers of the breadwinner cannot get the -vvherewitihal , <to purchase tihe necessary bread, tSie . citizen ought to ask the State, in God's name, why ? Not that he .he made a pauper, not that itfae State anay become a : ooddler of indolents and sycophants but that ■the State may become and be in very deed the handmaiden of the gospel of 'brotherhood and 'the fatherhood . of God Tire Kingdom of Heaven or of God presupposes a state of goodness and heav- . cnly-mindedness; and if we ihad. more of the,na£wre.ojt that grace we should, soon Bee an answer to the prayer that has become the, one common ritual in Chrisleiidioim, and about winch there is no disagreement: " Out Faith Which axt dn Heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy . Kingdom come." . CHARACTER TEST OF RELIGION. Another battle-cry of to-day that inspires people with the hope that the spirit of ths millennium will precede the approach of the outward reality is the doctrine that places character before creed. W« are tiring of phylacteries and conventions, and w« are wearied of the eternal chatter ahout belief being eynony-. nous with virtue. : The devils in hell be- - lieve -in the divinity of Ohii&t and the goodnes9 of God, but that does not re- - form their - nature. - Character must be - the test of religion, not religion the test ■ of, or.proof.of, character. And £hait is one among 'many signs that we are waking to new worlds of life that do not oontradiet the words of God or violate our zeasoning faculties.