JESUS CHRIST IN BUSINESS AND POLITICS.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9434, 4 June 1896, Page 6

JESUS CHRIST IN BUSINESS AND POLITICS.

"Weekly Press and Referee."

A Sermon Preached by the Rev. W. Ready in the Bible Christian Church, Dunedin. ~"~ -. John xvii., 15. —I pray hot that thou shoutd'st take them out of the world, but that thou should'st keep them from the evil. In this intercessory prayer of Jesus Christ for his disciples there is a remarkable,blending of two great qualities—tender sympathy for them, and strong fidelity to duty. Never wa3 Jesus more loving to tbe disciples, or more alive to their feelings and welfare, than in the closing hours of His life. He saw clearly the hatred, and persecutions, and labours, and dangers that would gather about them as they went forth in His name preaching the glorious gospel, therefore His heart waa full of sympathy and compassion for them; and yet He could not pray ■"■ Take them out of the world." The world wanted them. Tkey must carry on the work He had begun. His prayer was sympathetic and pitiful, and yet it was strong, wise, and brave.

I.—Christ would not have Christians taken out of the business of the world.—Christ's own early life was spent in a carpenter's home and workshop. Justin Martyr mentions that Christ's chief employmstnt oonsisted in making ploughs for the farmers of Palestine. "Is not this the carpenter ?" once asked His fellowcitizens in blank astonishment. The world looks back with wonder and admiration on Peter the Great, stepping down from the Russian throne, and laying aside his Imperial robes, and taking unto himself an artisan's apron, and entering the dockyards of England and Holland. But what think ye of Christ, who left the Throne of Glory for the workshop of the Nazarene carpenter ? What think ye of Him, who is the builder and maker of the world, stooping to make ploughs, working at the journeyman's bench and executing the orders of His own creatures ? Well may we exclaim we never saw it in this fashion before. Christ's life was full of toil. He knew what it was to finish the day's work with a tired body and with His strength ex-, hausted. He knew what it was for the sun to go down and be thankful for the darkness that brought Him rest. By Christ thus entering industrial life He shows that work may be made sacred. His work was as sacred, a,s his preaching. His ploughs were as holy as His sermons. There is a general tendency to divorce religion from the common transactions of every-day life. There is no such thing as secular and sacred in the whole lealm of a good man's life. The secular is spiritual when a spiritual man touches it, the spiritual is secular when the secular man seizes it. All good work well done is sacred. We can glorify God in the work of the shop, or the field, or the office, as in the pulpit. There is a great deal said about holy orders; what do we understand by it ? Why, a few black coat gentlemen who have gone through a certain curriculum at the University, and have had the Bishop's hands placed upon their heads* Now, I don't say these men are not in holy orders : but I will say, to confine the circle of holy orders only to such men is to give too limited application. There are many to be included in the circle of holy orders who never went to College, nor brushed up agairst a Bishop. Christ came to teach men that every man who is in a legitimate business is and ought to consider himself to be, in holy orders. Your counting-houses, your car. center's shops, your factories, ought to be as holy as the pulpit. I have read of some men who have made their shops and offices more sacred than some do their churches. I have no sympathy with those people who are constantly quoting the poet:— Riper and riper yet Each hour may I become, Less fit for scenes below, More fit for such a horns. " Less fit for scenes below." But is it true that the more fit you become for heaven, the less fit you are for earth? If so, Christ's prayer is no good. I do not believe it. I believe the best man for the next world is i also the best for this, and the best for earth is the beat for heaven. Let. yonr religion s6iz« your business jutf sanctify it and make it snored.

I II- Christ would not have Christians taken out of the politics of the world. There are , many persons who denounce the interference jof Christians in politics. A man who is a Christian does not cease to be a citizen ; and as a citizen he has his rights and duties. Those Christians who object to take part in any social or political reform have not carefully studied this prayer of prayers offered by Christ for His followers. He never meant that they should stand apart and save their own souls and leave the rest of the world to perish. As followers of Christ we must fight to right the wrongs and help the weak against the strong. m The cause that lacks assistance, The wrongs that need resistance must have our prayers and practical sympathy. Christianity requires us to carry the law of Christ into our civil, social, and political affairs. Benjamin Franklin said that the man who would introduce into our public affairs the primitive principles of Christianity would revolutionise the world. In turning over the pages of the Bible I find a Moses, the commander of God's forces ; Jossph, the Prime Minister of Egypt; David, the King of Israel; Daniel, the Chief President in Babylon; and Nehemiah, the cup bearer in the Court of the Persian King. Such saints as these had to do with political affairs. In turning over the pages of history I find that the men who have done most to win the noble privileges we share to-day were men who were not afraid to touch politics and who realised that they did not cease to be citizens when they became Christians. Oliver Cromwell, John Bright, "William Wilberforce, and Lord Shaftesbury were Christians, but they went into politics. The power of politics is great, and all those who desire the emancipation of the enslaved, the welfare of the nation and the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ, must apply it with courage and zeal. Dr. J. Stalker, in his Imago Christi, writes:— " Christian men are only learning how to use political power; some are even shy of touching it, as if it were unholy. But thoy will yet prize it as one of tiie most powerful instruments put by Providence into their hands for doing good." It seems to mc to be a disgrace rather than a virtue that Christian citizens- should deliberately abstain from public affairs. The Church of God has handed over too much in the past the public offices and the affairs of the State to men who had no fear of God before their eyes, and therefore we have allowed all questions of vital importance to be determined, not by the spirit of righteousness, but by the spirit of self-interest. It is as much our duty as to pray, to use our vote and influence to prevent men framing mischief by law and to aid in promoting that righteousness which exalteth a nation. You owe it to society and to Christ to do your utmost to iufluence the politics of your country in. the direction of truth and righteousness. Look upon politics as a serious business and your vote as a sacred trust.

Lastly, Christ would not have Christians taken out of the midst of humanity. When Christ offered this prayer he taught his disciples it is necessary to be orthodox manward as to be orthodox Godward. His religion has a human side as well as a divine. It looks to loan as well as God, to earth as well as heaven, to the present as well as the future. Some people's religion is terribly lopsided. They think so much of God tbat they have no time to think of their fellowmen. They are so absorbed in the contemplation of heaven's joy that they have no place in their thoughts for earth's heart-breaking miseries.

True Christianity was born at the cross. It was an even balanced Christianity, on one side we read—-" Thou shall love thy God," on the other side—*' Thou shall love thy neighbour." Religion has an earthlyside as.jyall as a heavenly. It cores as the.Soul, for here as well as hereafter. I have no sympathy with a religion that simply studies heaven and not home, sooiidty and humanity. A religion that eyes the stars and not the streets and shops and the men in them, that is looking for the bright- home above and not,for brighter, happier and purer homes here, that is seeking a sober land called heaven, and;ra not lifting a little finger to make this, world sober, is not the religion of the New Testament. •"••'**■• -

The Christians Christ came to make are those who manfully battle with the ill's of life, who live unpolluted in the midst of . corruption, who walk with unstained garments in the midst of a perverse and depraved society, and who strain every nerve and muscle to roll away from men tho huge burdens whioh crush the great heart of the world. Jesus did not stand aloof from m-an. He was intensely human. Where should Christians be in the work of all social, moral and spiritual reform ? They should lead the van. They should take the initiative in all movements that tend to lift humanity to a higher, purer, and more brotherly platform. They should breath into society-a purer spirit and shape the Parliament to larger purposes and loftier aims. They Bhould lay strong hands on the oppressor and lift up the oppressed. They should kill the public-house at home and orush the drink traffic and opium curse with the native races abroad. They Bhould be. and must be the inspiring head and heart of every good movement. They should always, pray and work and vote to help humanity sunward and Godward, and thus—* Worship God by doin*f good, Works, not words ; kind acts, not creeds; He who loves God as he should Makes his heart's love understood by kind deeds.