“IF CHRIST CAME TO WELLINGTON”

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 53, 26 November 1928, Page 6

“IF CHRIST CAME TO WELLINGTON”

SERMON BY REV. F. E. HARRY In the Vivian Street Baptist Church, last night, the Rev. F. E. Harry spoke upon the topic, “If Christ Came to Wellington.” His text was, John i, II: “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.” At the outset, the preacher described the aged Apostle, John, looking across the years at the way the world had received his Master when He came to earth. Divine love had been slighted, and divine grace rejected. It was sad to think of those who had never heard of Christ; it was infinitely sadder to think of those who deliberately rejected Him. “If Christ came to Wellington,” asked the preacher, “would His reception be different? At the back of our minds we have the consciousness that He has come once, and He has made a remarkable difference in society. Once, as a real child, He was born. He grew to maturity in normal surroundings. He belonged to the working class. After His baptism and spiritual enduement, He went forth to His life work, doing good, healing the sick, and proclaiming the Kingdom of Heaven. Poets and prophets had foretold His advent, life, and death; yet, He was “despised and rejected of men.” They crucified Him, but He was raised from the dead, and He ascended to the right hand of the Father. If He came again, what would happen?” “There would be,” said the preacher, “some things that would please Him. The quiet Sunday, a day of rest and gladness, the loyal souls that gather in His name for worship—these would please Him. Then, to feel and see that His Spirit had mightily affected _ societysetting a right value on the individual, so that slavery had ceased —uplifting woman, so that she was no longer man’s slave or doll —inculcating care for child life, inspiring an assiduous ministry to the sick, and founding the Red Cross and other benevolent agencies. He would unfeignedly rejoice over all efforts to abolish war and establish world peace; but He would say that it will never be consummated until His Kingdom was established in the earth. The better conditions of life enjoyed by the toilers would gladden His heart, for He was a toiler Himself. “God Does Not Change His Moral Standards.” “His attitude to wickedness, in any section of society, would be unaltered. God does not change His moral stan-' dards. He denounced formality in worship, the externalism that had no ethical value, long ago, and He would do it again. Extortionate priests and dishonest rulers would still come under His fierce invective. 'Bring no more vain oblations.’ ‘Rend your hearts and not your garments’ would be His cry. He might even cleanse His temples again, and call upon us to do our proper work. He would summon us to more prayer, reminding us of His stories of the friend at midnight, and the importunate widow. He would demand more reality in our Christianity, less quarrelling over creeds, and greater loyalty to His ideals. He who toiled in a workshop, making ploughs and benches, cradles and biers, would insist that all our work be hallowed, ‘not with eye service,’ an eye on the clock and on the boss—and call us to represent Him in the office or the factory, in the home or in the street, in politics or in society. He would remind us that it was not His Church’s business to provide amusements or to engage in trade, but to do its proper work, to exemplify His teaching and to proclaim His Gospel. Nothing else than a missionary church would satisfy Him. Idlers would merit His scorn. Humbugs He never could tolerate, but penitent prodigals, broken-hearted women He will ever welcome. The Man in the Street. “As for the man in the street, the outsider, who looks on at the churches with critical aloofness or cynical contempt, to him He would say, ‘Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto My sorrow.’ To the gay young folk, with their cigarettes and ‘spots,’ frittering away their lives uselessly in selfindulgence and calling it ‘seeing life,’ He would utter an appealing and warning word. He would remind them that such an experience is not ‘seeing life’ but ‘tasting death.’ And as for the brewers and drink-sellers, and the gamblers who demean and discourage honest toil, those who make the road to destruction easy, on them He would pour His just indignation and wrath. If He would let them, men would ignore Him. but T fear they would hound Him down. “He once came to His home town after a wonderful preaching campaign elsewhere. He expected a gracious reception, but His fellow townsmen received 'Him with cynical contempt. They summoned Him back to His carpenter’s bench, and refused to benefit by His marvellous beneficial energies.. From that day, driven forth by unbelief. He made Capernaum. His headquarters. If He came to Wellington the majority would deem His mad, and call Him a fanatic, a wowser, a Puritan, for He would never share in their delirious- dances, their drunken orgies, or their unscrupulous Methods and plans. _U XJUCIBL calllC 4 Ifijd the preacher,

“He is here. Where two or three are gathered in My name there am I in the midst. Do, I am with yon always.’ Had we eyes to see and hearts to love, were we in touch with the unseen world by a living faith, if our eyes were but turned from the outward and dim, we should recognise His presence among His people, we should see Him in every great social uplift, in every spiritual advance, in every religious awakening, in every little child we can succour, in every broken man or woman wo can uplift, and in every need we can meet—as well as in our great worshipping assemblies, when, with burning hearts, we cry in rapture. ‘My Lord and my God? ” .