VOICE OF THE CHURCHES

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 81, 30 December 1929, Page 10

VOICE OF THE CHURCHES

THE WORLD OUTLOOK Preaching in the Vivian Street Baptist Church, Wellington, yesterday evening, the Rev. F. E. Harry gave his impression of the religious outlook at the present time. Taking his text from Jude 17 to 25, he pointed out that the Apostle, before ascribing glory to God, utters a strong warning, makes an urgent personal appeal, and gives a striking guarantee of the protecting and perfecting care of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was never easy to estimate the force and value of events when too near to them. How different the great war and the Versailles Treaty appear now from what they did eleven years ago I What, sort of a f world are we living in to-day? Are men wiser than they were? Is world peace really nearer? Nearly all. civilised Governments seems to be working for peace ; but such efforts are not new. All down the ages, when devastating wars were over, a reaction invariably set in against such a foolish method of settling disputes. Our hope in this matter lies m two directions —first, fear of what the next war might be like, and then, hope that now that the whole world is a neighbourhood a better and kindlier spirit may prevail. In spite of the fact that the world is a neighbourhood, France has still an enormous army with adequate military and naval equipment and support, England and America are trying. to find some agreement over fleets, but in this matter the United States consists of such a mass of heterogeneous nationalities that absolute unity and coordination must be very difficult. Germany is still sullen and resentful, biding her time. Italy is fond of flag-waving and shouting. The real world menace at the present time is Russia. “The nations that forget God he turns into hell.” The hope of the world centres in Christ. Peace pacts, scraps of paper, can be torn up, but the Spirit of Jesus Christ can change men’s hearts, destroy seifish ambition, and greed, allay jealousy and pride, and promote kindness and goodwill. Hence the Church must go on with her world-wide work, preaching the Gospel to every creature, carrying on with might and glory her missionary enterprise, and seeking to make this old garth a Paradise it was meant to be. As members of the body of Christ Christians are urged to build themselves up in faith, to keep themselves in the atmosphere of the Divine love, and to try to save others —resting assured that Christ will protect and perfect them, presenting them ultimately to their Father in heaven, “with exweeding joy.” LAYING ASIDE WEIGHTS “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”—Hebrews 12, 1. “We have just passed through that delightful period of the year known as the ‘Christmas season,’ ” said Colonel Levi Taylor, chief secretary for the Salvation Army in New Zealand, at the Wellington South Corps yesterday. “At such a time the very air seems charged with the spirit of cheer and good-will toward others. Coupled with Christmas greetings is usually the expressed wish for a Happy New Year If that wish is to be realised, it is important that we start right. Such expressions as ‘bad beginning. good ending,’ are misleading and foolish. If we would have a happy New Year we should start right. “Paul tells us how in the Scripture that we have just read —‘Let us lay aside' weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us.” God has made it blessedly possible for us to ‘lay aside’ sin. Have we not been, commemorating the birth of Christ, who came to save His people from their sins? How thankful we should be that no one need commence this New Year with the weight of unforgiven sin upon him. But it is also possible to ‘lay aside’ every weight. Why should we carry into the New Year unnecessary burdens and thus be handicapped in running the race that is set before us? Are you bearing some ill-will toward another? Put such feelings away, they .will do you more harm than, the other party. Has someone been unkind, done you an injury? Forgive and forget. Be reconciled. Do not carry into the New Year any grudge-bearing. It will handicap you in the race. Are you cumbered with a load of care? Weighed down with anxious forebodings about the future? Why go on bearing such a burden, when it is your privilege to cast all your care upon Him who careth for you?” WATCHNIGHT SERVICE. A watchnight service will be held at the Salvation Army Citadel, Vivian Street, on Tuesday evening (New Year's Eve), at 11.15 p.m. Commissioner Cunningham, the newly-appointed Commissioner for New Zealand, will conduct the meeting.

SERMONS FROM WELLINGTON PULPITS

GROWING OLD HOPEFULLY Preaching at the Thorndon Methodig* Church yesterday morning, the Bev. E. D. Patchett took for hie text Roman* 15.4, “Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort Of the Scriptures might have hope.” The passing year, said the preacher, reminds us that life for us never stands stiD. How can we make the past, not only our own little past, but the long, long past, yield a harvest of hope? That is the question suggested both by our text and by the circumstance of the dying year. Sometimes, in our folly, we wonder whether the end is going to justify all the labour and the travail of the years. “What’s the good of it all?” is a question we are, in certain moods, very prone to ask of life. Dr. Denny used to say that the New Testament is the most hopeful book in the world. Certainly the Gospel infused hope into a hopeless age. It touched life to new issues and interests. It taught man that God Himself, as Paul says in this same chapter, is “the God of Hope.” How, then, do the Scriptures, with their divine revelation and their history of the spiritual pilgrimage of man, light up man’s pathway with hope? They do so by the revelation that God’s purpose is man’s good. God has committed Himself to the redemption of the race. We live in a world for which He gave His Son. That is a solid ground for hope. Man by the grace of God is in the process of becoming good. He is in the way of being saved. The Bible’s attitude to the past and future is that the best is yet to be. Christ’s attitude to life is set forth in His challenge to His disciples : “Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” Again the .Scriptures minister to man’s hopefulness by making him a worker together with God. Life is no longer a futility if God is using us for His glory. A man can live in patience and cheerfulness if he knows that his labour is not in vain. Jesus taught that no godly life could be a mere ploughing of the sands. Prom the first He proclaimed that the rewards of heaven are for the lowliest acts of love. Again the Scriptures are a finger-post pointing men to the hope of a future life. We were born for a longer and a larger heritage. Jesus when He flashed the light of heaven upon earth also flashed that same light on a ladder that reached from earth to heaven. He is that ladder. In Him the fleeting years of this life become luminous with the promise of eternal glory. f GOD’S GOODNESS TO THOSE WHO LOVE HIM Evangelist W. M. Garner, preaching at the Lower Hutt Church of Christ, sa id : —“As we stand at the portals of the opening New Year, the mind naturally turns to review the. past, and looks to the years that perhaps lie ahead of us. As we think of the past, our guiding word will be ’Hitherto.’ For 20 long years Israel had been without the ark of God. And because this visible token of God’s presence had been absent for so long the people grew weary (1 Sam. 7:2). When we grow weary in well-doing and lose our grip and our vision of God, we give ourselves over to idolatry. Something or somebody claims the affection that belongs to God, and when that happens it is idolatry. A person who has gone back on his Lord makes an easy prey for an enemy, because he has lost his grip on the One who is our strength and shield in time of trouble. The Israelites were afraid and cast out their idols and turned to God, and through Samuel prayed for deliverance. And Samuel offered a lamb fit a burnt offering as he prayed. It is wonderful what a difference that slain lamb made. The lamb was just a tvpe of ‘the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world.’ Then as we think of the years that perhaps lie ahead of us, our guiding word will be “Henceforth.” And in this connection I would like you to think of the Apostle Paul in prison in Rome. For 30 years he had warred a good warfare, and in this thirty years, to use his own words, he had been “in labours most abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.” Yet he could say “I have fought a good fight. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.” And that crown of righteousness belongs not alone to Paul but to “all them also that love His appearing.” Now there is a great deal involved in that. The Bible does not recognise impractical professions. “Faith without works is dead.” You say you love His appearing—has your life and testimony during this last year shown it? Have you been living as those that wait for their Lord? Let us think .for a moment of our third word, “Hereafter.” “What Ido thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter.” How often we ask ourselves. “Why this?” and “Why that?” Sometimes we have almost doubted God's goodness. There are many things we know not now, but the promise is “Thou shalt know hereafter.” We shall know God. To know Him now is life eternal. The knowledge of Christ should be a growing expanding knowledge that will come to perfection when we shall see Him as He is. And so, when at last we will be able to look back over our lives and remember the disappointments and trials, and having a perfect knowledge of the purposes and ways of God, do you not think we will be able to praise Him for the way He has led us? Meanwhile His guiding hand is sure upon His people. God causes all things to work together for good to them that love Him.