INAUGURAL SERMONS.

Evening Star, Issue 6815, 1 February 1886, Page 2

INAUGURAL SERMONS.

The Rev. J. E. Kelly, the nsw pastor of the Moray place Congregational Church, preached to large congregations yesterday morning and evening. The morning sermon was from Isaiah lxii., 1 : "For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burnetii." The preacher began by saying that words were the revelation not only of oitr thoughts but of our spirit, so that in a single sentence we may see shining forth the greatness and goodness of a man, and the motives of his noble life ; and in illustration of this quoted words of John Knox, Martin Luther, the Apostle Paul, and the words of the Prophet Isaiah Which form the text. He then sketched the fifty years' ministry of the prophet, and the state of the nation from the time he received the divine call to his death, and remarked that: Although God may bury his workmen, He nevertheless carries on His work. As one torchbearer has fallen, He has raised up another to take the torch of truth and bear it on from age to age, even to this day. And now, at this epoch in the history of this church, when the Divine Master in His wisdom has seen fit to remove from your midst to another land one who like Isaiah was a true and faithful servant and prophet of the most High, and in his place has appointed you a successor, this noble resolution of the ancient seer may be fittingly adopted by him as expressing his hearth desire and the great purpose of his ministry. He then proceeded to show the marks of resemblance between the Zion of the Jewish nation and the Church of Jesus Christ in this Christian age when looked at in the light of the New Testament (Heb. xii., 22). First, the Church, like Zion, is the home of a redeemed people. 'Jesus Christ has redeemed us to God by His precious blood, broken the fetters of our evil habits and made us to rejoice in the liberty wherewith He makes his people free, and enrolled our names in the Lamb's Book of Life—the register of the citizens of the City of God." The Church, liko Zion, is the dwelling place of God with men. In speaking of this he said that God had ever desired to dwell with men on earth. Again and again had he come, and at each coming had inspired the world with new life and hope. He came down to dwell with men in the tabernacle in the wilderness—in the Temple of Zion—in the person of His Son—in the person of His Spirit; and now He was ever becoming incarnate in human hearts, for "God is Love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." Therefore, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of the Holy Ghost, and God dwelleth in you." Now when those persons in whom God dwells by His Spirit meet together in the name of Jesus Christ, they form a Christian Church, and Jesus Christ, according to His promise, is in the midst of them as the great Head of the Church, and His abiding presence is their glory and their joy. "We rejoice because of the evidence of His presence in the midst of His people here. When I think of how He has led me from my home in England to this far-off land, not knowing an hour before I arrived what part would be my destination; how I was brought to this City just as Dr Roseby was leaving for Australia ; the kind and Christian spirit in which you received me, and made me feel at home in a strange land; the way in which you have listened to my teaching for the past two months or more ; and the unanimous and hearty 'call' which you have given me. to become your pastor, I cannot but be convinced that the Lord is with you, and that, as the great Head of the Church, He has appointed me to this sacred and important office, which I cheerfully accept, looking to Him for wisdom to discharge my duties faithfully. And as we now enter into the sacred relationship of pastor and people wc pray that it may receive the seal of His approbation and blessing, and that our future happiness and prosperity may be assured to us by the fulfilment of His promise—' Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end.' " He further stated that the Church, like Zion, is the depository of that divine truth which is for the enlightening and salvation of the world. " We have received," continued the preacher, "from our noble ancestors the rich inheritance of the whole Bible, the Gospel of God's salvation for the whole human race—those great principles of righteousness which are calculated to produce holy lives, happy homes, pure society, a righteous nation, and a regenerated world—and this inheritance we must hand down to generations yet unborn. We must preserve it in its unsullied purity, defend it against the assaults of infidelity, translate it into every language under heaven, proclaim it to every creature, illustrate and enforce it by the purity and goodness of our lives, and never rest or hold our peace until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burnetii. . . . Now it seems fitting that we should make this noble resolution ours to-day. That I should make it mine. Yea, ever since Jesus Christ counted me worthy, putting me into the ministry, I have endeavored to set Him forth in all the beauty and loveliness of His character, so that all might be drawn to Him. I have endeavored to make clear the way of salvation, and the path of righteousness, and to show how the religion of Jesus Christ meets the deepest needs of the human spirit, and is adapted to every condition of human life, be it domestic, commercial, social, or national; and it has been my joy to sec many gathered into the Church of Christ, and becoming happy and useful members of society. And I most earnestly desire that this may be so here. I regard it as an unspeakable privileae to be permitted to teach the great truths of our Christian religion in this young and beautiful and growing Colony; and to take some humble part in moulding its life and character, and for its sake I would make the righteousness of Zion go forth as brightness, and its salvation as a lamp that burnetii. And I esteem it a privilege and honor to be the minister of this Congregational Church, and the successor of such an able and beloved pastor as Dr Roseby. I pray that his mantle may fall on me, and that a double portion of his spirit of wisdom and gentleness and goodness may be given to me, so that from week to week I may minister to you in holy things, 'warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that wc may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.' I would also care for the lambs of the flock. The young people are the hope of the Church and of the nation, and to them I would give my thought, my prayers, my sympathy. And I desire to be not only your minister, but your Christian friend, and find a welcome in your homes as I would give you a welcome to mine, and be a sharer in your joys and sorrows ; and thus may we be knit very closely together in the bonds of Christian love and service and friendship for many years to come. I feci assured that you will not permit mc to labor alone, but that you will give mc your sympathy, prayers, and co-operation in every good work; and, if this be so, I venture to predict for this church a peaceful, happy, and prosperous future—which may God grant. Amen." In the evening the Rev. Mr Kelly preached from Romans i., 10. The Rev. Mr Gibb, the new minister of the First Church, took as his text I. Corinthians iii., 9: " We are God's fellowworkers. " The preacher said that to a hasty reader St. Paul might appear to contradict himself, in that he seemed at one moment to cry out upon himself as of little value, and to boastfully assert his worth at the next. The chapter from which the text was taken afforded evidence of this seeming contradiction. Almost in the same breath he asserted that neither ho nor Apollos was as to G id's work anything, and then that they were God's fellow-workers. But there was no real contradiction in this. The nearer wc came to God, the more did we realise the possibilities of our nature upward and downward ; as we grew less selfish, the more clearly did we understand our inherent selfishness ; the more earnest our struggle to be good and pure, the more deeply did we realise our badness and impurity. The light of our own pcrs>nal experience would be sufficient to explain to us St. Paul's contradictions. Thus wc could understand how he could claim to be a fellowworker with God. This expression (the preacher continued) applied to all who sought to serve God by service of whatever kind. They all were, or might be, God's fellowworkers. He pointed out first, that this

was the noblest ideal of human life ; and second, that this ideal life could be fully realised only through Christ. Of old it was said to work is to worship; and there was deep truth in this. For he who worked was, in virtue of that very fact, in one all-important matter at least, pleasing God the Supreme Worker. He who was possessed by the thought that life was short, and the need for activity therefore great, even &iough he might not be a conscious worshipper, was not very far from the Kingdom of God. Certainly he was nearer the Kingdom than that other who, going through life with dilettante indifference, with neither earnestness nor activity, trusted he would find salvation through the catch-words of some creed. The life which was not to be repented of could be only an earnest busy life a li:e which had manifested practically that it was in sympathy with God. It must be so. For the nature of things—just another name for God—Was very busy. He who did not in this respect fall in with the nature of thing* lost his life—his soul. Practically it came to" that, for the Eternal Worker, whose work never ceased, could have no sympathy with those who did not work. God's working in matter, mind, and spirit was then referred to. It was shown how God manifested Himself in these domains. All the discoveries made by the mind of man were only the unfolding of God's thoughts. We spoke of original men—thinkers and inventors, but God alone Was the original thinker. Men did but discover God's thoughts ; and so, also, concerning all that pertained to morals—the region of conscience. In every human soul God was working. In the soul of the enlightened, cultured Christian God worked; so, also, in the soul of the ignorant savage. Whatever moral truths had been discovered, from the simplest up to the most complex, they discovered because God was in them revealing and making Himself known to them in proportion to their fitness to receive His revelation. In matte?, mind, and spirit God worked ceaselessly, Could He, then, have any sympathy with those who were not workers, to whom life was as a dream of the lotoseater? To what end did God work ? For the perfection of each thing after its kind. This was just saying that He sought to make everything, according to its capacity, a mirror of Himself. That the heavens, the earth, the sea, the human soul may be made to reflect God to their full extent was the end for which God works. Where His work was not marred by the instrumentality of beings endowed with freedom of will, God never failed of His purpose. But in His wisdom He had permitted obstacles in the way of His perfect working. Let them limit their thought to the sphere of conscience and spirit, and they would perceive that man's sinful will and sinful life very greatly marred the moral order of God's world ; that, while the great Worker would here as elsewhere have order, harmony, and beauty prevail, all is disordered, jarring 1 , and unlovely. But still God works on. He is very patient. Truth after truth, revelation upon revelation of word and deed were given to men. The highest revelation of all, in the person of His Son our Lord Christ, was in the fulness of the times made manifest. And still God works on in tl e souls of men, seeking to restore to them that order and harmony, that peace and purity, which sin had taken from them. Now, this was the working of God which St. Paul had especially in view when he wrote " We are fellow-workers with God." After pointing out that this was the highest work—highest in itself, for the soul was more than the body and eternity than time; highest also because while the perceptions of moral order and physical were not synonymous, yet in the perception of moral order lay hid the potentiality of beholding order and beauty of every kind—the preacher continued s"I think we are now in a position to understand what is meant by being a ftllow-worker with God. It is to do what in us lies to promote and further God's works in the world—to labor with our whole heart and mind and strength to produce order, harmony, and beauty in God's world and among God's creatures; to do all with a moral and spiritual purpose, with our souls in touch with God, and our hearts on flame with desire to render all the assistance in our power to the Almighty Worker, who hath been pleased to so limit Himself as to need and seek for our help in the working out of His great purpose in the earth; it is to come up to God's standpoint—to see that sin has brought disorder and confusion into human life, to see that it has largely destroyed God's greatest work—the human soul—and, perceiving all this, to set ourselves with heart and mind, with energy and prayer, with whole-souled consecration and resolve, to act with God in His working to restore His order in the world, to seek to bring our own eouls and the souls of our brethren into subjection to the law, into conformity with the will of God. Not until we do so may wc be called fellow-tvorktrs with God. But when we have done so, then this high boast will be ours. And surely this js the noblest ideal of human life—noblest because it is what life ought to be, what God's Son died to make possible to it. What higher ideal can there be than that our life should be linked on to the life of God. and become as it were apart of his life. "In Him," said St. Paul, " we live and move and have our being." That is true of all men—truest of those who consciously experience its truth, who know that in God they are living, that in a sense they have become p»rt of God, realising to the full that glorious Christian Pantheism which Jeeus taught His disciples when Ho prayed to the Father for them in these words : " That they all may be one, as Thou Father art in me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in ns." The preacher also pointed out that this ideal of life was the noblest, because it brought a practical salvation to those who sought it, and enabled them to work for the salvation of others. Unless men learned to work out God's will here they caDnot work it out hereafter. In speaking on the second point, viz., "That this ideal life is fully realisable only in Christ," the preacher said there were various degr3es in which this life could be realised. It had been realised to some extent by some who had not even heard of Christ. His spirit had constrained them even though they knew it not. But the highest degree of fellowship in work with God was to bo obtained on'y in and through the Father's beloved Son. How was this so? The reply was that Jesus revealed God as a God of love, who, with infinitely tender yearnings, seeks men to love Him. When the 60ul is convinced of this it could not refuse to do God's will. Jesus revealed God as the Father; realising this, men cannot refuse Him the obedience of sons. Jesus is the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world, and when men have been cleansed from sin's guilt and delivered from its power they could not resist doing the work of the Lord, especially when that work was by life of deed and by life of word, to reveal to others the Christ who had redeemed them, to tell them of the pardon and peace, the harmony and order Jesus had brought to their souls. And through these revelations Jesus uplifts men, giving them a sense of dignity and value—tcachcsmcnto put a true estimatcupon themselves. "Christ," says F. W. Robertson, "is the realised idea of our humanity. He • is God's idea of man completed." And Christ taught men that His humanity might become theirs—that they may become in very truth sons of God"—"heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ." "When," said the speaker, "I feel that Christ has laid hold of me—when I leiliso that what He is on the human side I may become—then and not till then do I know the grandeur and sublimity of my humanity, or realise the heights of perfection to which I may attain. In the light of Christ's humanity —in the light of my relation to God, which He has made known—l at length can undei stand how even I may become a fellow-worker with God. Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift." The sermon was brought to an end l)y an appeal to all to become workers with God. It was for this end that they existed as a church. Were any amongst them unconscious of the Christ-life, let them now turn in loving obedience to Jesus, and the great glory of 1 eing made a fellow-worker with God would be conferred upon them. "And," concluded the preacher, for the rest: " brethren, my heart's desire and prayer for you and myself is that God would make us good workmen, who need not to be ashamed at His coming. Wc must be in earnest about our Father's business. The time is short, let us redeem it; the harvest

!b plehteous, lot us reap it* It was tho half-paganGoethcwhowrote concerning life's day:—

Jforo eyes do regard you In eternity's stillness; Here is all fulness, te bravo, to reward you;

Woik, and dospair not. Bat you havo a higher and better motive than even that. Your motive is Christ, and the doing of His will. "Work then, brothers, work ! Rest will be yours by-and-by."