THE GLEANER.

Evening Star, Issue 12865, 14 July 1906, Page 3

THE GLEANER.

"GRACE AND GRIT."

[By Duncan Wright, Dnnedin.]

No. 50.

Higher, higher will we climb Up the mount of glory, That our names may live through time In our country's story; Happy when her welfare calls He who conquers, he who falls.

Of Archimedes, the most celebrated of ancient mathematicians, many wonderful tales are told. I note two of these. He was the first to establish the truth that a body plunged in a fluid loses as much of its weight as is equal to the weight of an equal volume of the fluid. A great problem was suggested to bis mind in this connection, and just as he was entering his bath the solution of the problem came to him, and so overjoyed was he that he ran home naked, exclaiming, like a frenzied man : " Eureka' Eureka!" (I have found it! I have found it!) Don't blame the man who has, with sorrow and tears, through weary days, months, and years, sought the "pearl of greatest price," when sweetly and silently the light has come, and he sings, perhaps shouts: "I have found it! I have found it!

And did not .this same great thinker make a boast like this : " If I had a fulcrum great. enough I could move the world!"

"If." Wonderful little word. "If" . Sometimes we are asked by men down m their luck, or perhaps in the depths of humiliation through drink, questions like these: Can you do anything for me'" Is there mercy for my soul'" The moisture comes to one's eyes, and honestly I reply: "What can a poor, weak mortal do in sncb a case?" Not much, certainly. But another reply comes quickly : "I know what the grace of God can do; Jesus Christ loves yon in all your defilement; He can help you ™.'?° U f\ ke >? P y ° U ' and make a "an of ewes' 70a ' my reader ' know SBch

When you get a fellow by the shoulder, look into his soul through his keen eaeer him' k nd , "i; to him-he trembles at first, and then a g NVith L I Tir k ? hia lace «*«£■ W either Archimedes nor all the nro found scientists of tho past coidd\oTv e the deep problems of the W No bodily suffering can exceed the anguish of a s°in SSfv 85 because'o? sm. bladly would I read or sins th« words of a consecrated Gospel siS • ?hi°T!f- g Sav r r ' Thon «""* <*« ' Thy healing balm we supplicate. ' Or the words :

0 heal the bruised heart within, U save our souls all sick with «L. T„ 10*1 x hee ev ermore! crowd l S l 'w e i t h a ? J SS la S e l f nd r' * sembled to see offered E? P e ° p3e as " black, TidZ f ■an ancient Cremona 19%?' , , to be supposed to hTve L- ***%* °J d ' md famous AnLio^^arf^ 6 by the •ine auctioneer handled ff a v j. , original, genuine (note th* nil i gI ?-" d ' tives) Antonio P f ? ]e °- phantly he held £ d ■ fcnum " fiddle like a baby £ l s bearing .be "Sg sweet tS^^S^ fen guineas were offered «o£i * guineas for an iastnmSf wrth i* 7 • i" m gold! Tea h wei^ht ten fiU,D63S -B M *-g«ing- <n ly

***"* ™»*- etoenng. Foaily the fiddle was Lffi down to the famous artist NimU p • for one. hundred guinS ' hj Pdg!UUlu ' At Drury W that night Paganini stood nf^^T h t?. hj ° a lf wlth ** old SdS in his hand, while enthusiastic applause often «une from the pe op , e . But i^f • IW B ' ? ! T d ™ th ""qrodled pathos *»g™* home,' then, went a Did not th.: blaspheming peraecutor Pawl become through the D.vin? touch the greatest touooor, preacher, evangelist neit +n the Sou of Gad, of the New Testament? If you think the days of mira<■!*.* are gone, and gone for ever, I cannot for one moment agree with you. Every true conversion to God and His service is a standing self-tvidencing miracle wrought only bv the third person of the blessed Trinity Greater than Archimedes! greater than Paganini! is the Holy Spirit when He regenerates— " regenerates" is in every in. stance fuller, deeper, btronger than the word "conversion." As the origin of hfe is a mystery and a profound secret to every human being and known only to the Infinite Creator, so is the beginning of spiritual hi© a mattery to men jnd only known to the Holy Spirit of God. "Marvel not," said Jesus to Nicodemus that I said unto thee, ' Ye must be bom a#om.

"The wind btoweth where it listett, and Thou heaiesl th* sound thereof, but canst uot tell whence it cometh and whither it gueth ; so is everyone that is born of the Spirit."

Only to the plodding student of nature are nature's secrets unfolded. The blind man is no judge of colore. To none but the tuneful souls are the harmonies of music revealed. You would never ask a deaf man to adjudicate at a musical demonstration. What is essentially spiritual is not and cannot in the nature of things be understood by the carnal man. But when the Divine Master touches with healing and divine power the human soul, He can call forth sweetest music. What is cold and dead and shrivelled He can make beautiful. That is implied in tie words "Grace and Grit."

When woonded sore, the stricken soul Lies bleeding and unbound, Only one hand, a pierced hand. Can *alve the sinner's wound.

Have you caught my meaning? To-day we have to do with. Josus Christ. YOU whether we accept or reject the fact of Chiisi—you ho.ve to do with Him. Church or no church, creed or no creed, He comes in mercy to save from sin and Hell. Praise be to His free and limitless grace, power, and pity, the poor man or the rich man may in and through His transforming mercy beeoai? % child, a soldier, a. and a

mighty man of valor in the army of the Lord. Oh, wondrous grace! , < . f Often, and often, in happy days, when doing the work of an evangelist, wellmeaning but foolish people often said concttrniiOg certain persons and places: ."Oh, dear, what hopeless people, and what a hard place. Don't expect many conversions." I was nngry. and disgusted—yes, amrry—at the silly speeches of weak-kneed Christians. I implore of yon, never talk in this way either to the pastor who is resident or to the visiting evangelist. ..-Tell me thfe: "Is anything too bard for the Lord?" Answer: "There is nothing too hard for Thee."

Your conception of God's mercy is on a par with the prattling mfant who tries to empty the mAcrhty ocsan with a teaspoon.

Was Dr Fabef a false teacher or a dreamer, or a faddist when he wrote the lines:

For the love of God is broader Than the measures of man's mind;

And the heart of the Eternal

Is most wondrrfully kind,

If this be not the teaching of the Word of God, in your pifty, tell mej what shal' we say when dealing with the anxious inquirer, with the faiUm, the. perishing, the maid jo tlra kitchen, the lady in the draw mg room, the weary sufferers in our hos pitals, the men and women in our places of confinement and punishment, the inmate* of our mental institutions, out refuges? Oould man or highest angel tell ve what is meant by the words of inspiration "Jesu* wept"? No. The distance of the far-off stars may dp measured, the depths of ocean may be recorded, brat the fove of the Infinite is far beyond the mind of mortal man " He hath not dealt with t« after our s ; ns. nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above tho earth, so greai is His mercy toward them that fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgression* from us."—Petlra 105.

Have you read thai unique classic John Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress'? Read it again. If yon have not read the hnmortiiJ allegory, get it aft once and read it with care.

Now, who was John Bunvan? What was be? Where did God find* him? Was he not the dTunken, blaspheming tinker o! Bedford? Any words of mine are of small value, and so I quote from Lord MacaulayV ' Essavs *: .

" That wonderful book, while it obtains; admiration from the most fastidious critics is loved by those who arc too «nnpre..--.to admire it. Dr Johnson, all wiiose etndief were d sultory, and who haied, as he said to read books through, made an exceptioi in favor of the 'Pilgrim's Progress.' "In every nursery the ' Pilgrim's Pro grass' is a greater favoiftte than ' Jack ihe Giattt-killer.'

"The style of Bunyan is delightful to every reader, and invaluable as a stud) to every person who wishes to obtain a wide command over the English language The vocabulary is the vocabulary of the common people. [Concerning the greatest of all teachers it is said: " The common people heard Him gladly."] "For magnificence, for pathos, for vehement exhortation, for subtle disquisition, for every purpose of the poet., the orator, the dilyine, this homely dialect, the dialect of plain working men, wa« perfectly sufficient."

..." thero were only two minds which possessed the imaginative faculty in a very eminent degree. One of those" minds produced the 'Paradise Lost,' the other rhe 'Pilgrims Progress.'" Grace and grit we aD admire, Sham and shoddy we all despise. The mercy, goodness, and pity of Almighty God never change. The man who works alongside of you may be a chosen vessel; the Jboy who sleeps under your own roof may, if touched and transformed by thefJivmehand, become an apostle of God's fauth. Would you despise and refuse the gift of a thousand sovereigns because the messenger who carried it wore a tattered ccat? Most of us are ridicuiouriy faddy, critical, and fastidious in regard to both our mental pabulum and our tpiritual food, which is no evidence of true " grace" 01 genuine "grit," but may anße from pride and dry-rot. • That quiet, retiring boy in your Sunday class may yet be an honored preacher (if Christ's gospel. The modest lad in your Endeavor Society may in the coming years be a shining light in the far-off mission field. God can do it; you can help. Did not Zwingle, tie reformer, come from an Alpine shepherd's hut? Did not Aielahctnon, the theologian ci the Reformation, come from an armorer's shop?

And was not Martin Luther, the monk who shook the world, the son of a pour miner? Think of the boy singing from door to_ door to earn his daily brea<L When Trebonius entered the scliooiroom where Luther was a pupil, it was observed that he raised his cap. The colleagues of Trebonius, who did not adopt the same custom, one day expra sed their astonishment at his extreme condescension.

In the hearing of young Luther he replied : " There are among these boys men of whom God will one day make burgomasters, chancellors, doctors, and magistrates. "

that teacher had the eye and the soul of a seer. Have all teachers in day schools, Sunday schools, high schools, and seats of learning Mich an eye and such a lofty soul? Was something of this lofty ideal in the mind of Emerson when he said " Bitch your waggon to a star"?

Honor and shame from no condition rise, Act well your part, there all the honor lies. Worth makes toe man, the want of it tlu fellow; The rest is all but leather and prunella!

"An honest man's the noblest work of God."—Pope.