SUNDAY AFTERNOON READING.

Evening Star, Issue 13002, 22 December 1906, Page 4

SUNDAY AFTERNOON READING.

A COLUMN FOR THE QUIET HOUR. [Conducted by tho Rev. G. Botaii,.] THEE ALONE. (By tho Rev. Dr Newman Hall.) Born of woman ! Lord of Glory! Rorn to die from sin to save; God Incarnate! wondrous story 1 . Conquering Satan and the grave. Jesus ! solo Propitiation ! I*leading ever on tho Throne; Source and Giver of Salvation! Thee wo trust in, Theo alone. Conquering Death, to Heaven ascending, Tbco our ransomed souls adore; Thine is mercy never ending, Thine bo glory evermore! PRAYER. O Lord Christ, Who hast humbled Thyself to become a. child with children, a man with men, wo bless Thee for Thy gracious nearness to us, Tliv perfect fellowship with us. Wo praise Thee because Thou hast shared our infirmities and borne our griefs and tasted our death and taken our .sins away. Grant us the grace and peace of this season’s glad tidings. Breathe in us Thy pure and lowly spirit, that we may be born anew into Thy likeness. Sweeten our natures to forgive everyone who has sinned against us, that we may keep tho feast with gladness of heart, at peace with Thco and .it peace wi‘‘ r - .cn. Amen. T . ri. Behold, I bring y&i'-dsd tidings of great joy. for unto you is horn a Saviour, which is Christ tho Lord. . He came not to be ministt ,-d unto, but to minister. Ho shall appear tho second time. A STAR HARNESSED TO A MANGER. (By the Rov. Dr Talmago.) Christ’s cradle was as wonderful as Hie cros. On that first Christs Christmas He had only two friends. They were His pnreutrs. !S*o paiin-lir-ed cradle, no dclicato intention; but straw and tho cattle, and the coarse joke and banter of the cameldrivers. From the depth of that poverty Ho rose, until to-day He is honored throughout all Christendom and sits triumphant upon the imperial throne in Heaven. What name is mightiest to-day in Christendom? Jesus. Who has more friends t>a earth today than anv other bring? Josue. Before whom do tlio most thousands kmcl in chapel, and church, and cathedral? Jceus. From what depths of poverty to what heights, of renown 1 And so let all those who are poorly started remember that they cannot be more poorly bom than was our Christ. As the clean white linen was wrapped around tho little form of the Child-Eropsror, not a cherub, not a seraph, not a world but wept, and thrilled, and shouted. Our world has plenty of sympathisers! Our world i« only a silver rung of a great ladder, at the top of which is our Father's house. No more stellar solitariness for one world ; no other friendless planets spun out into space to freeze, but a world in tho bosom of divine paternity. A star, harnessed to a manger. THE FESTIVAL OF HOPE. (By Doan Farrar.) Christmas Day is, above all other days, tils fest.val of hope. On that blessed day tho thoughts of millicciß all over the habitable globe, from tho huts of tho, Eskimos to the kraals of the Kaffirs, and from the torrid zone down to the wigwams of the Patagonians and the stormy Ant.irctic isles, will turn to Bethlehem and to tho Christ-child. On Christ Day on the defies a£ sailing vessels they will sing ill-ir Christmas hymns; in the backwoods set dements ot America the eyes of exiles will fill with tears as they deck the hearth and think of home ; in crowded city alike, and lonely hamlet, fiom the glorious minsters of Europe, and in the coral churches of tho Seychelles, and where a few gather under the" forest trees or by the shore—all will be glad to think how to us is born in the Citv of David a Saviour, Who is Christ the Lord. And why? Because even the dimmest and vaguest conception of Christmas will show that tliis commemorates an infinitude of love and an infinitude of hope. What is the very inmost meaning and leoson of our Christian faith? It has meanings so many and so precious that it may bo” hard to fix on one ; but ass-uredly it has this meaning, around which all others centre : that man is not a worthless atom ; that ho is dear to God ; that there is an infinite value and preciousness in this our mortal life. THE DAY~OF SACRIFICING LOVE. (By tho Bishop of Ripcm.) Christmas Day is the day of sacrificing love. It is the day when self and all thought of self should be laid aside. Life seems to increase .selfishness. Expedience tells us that in tho struggle each man must he for himself. Wc are learning better. Wo are learning that each man is to ho for Ins brother-man. The joy of the world, the mitigation of its hardships, the alleviation of its sorrows are not matters outside onr interest. They are the very things for which wo should hive eyes and hearts. They are the very things for which we must learn to sacrifice our wealth, our ease, and our self-pleasing to promote. Not with signs of sovereign power did Christ come to' speak a royal fiat and abolish all ill; but under limitations, by eelf-sacri ficc, by patience and thought and effort, by doing kindly acts and speaking kindly ■words, by the sovereign power of simple and self-sacrificing love did He live and work in the world. And so was the world brought to the feet of God—not hv might, not by power, but by the spirit which was GodV-i Let self, then, bo flung aside on Christmas Day and always. Let us throw ourselves inte’tbe joys of others, forgetting our own sorrows; into the sorrows of othorn, forgetting our own pleasures. CHRISTMAS KINDNESS. (By tho Rev. Dr James Stalker.) The * characteristic feature of this time of vear is kindliness. At Christmas the music of tho angels of Bethlehem, announcing the advent of peace and goodwill. seems to roll again round the globe; and' at the New Year, when the world shakes itself free from the errors and failures of the past, and addresses itself to the old taik with fresh energy and hope, it is a poor heart till'd does hot go out with a genial glow to its fellow-creatures-and wish them well. But these expansive feelings may evaporate in mere smoko unless they are condensed and directed in

some beneficent channel.; and there can be no better method ofTjitilierng tho favorable opportunity than : that suggested: by our Lord in tho words Whosoever sha.l give to drink nnto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only; in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.” ii _ ' THE TWO ADVENTS. .- (By. the Rov. Mark Guy Pearso,) The season of thoyear, as well as the custom of -tho Church from tho earliest ages, naturally leads us to .set the two advents of Christ thus together: His coming as the Babe of Bethlehem, and His coming as the King in His glory. The great event of Christmas . .with its gladness merges into tho more solemn thought that is suggested by tho ending, of the year. But the two advents are mud) more closely related than that. Tho one must noccsarily lead up to the other. In Christ’s first coming wc find our fitness for His coming again. Wo learn to love and trust Him in His humiliation, that wo may learn to welcome and adore Him when Ho shall come in His glory. . And in that firet coming there is the pledge of the second. , The second coming of Christ fulfils tho purpose of the first. The tidings of great joy cannot end in the grief of Gethsemane and in tho agony of the Cross. The song of tho angels waits through the ages for His coming again to reign for ever and ever.