SUNDAY READING

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 June 1921, Page 8

SUNDAY READING

(This column will appear every Saturday.) THE JOY OF THE LORD. CHEERFULNESS OF SCRIPTURE “The great purpose of religion is not to makd*men happy, but to make men good; but whatever makes men good is very sure to make them happy. It is worthy of remark that in the Bible we meet with the word ‘joy’ twice as often as the word ‘sorrow’ ; the word ‘hell’ you may see in fifty-three instances, the word ‘heaven’ in four-hundred and seventy-five'; and for once that you read of ‘damnation,’ you read of ‘salvation’ sixteen times. ‘Gladness’ occurs nearly fifty times, ‘sadness’ only once; and I find the word ‘happy’ in some twentyseven passages of Scripture, whereas I believe that you will look in vain from the beginning of the Bible io the end, for the word ‘unhappy’. Of course, these facts do not tell very much, apart fro mtho examination of the texts; still a religion the source of which, and the truest expression of which, are to be found in a. book in which the cheerful words so greatly outnumber the mournful ones, can hardly be a very sorrowful kind or . religion.”—Hugh Stowell Brown. JESUS AND NICODEMUS. This meeting of Jesus and Ni.code- ' mus—on the housetop, most likely, and under the clear-shining Syrian stars —is the most momentous interview in history. Nicodemus’ coming showed how deeply the religious leaders of the nation were stirred; his coming by night showed how cautious they were in committing themselves, and how already the currents of popular opinion were setting in different ( directions. Nicodemus begins with , Oriental courtesy and indirectness — Jesus drives directly across ir. all. •Your will not understand this,” He says, “or have any power to show it till you-are willing to begin as a little child. Your tendencies, your preconceptions, will not help you herej your hopes, your pride, your Jewisfi birth, will only hinder you. Such a discussion as you are preparing to begin is beside the mark. This must either bo the birthnight of your soul, or nothing; you must be willing to to forget your wisdom and clear yourself of your misconceptions and begin all over again or you will never even > see the kingdom of God.” Something like this is beyond debate what Jesus

■ meant in His answer to Nicodemus; but beyond all this is something greater still. Conversion is always the b. ginning of any bitter, truer way of living. If we have never known what it is to have a new self, with new purposes and dedications dispossess our old doubting, divided selves —if we have never known what it is to fling ourselves clear of fears and irresolutions in a great all-conquer-ing self-dedication to causes and discipleships which have long called us, and which wo have long resisted we do not know what it is to live. Such a new life may come as the rising of a summer dawn ; it may come with a light above the brightness of the midday sun—but till it conies, we, like Nicodemus' on the housetop, sit in darkness. If any one of us, our Father, has become, whether in life or temper, so much a part o flhe unworthy or transient that we cannot join ourselves t > the true and eternal, help us at whatever cist to clear ourselves of whatever constrains or hinders us, and even in the simplicity of litle children to be willing to be taught anew, willing to begin again, in the name of the King, even our Master Jesus

Christ. Amen. TRICKS V. TRUTH. Many a time frail ami hollow buttresses have been used in Africa to support religious worship. The witchdoctor catches the devotion of his victims. by tricks and plays, and sometimes spurious forms of Christianity have tried to do the same. One time during the Etiopian reaction along the lake shore numbers of characterless lads passed up and down preaching an easy doctrine, and chieflly declaring “there is'no Hell.” And they baptised thousands who were carriid away by their compromised teaching in morality. At one great meeting at the lake shore a youth who had learned something from the tricks ot the witch-doctors was preaching his main doctrine with mighty voice and action. He stopped, and a voice came from the thick trees behind him, “There is no Hell.” And the startled worshippers thought that these were mystic voices calling from the trees

confirming the message of the lad, but soon afterwards it was found that a man had been placed among the trees and another was swimming in the lake by prearvangement, and that alt the witness was trickery. The true Gospel needs no chalataurv or dramatic trappings to bear witiles to its message. Here stands the record of.the ages, and according to what is written the faith of the people must stand. The prestige of the white man has certainly decreased by all the happenings of the war, and by the presence of whites who are juit worthy citizens of Europe, but the prestge of the Bible only grows with the vears. It has never yet been found to be deceiving or to lie. lhe power of the Bible’s message lies also in that it has spoken to individual souls. There they have found light for their darkness and comfort for their need.