SUNDAY BEADING.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 10478, 7 January 1928, Page 6

SUNDAY BEADING.

(By th’a Rev, Janies Aitken, ALA.).

THE NEW YEAIt.

“To enter the New Year with a good text may he helpful ih the religious life.” So says Dr. Geo. Morrison, xand lit is'true; . But a question for us all is this. Are we living, or trying to live, the religious life? What is the religious life? There is no' l word more difficult to define than “religion” no word used with more; varied meanings.. Our Homan Catholic friends use it of the '"monastic.orders-... ' When a man. becomes a lidonk he is said to “enter religion,” and when a woman becomes a nun sue “enters, religion.” We .neyer use the word in that sense. But we use it sometimes to indicate a svsteiu of belief-or a mode of worship; we speak of-.the “Protestant religion,” and even sometimes of the “.Presbyterian religion,” The Americans of a certain emotional excitement, a certain state of feeling when they say of a man that ho lias “got religion.” It is in none ■ itf these senses of the word I use it now, but in a deeper • sense. By “retigion’d .mean the recognition of the things that are unseen and eternal, and most of. all the recognition of Hod as He has made Himself knmVii to us in Jesus Christ. And the recognition must he. practical: it must he the kind of recognition that affects all our thoughts and influences all our behaviour. The religious life is the life that takes! account of God and aiin3 at trusting Him and doing His will.' And a good .text, to enter the Mew Year with arid to carry with us through the year, may indeed be a great help to us. It must be a short text, easily remembered, so that it will spring readily into our minds on all sorts of occasions. We shall want it to help us in emergencies, to guide us in perplexities, to sustain our endurance, to lighten the burdens and to sanctify the joys of life. And it must be a text that takes us straightaway down to tho things that are fundamental. No mere maxim of prudence will do, no light word of cheer. Thc«tido upon which we are'going to sail must run deep. In few words our text must carry us past all tlio outward shows and appearances of things, and bring us in a moment lace to face with what is essential. The eternal realities, the hidden meaning of life and experience. tho true significance of all our thoughts and actions, the whole relation anS" aim and purpose of life—those must ho made to flash before our eyes in a- moment, at the recollection of this text of ours, if it is to serve its purpose as a guide and stay an inspiration to us through the coining year. There are indeed countless texts in the Bible which can stand us in -rood stead as helps to our religious life. Some of you may have already chosen -one for yourselves. If you have not I am going to suggest one to you this morning. You will find it in the SOth Psalm and at the 18th verse—eight short words—“So will not we go back from Thee.” The sentence in its context is partly a hope and partly a resolution. We shall make it our resolution for the days that lie before us. Xhose days will bring us temptations. We have all our weak points and we are sure to be assailed on them sometimes. To yield to temptation is to desert God. We make all sorts of excuses for ourselves when wo do wrong: wo blame other people, or circumstances, or say it is the -Way we were made and wo cannot help it. We refuse to face the truth—that we know what we might to do, and do not do it. Our fear, pr 'our greed, or our selfishness, or our laziness, or our lack of selfcontrol. is tho real root of our sin, and not circumstances or other .people at all. And our sin in the last resort is not against our fellow men merely, or even against ourselves: it is against God. Wo have deserted Him, rebelled .against Him, proved ourselves faithless and disloyal. But suppose, when the temptation comes, there comes also the good word to our minds, “So* will not we go back from Thee,” then the full meaning and significance of the temptation is revealed to us. We .See the wrong we are tempted to do a£ it really is; not something trivial and excusable which will yield us some satisfaction and matter little to anybody else, hut something momentous, infinitely serious, grievous and humiliating: and our -whole manhood is stirred nand strengthened to resist and overcome the. evil.. We do not want .to turn our backs on God. our deepest and most persistent desire is to walk with Him. “Our heart and our flesh cry out for the living God.” Much of our sin comes from carelessness and thoughtlessness. To see it for what it is —treachery, desertion —will often he to shrink from it, to triumph over it. We are face to face with temptation; but no, we are not going to be untrue, to God. Those coming days arp going to bring us different duties. That is part of the discipline of life. Difficulty has never been wanting in any year and it will not be wanting in this. It may he sonic task that taxes our strength to the utmost. It may be some duty that is distasteful to us. It may be the carrying on of some work that we have undertaken, when our interest in it lias flagged or when we see no great result from it. It may simply be going on with tho common everyday work when we are weary of the drudgery . and monotony. of it. The difficulties of life are not of one kind, but of •many kinds; but after all the essence of them is very much the same, ft rises out of our losing sight of the relation between duty and God. We forget that this duty, hard, unpleasant, monotonous though it may be, is God’s will'for us. It is the tiling God wants us to do. To lie reminded of that is to become willing and even cager-rio be at it: it is often to find the difficulty vanish. You have made your way sometime along an unfamiliar path / in the dark, hesitating, stumbling, striking against this obstacle and that. And you have gone the same way again in the daytime and wondered where all the difficulty came. With tho light it is all so easy. When wo look at our day’s work, or at any incidental duty that confronts us, forgetting God the while, \ve are groping our way in the darkness.! lie m ember Him, and it is like sunshine oil our path.'' Wo have need often to say to ourselves, “So will riot- wq ; -go /hack from Thee.” There may ho Special trials for sonic, of;.'ys this year. Pain, perhaps. sickgcSs, sorrow, loss. Mow we iShalHhayo to cling to God then ! It may . Seem to us then that .God doesn’t ; care, that heaven above, us is- as brass, and there is no answer to ourstrong'crying and tears. * lint iii' reality God is ; -never indifferent, arid iTe.ijCiieyer blind to the i situation of His children.' , Only; /as, the ' prophet said thousands of-years ago, He is .a God. that hides.. Himself. He hides Himself " ;fust to . make us remember Him. Wo forget the light by which we are working. We forget the air we breathe. But . let light or‘air he withdrawn for a. moment and, we would rcnieniler it at once. So, whatever experiences may lie heforp us, let us not dream that God lias forsaken us or ceased to . Iqvo and care for us. He'-is v .thqre within the shadows . keeping watch Over us. -Let'hot the shadow* .drive, us away from-Him. Though we cannot see'-Him do not, Tet us -turn our back upon Him/ To believe in God wifh a simple childlike faith',, when clouds arid"darkness lie between us /and ,ujal triumphs which crown the hunlbiest life . with glory..' ; ; -jj.,-;,-

But not for any one of us. is tills year going to be all sorrow and suffering, all temptation and struggle. There is going to he a great deal of light and joy and happiness iiu.it ior us nil. Was there ever a yvm yet that did not bring us' ric-li store of good? Was tliere_ever a year thatdid not bring us unexpected blessings? God meant us for happiness, not for misery—He were no God of love else—and the place and conditions of our life here bear witness to His gracious intention. “The material for enjoyment has been so wrought intp the world’s constitution that wc cannot put a spade into the ground anywhere without turning it up.” Let us lie quite sure, :is_ we step forward into this New Year that there are going to be many hours of sunshine for us: and there are going to be joys, perhaps, for which sunshine is too meagre a symbol. Be that as i.t mav. what we must concern ourselves about is that no hanpiness makes us forget God. All the . good that comes to us Ss from Him. All beauty He lias iasiiioncti. All friendship and love He has "inspired. There is no worthy pleasure, or interest, or satisfaction, but issues from His foresight and care. Surely that is to be romembeiod. When we are enjoying (..ursclves. then; when things go well with us; when we arc glad at heart; when love and sympathy enfold us and friends are kind; when visions of the worth and meaning and the glorious issues of life unveil themselves before cur minds and move our hearts; then let u-s gladly and gratefully re call “the Hand from which our blessings .flow.” “So will not ;vo go back from God.” Gratitude will keep us close to Him in whom is all our safety ancl all our peace, and His presence will hallow and sanctify our heart’s gladness.