Bishop Barry at Queenstown.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1522, 12 March 1886, Page 5

Bishop Barry at Queenstown.

The inhabitants of this district again had offered to them the pleasure and benefit of the ministration of the Most Kev. Bishop Barry, Primate of Australia and Tasmania, who, conducted divine service throughout on Sunday evening 28th ult., at St. Peter's Church. The congregation—which comprised many worshippers besides those of the Church of England—was a large one, and although the building was not quite so crowded as on the two previous occasions when the Bishop preached, nearly every seat was occupied, and it was quite as full as it could be expected, considering the very wet and inclement weather that prevailed all day.

His Lor.lsbip chose for his text the parable of the Bower commencing in the fourth chapter of St. Mark, at the fourteenth verse—" The sower soweth the word," and its parallel as contained in St. Luke, Sth chapter, Ilth verse—"The seed is the word of God." He had taken these two texts to remind them of the parable of the sower which had been brought before their notice twice during the day—once in the Gosp«l and once in the lesson of the day—and he therefore thought it appropriate that they should further dwell on it. He would first refer to the great object of our Lord in teaching by (•arable, and then apply that teaching to our lues. This was the fiist occasion on which our Lord adopted the form of teaching by parables, although in those days that form was the custom amongst the rabbi. He need hardly say that those parables were drawn from real life in order to show one great principle adopted in the teaching of God. A parable took the dramatic form as being more striking—it arrested the attention at once. This was one object. But there was another object, namely, that it was intended to stimulate thought. There was auother object, and that was the endeavour to make a distillation between the thoughtful and the thoughtless—between those who came to merely listeu and forget, and those who came to mark, learn and to profit like tiie disciples, and to glorify God w itli an uud) ing power. If these were the objects of our Lord's teaching by parables, we must next considi r on what principle this teaching by parables laid. The principle was a a deep and fundamental one. showing in all God's great teachings that there is a unity in the laws between the spititual aud material world—a shadowing forth, as it were, in our present earthly existence, that spiritual life—that future state—which we shall all know hereafter. If we took examples of these laws in the outer world they would seem to be the workings of God's ways in the i spiritual world. If such be the truth there was, evidently, a real unity of law running between or through all the provisions of God's dealings. The knowledge of this great law of unity has been an in•ight in the mind of man. The poets of all sges saw or felt it. and it was grasped in all languages, and applied by tt.'urcs and words—by aSlegorv—binding together things visible and invisible. This discovery, by the provision of reason, was being developed or brought out more and more clearly every day by the advancement of science. None of the parables of our Lord, however, contained the whole truth, but only one iwrtion of what was intended to be shown. For instance, there was the parable of the sower in the words of the text; but, besides this, to obtain a view of the complete meaning we must take also the parables, (2) of the tires. (3) of the grain of mustard seed, (4) of the leaven. (5) of the hidden tieasure, (»>) of the pearl of great price, and (7) of the seed opening insensibly. Each of these parables was, so to speak, only one sketch of a building, but when put together all was square and compiete. We required, in fact, to study not one parable—nor half a dozen—but all, and the whole teaching of the Bible, if we wanted to work out our salvation. He took the meaning of the text to be that everything must grow, and must first have a beginning : but that thing had a germ of life, which germ was a mystery. What was true of the seed of vegetable life was true also of animal life. And yet a vast majority of this seed never came to perfection because it needed the condition of growth. So also, of the germ of our spiritual hie, which would never prow to perfection unless it had the outward conditions necessary. There were infinite germs or seeds of all kinds which never came to perfection. We saw in this how much the great unity of the law of God underlaid the parable, under consideration. " The seed is tiie word of God." The word, which is the seed of life, is the word engrafted upon the soul by the Lord who is the great sower. Turning to the parable there is one soil fruitless and one soil fruitful, and lietween these is the poor soil from which spriugeth lite but that life perisheth for want of nourishment. How many are like the seed sown upon rocks, who do not grasp with all their minds and hearts tiie true life springing from it. Too often Satan steps in l«?eause the soul is hardened and scarcely aide to retain for even a short time the word of God. First there is the reprobate mind fthe seed somi by tiie wayside), powerless to receive the word. Next there is the thoughtless mind (the seed sown upon stony ground with a very thin or superficial surface), it springs up quickly, but it has no depth, and withers up as soon as the sun shines. Then there is the sowing amongst thorns—the soul as choked, and although it l>ears some fruit, none comes to perfection. Lastly, there is the seed which fell into gr od soil and brought forth fruit, some an hundred J old—the honest and good heart which derived the full benefit; which exj»erienced the blessings of truth in love—love in truth—or as St. John says "the joining of love and truth.' This is the only true seed which bears fruit uuny fold—some in greater degree t'lan the other. So in the Kingdom of God there will he degrees of reward. This was a mere ou'lineof the truth brought out , by the whole parable of the sower aud the seed. A great object is kept in view and a great principle—underlies all the teaching, of our Lord by para ides. The result of the fint teaching of this parable of the sower—the seed l>eing the divine word—is the sad tliouglit of the iiitin:t-* waste which go<-s on Sunday j after Sunday in the house of (iod. for want of a [ thorough concepti >n of the vital importance of His I word to our salvation. It is |>erhaps a very low ! estimate to assert that most probably nine-tenths of { those who attend a place of worship come an I go without profit, because there exists no honest desire iu their hearts to grow in grace and go-»d i woiks. A prcat responsibility rests upon him tiiat speaks or prea dies, aud perhaps a greater on him that hears the words pointing the way to eternal salvation. Very many reelected the opportunities given them. But it w;.s not for men to judge. Jesus says '* If any man hear my words and believe not, I judge him not." The second teaching or consideration is that to the profitable hearing to the word of God was required its simple aecep'snee by faith. It was the harmony of the truth aud love of the Gospel which worked in the Divine nature, and if the heart were honest it would bear fruit to life eternal, and fulfil the word of God, bo that every such word would blossom, and ripen to perfect manhood, to the end that we might lead a Christ-like life iu this world, and hereafter enter into au existence of bliss eternal.