THE DAY OF REST.

Mataura Ensign, 15 September 1906, Page 1

THE DAY OF REST.

THE BEST. Ho ductli well who loeth good To those of his own brotherhood; He doeth better who doth bless The ttranger in his wretchedness ; Yet best—oil! best of all—doth he Who helps a fallen enemy. ONE-MIXUTE SERMON. THE THERMOMETER OF THE CHURCH. By Gipsy Smith. Let me sop the week-night prayer meeting of any church in your neighborhood, and 1 will gunge its spiritual life. The week-night prayer meeting is the spiritual thermometer of any church, and if you will tell me how often you go to a week-night prayer meeting, 1 will tell you where you are; and if you will let me hear you pray in public, and give men. chance to put my fingers on your spiritual pulse, 1 will diagnose your spiritual life. Thc.ie never was a day in the history of the world when the Church was so rich in many ways as she is to-day. We never had such .magnificent preaching as we have to-day. We never had such a multitude of splendid preachers as we huvo today.

There nevei was a day when we had such magnificent church buildirgs as we have to-day. There never was a time when men were putting their hands deeper in their pockets to give their gold to the cause of God than they are doing today. There never was a day when you had such magnificent singing—church hinging—and do not think lam down on music, because 1 learned my music from God's choirs in feathers—the thrush, the nightingale, the skylnrk, the linnet. When God's choirs begin to sing everybody else must he silent.

There never was a day when (lie Church of God was giving so much to save the masses as she is doing to-day. Why, you remember, aiul so do I, ten or twelve or twenty years ago the mission-room was in a back street—a little low-ceilingcd place —if it was not down in a cellai—with the windows broken, and the forms nil crazy and wanting mending, an old asthmatical harmonium in a corner with one pedal gone, and twenty ov thirty young ragged urchins running about, and two or three young ladies to keep them quiet. You have changed all that, thank God. You are spending as lunch as fifty thousand pounds on mission halls, and you are giving your grandest instruments, your best singers, and your mightiest preachers to reaching the masses. All that is changed, and some of us have seen it changed. 1 wish we could change our prnyer meetings too. The weak spot in the Church of God is its prayer meetings. You can crowd your schoolrooms with entertainments, you can crowd them with dramatic performances —and some of our churches have them— I you can crowd your churches with world- [ ly things; but try to get the people to a prayer meeting—they have got asthma, they have got a cold, they cannot come out at night. Is it true? ]s that a fancy picture? Listen—we are playing at religion. We are playing at it; the Lord help us to live it.

If the Church is to do anything in unv neighborhood for Jesus Christ, she must put her prayer-life right. There is no substitute for prayer. Get nil (he learning, get all the culture, get all the gifts and all the grace, all the harmony, and all the poetry, all (he architecture, and nil tli• - political and social influence, and grapple with it all and consecrate it at the feet of Jesus; but remember there is no substitute for prayer. It is a poor Church that does not know how to pray. I have been to America five times. I have spent two and a-half years in tha: continent in the five trips, and I learn-I in the churches of America that what'",v

else they do, (hey attend the week-nig it prayer meeting. I think I nut perfe'liv snfe in saying that two-thirds of the Church membership will he tit its wc.-l;. night prayer meeting, and if you were to go and ask a man In dine with yon on that night he would say, "Xo, that is pray,-.-meeting night." A man would lose soc'..-' as well as religious caste if he did not g>, to the prayer meeting. These men went to » prayer nice'-in - (Acts iii., 1). And please remember it was Peter and John who were going tog'-tlier Peter was not John, and John was nil,. Peter. They were two opposite*. Tl.ey were as wide apart as men could he by disposition and in thought, but t.hev i-out together. \nd it is getting VAp.- and John together at the prayer meeting that brings victory. It may lie that there arc two .nen in your church; if you could only get them on their knees at the prayer meeting Mm will have a revival. It may be t\»i, women. J mean those people who nave not spoken to each other lately. They are Hie two I mean. If you could ,m'.v tliciu together at the prayer meeting what a glad day it would lie for the imni.tf.-r ami for the congrega'i-in! If you could < m |v get. these people Vogef iier' Hrot'ser. find your Peter, wi ! ! ion!' Thai would be a revival, h'imi your John, that woull be a revival, (io ».n.| shake hands w-.th the man you have not spoken to lately; shake hands with the woman you have !,ot hpui on friendly terms with. Thai is what I mean by getting together. In a large chinch 1 made that state ment not long ago. At the close I w.intcd, to speak to one of the ollicials when he] came into the vestry for his hat, and 1 said : "Will yon wait a minute- 1 .vanl to spoak to yojir" He said : "Don't slop me now, I am in u hurry." I said : -"Nimt is the matter?" "Well," he said, "I am going to do just, what you told mo." I said . "What is that/"

He said: "I am going to speak to a brother oilice-bearer that 1 have ji.it spoken to for five years, and it is all my "unit, and while this Divine impulse is upi-n mi I will do it before 1 sleep. I am going to find my Peter." And lie had got hint in a front pew at night, where everyboK- in that crowded church could set- linn, an.l he wanted to rise and sing, "Praise Ooil from whom all blessings How." The spirit of strife between those two ni'.-n hud torn the church 'o shreds. You find your l'eler. Peter and John went together. It is n good thing for Christians of all dcnominai'nns (o mix np a little. You have been living too far apart; and tho nearer we. get to Christ, the closer we shall >;ot to eac'i it her. We have to livo together when we get to heaven. Some of us had better learn how down here. Do not forgot it. They went together at the iwnr of prayer These nion starred a little bit earlier and gained n litie bit of extra I line on tinway, to look out for someone they could find to take with them into their pew. I wonder how- many of us do tha'.'' I wonder if any of you ever stint tin minutes earlier mi Sunday morning; 1 wonder if y.iu .loover see a poor cripple outside, paraiyse.l, crippled, hand'cappol. demoralised, ti-giaileit, curs-i by sin; I wonder if yri o-er take lime ii. speak (■.> that r.erson and say: "),ook here, 1 have o book, and 1 have a seat, and you wnio

and sit with me; come along." For there (ire lots of people who will neve- come to church till they are carried Do net forl?et that. This man would not have b»>u tit the door if he had not been earned (lure. Somebody ltivad hiin, somebody cored f«<r him ; ho wns lifted to that spot, and when Peter and John came along csey saw in'm. Yes, listen; These are the men (hat (i .1 can (rust with a bit of victory. Thev had eyes for three thousand, -ind thev hud eyes for a cripple. They ha;! eyi.s fur people who had houses and lands and money, and they had eyes and hearts and hands for che poor fellow who wanted sometning. That is the man the Lord can trust.

If you want the Lord to hear you miv "Our Father" on your knee-s, vou live our Father on your feet. If yl.ii waul (he Lord to hear you when you net j n ( 0 the temple, you hear somebody ehe's prayer before you get into the tenpie If ym want the Lord to see you m tlie temple see ccmebody who needs you before vou get to the temple. If you want (he Lord to int his hand on you in tie temple, put your hand on someone before vou loach the temple.

RIGHT KIND OF A CHURCH MEMI.KR A story is told of Henry Ward llecehcr tliat once upon a time in ordar to meet an engagement he had to drive twentv-nve miles in. the country. The driver of the team seemed proud of his horse, ami impressed Mr Bcechcr that he wanted (o show him off. He began by letting (he horse go at rather an unusual speed. MiLivelier said to tho driver: "It scorns to mo that you are driving your l.orso tmi fast. I am afraid (hat he will give out before wn get there." The mim replied : lou dout know (hat hor«e. He Marts fast, gets faster all the wav, never tiies, and never kicks." Beecher turned to the man with a merry twinkle in -lis eye and said: "1 wish your hoise was a member of my church. ABOVE THE STORM. Once when at Lucerne we went up (tie wonderful mountain railway to the top ut Filntus. Tho day was perfect, ami the extended view of the lango of the Bernese Alps clear and uniiiterruotcd. We wire told that wo might ascend fifty times and not find the conditions so favorable. On our way down we were passed by an ascending parly, and when we were lelurnmg by steamboat tc Lucerne a tremendous thunderstorm broke upon us. Tli? lightning wa« terrifying r.nd (lu rain torrential. Oh, how we pitied (he large party at the summit of Pilalus, now wrapped in inky clouds as with a garment. We expected to see them return to the hotel drenched and dispirited. But they did net so return. They came back with wonderful accounts of the glory of a thunderstorm seen from above. They had been on tne silver-lining sid-3 of the thunder, cloud, and, beheld, the sun up there was shining in all its glory, and they only heard the thunder growling and saw the lightning/playing at hide-and-seek among the fleecy billows of the clouds beneath them.

Above the storm ! That is where praver Hits us. It shows us, by faith, the silver side of circumstances black with impending disaster. It lightens thejiearl so that ue rise superior to depression and worry, for we learn on our knees that "behind a frowning providence viod hides a smiling •ace."—'The Quiver.'

THE HIEACHEIi LUTTIEI! I.UVKI) BEST. ..Martin Luther, in his autobiography. says- "1 nave one prea'jher that 1 love better than any other on earth; it is my 'little tame robin, who preaches to m"e daily. 1 put his ci iimbs upon my window :-ill, e-pecinlly it nij:lit. (Ic hops on h. the window sill when he wants his supply, anil takes as much as he desires (o satisfy his need. From thence he always hops to n little tree close by and lifts up his voice to tlod and sings his carol of praise and gratitude, tucks his little head under liis wing and goes lust to sleep, and leaves to-niurrow to look after itsott. H? is the best preacher I have on earth."— 'The Quiver.'