DEVOTIONAL COLUMN

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 192, 18 July 1925, Page 5

DEVOTIONAL COLUMN

PRAYER. O Thou, suspected of men through all the ages, Who broke through the veil and revealed Thyself in Bethlehem’s Babe, do Thou help us to know Thee more, to get help from our knowledge of Thee, to know comfort and peace and joy and overcoming strength consequent upon our increasing knowledge of Thee who art not only our Creator, but our Loving Heavenly Father too. For Jesus sake, Amen. READING. The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. —Deuteronomy, 33 :27. A SONG OF PRAISE. I I praise Thee, Lord, who didst create This earth, so bright, so fair; I see Thy handiwork divine Around me everywhere. The fields, all clad in tender green, Mountains and rolling sea, The deep-blue heav’n, O God of love 1 Th ese all were formed by Thee. The golden light of early morn, The solemn, starlit night— These in their beauty, speak of Thee, Creator infinite. Thou madest man —his peerless mind, His heart—the home of love. His task sublime —to worship Thee, Who dwell’st in light above. Great Lover of mankind, to Thee Some gift. I fain would bring; 0 take my heart, my life, my all —- ’Tis love's poor offering. Henry j. Glanville. THINK OF HIM AS THE GOD OF ALL COMFORT. (Rev. S. Chadwick.) The Saviour of the world could hardly be otherwise than lire Man of Sorrows, for wherever there are eyes there are tears. Ministers like “lan Maclaren,” Dr. Joseph Parker and Dr. Alexander Whyte remarked in old ago that, if they could begin again they would seek more to be ministers of comfort. The world needs Shepherds more than anything else. It needs schoolmasters and warriors and workers, but; it needs encouragers and comforters, most of all. 'J’he call of Jesus to the weary and heavy laden is remembered when His words of woe are forgotten. The religion of the Cross gets flown to the tragedy of the world. The Bible came through blood and tears, and cannot be read dry-eyed. The love of God in Christ appeals to a heart-broken and sin-stricken world. His messengers are sent to comfort His people. THE GOD OF COMFORT, God is the God of all comfort. The ministers of God are to be ministers of comfort. The Church is ordained for refuge and the fellowship of consolation. 'l’he Gospel is the Good News of God to the burdened and lost. There is much discussion as to why churches are not better attended. Some say it is because the preaching is ineffective and remote fropi reality, whatever that may mean. There are those who blame the drabness and tameness of the service. They want movement and colour that can compete with the thrill nnd excitement of a kinenta show. Others say it is the offence of the creeds, or the failure of the Church to socialise and nationalise its religion. There may be something in all these, and the Church is busy trying to accommodate itself to the clamours of an eager and impatient world. Above, beyond, and more than all these, is the lack of the spirit of compassion that seeks to bring comfort to the hearts nnd minds of the people. God is a great cncottrager. He is always coming in comfort to those who are in distress. As one whom his mother comforteth, so does the God of all comfort comfort His children.

There is no work so exacting. He who would be a comforter must bear the sorrows and sicknesses of others. Yea, who would save the souls of men must share with Jesfis the burden of sin. He bore the sin of many. He made intercession far the transgressors. Nothing in the world is so exhausting as The ministry of comfort, save only the saving of souls. Such a ministry heals and saves by blood and tears. It costs. Strenuous study is child's play to repairing disappointed hopes and binding broken hearts. Bustling activity over organisations and committees is a holiday compared with wrestling with principalities and powers for the soul's of men. Three hours in Gethsemane take more out of a man than three weeks’ preaching or three years’ committees. Our first responsibility is to be ministers of the God of comfort.

A DIVINE BESTOWAL-FOR GIVEXESS.

(Rev. R. S. Latimer.)

“Neither do T condemn thee: Go, and sin no more” (John 8:11). “Who can forgive sins but God only?” asked certain scribes (who know more of writing than of God’s grace). . And doubtless the watching angels, overhearing, said among themselves, “Exactly so!” The Saviour’s tender pity and abundant pardon, as exemplified in the case of this penitent woman; has ever been a mighty encouragement to sinners everywhere, to approach Him who is able to save to the uttermost.

This incident should be read together with the scene pictured by the prophet Zechariah (ell. 3). The persons'fh both scenes are cleansed, forgiven, changed. One is a man, a high priest, the other is a woman, but both are sinners, unclean before God. One stands before the “angel of the Lord,” the other stands trembling in the midst of a hostile crowd, facing the Lamb of God. From the one is removed bis vile clothes, and he is arrayed in fresh and beautiful priestly robes. Front the other is removed her offences against man and God, and she departs, robed in the white garments of pardon and in • the beautiful dress of • the Redeemer’s righteousness. To the man is addressed a solemn charge to walk in future in “My ways.” To the woman is addressed the gracious word which contains in its bosom the promise of grace to help—“Go, and sin no more!”

From the point of view of philosophy, pardon is n new idea, the invention of a mercy before unthought-of. There is no such thing as forgiveness known in the economy of nature. The tiger does not release its prey. Fire shows no pity either to woman or babe. The child who eats the berries of the deadly nightshade, even in mistake, must die! Yet nature is kindly. It supplies lovely flowers, and flashing jewels, and innumerable pleasant things. But it does not grant forgiveness to anybody who sins.

The false gods of heathendom do not, pardon sin. They have never done so. in all history. Often cruet and vengeful themselves* (according to their worshinpers). their altars reeking at limes with Inimun blood, they never forgive even their most devoted adherents. “Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth iniquity ?” Evangelicalism lias been challenged by a modern doctor of philosophy, who asks “why we should desire to see the grounds of God’s forgiveness?” lie adds the doubt “whether there are any grounds other than the character of the Forgivor?” To this the reply is obvious. If God lias chosen to tell us in TJis Word, and with singular plainness, what arc the grounds of His forgiveness of sinners, it is not only not irreverent to consider them, but it appears to us irreverent to ignore them, and treat them as a tiling ol naught. Ibe sporadic impulses of irregular compassion are neither 1 lie fount nor tlie Inundation of the Divine pardon of human sin. He is just and righteous as well as merciful. Our pardon rests ore the sure foundations of His fidelity and justice (1 John, 1:9). Sin' cannot be winked at. The surgeon will never cure the diseased patient by outbursts of emotion. The Bible is full of illustrations of tin's. Adam was not forgiven and reinstated on (he compassionate impulse of the Divine Being. Nor was

Cain; nor, indeed, any of the big sinners of the olden time. Tiio fact is that there is a matter antecedent to pardon of sin, and this is atonement, expiation for sin. Sin must he'‘put away,” to use the phrase of Holy Scripture. All (lie sacrificial enactments of the Hebrew economy point to the One Perfect Sacrifice of the Lord Jesus on ('alvary. He in (lie fulness of lime “put away sin bv the sacrifice of Himself.' A religion that, omits this feature in the remission of sin, a religion without “(lie precious blood," is no religion .for us. !l is dishonouring- jo the Hedocmer. and a treacherous quicksand to the souls of men. This great I soon is given into the hands of penitence and faith. As in the ease of the sinful woman ibis monumental instance of saving grace—it is bestowed in a moment but lasts for ever. Tile forgiven sold can say with Burivaii's pilgrim: “Ho linfli given me rest by Tli- sorrow and life by His, death.”