Sunday Reading.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 2778, 20 October 1923, Page 9

Sunday Reading.

"IN THAT DAX-" IBy the REV. W. WILLIAMS.] The Bible begins and ends with a picture of Paradise. In the first the morning glory fades into the gloom of failure and night. In the last the morning glory .expands into the full splendour of victory and the perfect day. In the long chain of days between the two pictures there are touches of the early gloom and the later glory, but they all look forward to the glory that eXcelteth. The mountain peaks of the Bible, whatever clouds may hang about the base, are always tipped with the golden promise of the coming day. It was from the Bible that Browning caught the healthy optimism that led him to sing? "Grow old along with me The best is yet to be." In these days, when from certain view points the outlook is so forbidding and the trial of faith is so severe, no better tonic for our fears can be found than in a study of the note of cheer that rings out dominant in the Word of God. No attempt is made to disguise or extenuate the evil condition of the ages through which the Bible came into being,'but the call is always for the upward look, the forward look, as the remedy for heartbreak and despair. " Weeping may endure for a nighl, but joy cometh in the morning," " They that sow in tears shall reap in joy." "The sad record of the Fall in Eden has as its relieving setoff the promise of Redemption. The tedium of the desert journey through the wilderness is broken by the songs of the peace and plenty awaiting the pilgrims in the Land of Promise. The outward march of the Jewish captives to their place of exile in Babylon Is mitigated by the assurance of the homeward march to Canaan. The fiery outbreak of persecution on the early Christians Became endurable by the vision of Christ enthroned as King of kings and Lord of lords. "In that day" is a phrase thai gathers up into itself Some of the most suggestive and encouraging phrases ot expectancy to be found anywhere in literature. One such is found in the words spoken by Christ to His disciples on th e eve of Gethsemane anti Calvary. "In that day ye shall asa me no questions." THE DAUK HOUR.

His own sorrow in that hour or im. pending agony was swallowed up in concern for the sorrow of others. His disciples had forsaken all to follow Him, and now He was to leave them. No wonder. that they were full of eager questioning. What did it all mean ? Was this defeat and failure to be. the end of the pleasant dream they had cherished when they became His followers ? It was to meet sucli a natural expression of disappointment that Christ said, " In that day ye shall ask m e no questions." What day ? The day in which He would fulfil the promise. " I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Comforter that He may abide with you for even When He, the Spirit of Truth is Come, He will guide you into all truth." When the Day of Pentecost was fully come and th e Holy Ghost descendeo upon the disciples in the upper room in Jerusalem, there was an end or mystery concerning Christ, His life, death and rescurrection in the hearts of those men to whom a short time before the prospect had been black as midnight. They had received the unction from the Holy One and they knew all things; that is to say, they had knowledge enough of God's unfolding purpose in Christ Jesus 'o save them from any further necessity for asking questions. It is this that explains that marvellous confidence which they had in their message enabled them in proclaiming it to shake th e world. "They believed therefore they spoke," and the impact of their own confidence shattered the strongholds of paganism.

"That day" has not yet mergea into night, and never will. The Spirit of wisdom and enlightenment abides with us for ever. How much of His light do we welcome ? How far will the doubt, the fears, the questionings that shake our souls bear' looking at in the light of what we profess when we pay, " I believe in the Holy Ghost ? " It is a sony comment on the character of our faith that in the very darkest hour of this sorely stricken earth's agony we should have a moment of doubt as to whether it is God or tho devil who is ruling the world. The world that Nero reigned over was not exactly a paradise, but it was amid the black horrors of that world that the Apostles pursued their career of triumph;- shouting all along the line that Christ was King. THE DAWN.

"Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed ?" Is not that a pertinent question at a time when, claiming- to bo Christians, we so often speak and act as if it were still a moot point whether God's purpose to bring all nations beneath His sway is to end in victory or defeat ? Persona'. need, national needs, the world's needs, all are gathered up into the confidence of an inspiring hope when we open our hearts to take in th e full import of what Christ meant when He said, "In that day ye shall ask me no Questions."

Another phase of encouragement is in Paul's use of the phrase: " He itable to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day." That was Paul's song of confidence ta view of the worst that could be done to him by his enemies. He laughed to scorn their attempt to frighten him from preaching the Gospel by threatening to take from him anything or everything he possessed. He&itU, liberty, life itself, all might go, all diu go, but the only thing he dreaded the loss of was safe beyond their reaca. He had committed the guardianship of his soul into God's hands, and He would keep ft against" " that day." What day ? The day to which Christ referred when He said, " I go to prepare a plants for you, and I will com e again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there yc may. be also." it wasrthe day thai

r Stephen hailed when in the presenc* of hia would-be murderers he exclaimed, "I see heaven opened and the Son of Man standing at the rigm, hand of God," folding it with the prayer as he -vvas being: stoned to death, " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." It was the day to which Paul himself •referred When, speaking of being m a strait betwixt two, he confessed to "having a desire to depart to be with Christ, which is far better." Until "that day" Paul wis comforted by the assurance that all he prized most was in God's own keeping. The bias of our Arminian belief; with its strong emphasis oh free will, has, it Is to be feared, prevented us from doing justice to that-side-of our salvation which Is represented by the Will of God. We sing with a kind of mental reservation the joyfully confident hymns - now in our hymn-boofc, the refrain of which is, " For I am His and He is mine For ever and forever."

THE BATTLE. We check it by the more familiar and more characteristic Methodist hymn beginning—".Oh, Lord, with trembling I confess, A gracious soul may fall from grace; The salt may lose its seasoning poweb, And never, never find it more." But how blessedly true it is that what we commit to God in the great act or soul-surrender God keeps, so far as His own will awfl purpose are concerned, for ever and for ever. It is true that H e only keeps that which is willingly left in His keeping, but His will to keep remains ah unchanging quantity, and it is in that supreme fact that we have occasion to rejoico. " Kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation " —in that statement the whole vital issue is set forth. No pressure of earthly trial can disturb the hold that God has upon th* deposit of our trust and the day of release from the strain of mortal conflict will be the day of the redemption of that trust in the joys at God's right hand.

One still more advanced phase or encouragement is found among what ar e probably the last recorded words of Paul:

" Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give to me at that day." " That day," not the day in which the victory is won, but in which it is acknowledged and crowned. There was nothing anremic In the faith of Paul; he was red-blooded enough to pay regard to the result of his fighting, and to what awaited him when death should be swallowed up of life.

THE VICTORY. He had seen the victor crowned with the laurel wreath or the golden circle in the. Olympic games, arid to him the prospect of the future life was lit up with the acknowledgment of victory at the hand of Him to whom he had pledged his life to the uttermost when he cried, " Lord, what will Thou have me to do ? " " That day " was some-; thing much more to him that a nebulous haze of a white-robed throng making music like the sound of many waters. He was by no means selfish in his view of the glory to be revealea. " Not to me only, but unto all them that love His appearing." But the central, commanding thought was, " I shall be there to receive the crown at His hands whose first words to me were, ' Saul, Saul, why persecutes* thou Me ? ' The day of blinding glory, outside the gates of Damascus was to find its consummation in the day or crowning glory inside the gates of the Paradise of God. We want the victory note in the religious life of to-day as never before, and we may have it if our surrender to Christ is as thorough and sincere as was the surrender of Paul. The powera of darkness swoop down upon us to make havoc, if possible, of our faith and hope, but "who shall separate u» from the love of Christ ? In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us." Our faith is on its trial, but the test need only have the effect of declaring its worth. The moral rottenness of every System of human devising was never so glaringly made manifest as in these days, and against that background of confessed failure the virility, the utility, the beneficence of the Christian faith may well shine forth as the sun against a cloudy sky. "That day has for us its monition and inspiration as it had for Paul, for to each one or us in the midst of the fiery temptation of the hour there comes the challenge from Christ's own lips, "Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee the crown of life." Strive man to win that glory. Toil man to gain that light; Send hope before to grasp It, Till hope be lost in sight. Exult, O dust and ashes; Th e Lord shall be they port; His only, His for ever, Thou shalt be and Thou art.