The Sabbath Hour

Northern Advocate, 18 February 1939, Page 2 (Supplement)

The Sabbath Hour

Being a sermon preached by Rev. C. Canned Hoskin in Trinity Congregational Church. Whangarei,

Text: “There came unto him a centurion. beseeching him. and saying. Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.”

IN this pleasing story from real life there are three things which we cannot help noticing.

1. The first of these is the sympathy of the centurion. The worth of this junior officer is seen in his sympathy for his afflicted slave-

To the Romans a slave was nothing at all, so this man must have been truly good with real sympathy and feeling in his heart. Some centurions were hard men; they had reason to be for they had some dreadful tasks to perform. Only a man with a heart of flint could view a crucifixion unmoved.

Sympathy For A Slave

This man was surrounded by the kind of atmosphere which would kill all religion and kindness. But. despite that, he entered with sympathy into the sufferings of his slave even though his brother officers would laugh him to scorn.

It shows us that we need not let our environment defeat us. Surroundings do influence us, but this story of the centurion shows us how we may rise above our environment. We may have evil surroundings and live under dreary conditions; we may be in poor health or have evil tendencies within us; but wo can conquer them all. Moses was brought up in an Egyptian palace to live the life of a prince but when he reached manhood he still had sympathy for his own oppressed race. The pleasures and luxuries of the palace had not killed his finer feelings. Florence Nightingale was brought up in comfortable and snobbish surroundings. That did not prevent her from entering a profession of which the prototype was the infamous Sarah Gamp of “Martin Chuzzlewit.” Miss Nightingale’s finer feelings led her to live her life to the service of others.

Notice that the centurion went to Jesus about the slave. Was there any better thing that he could have done? The way in which the Master healed the slave shows that it was the best thing to do. And we. too, by prayer and practical efforts can bring all in need to the feet of Jesus that He may help them and save them.

2. And, secondly, we cannot help noticing the need of the slave. The lot of a slave has always been a hard one. He would have no standing in the community; he could not marry without permission, and then the children would become the property of his master. It was a life of degradation. and Longfellow fittingly describes it in his description of a more modern slave:

“A poor old slave, infirm and lame, Grea' scars deformed iris face; On Iris forehead be bore the brand of shame. And the rags, that hid his mangled frame, Were the livery of disgrace.” “After all. what a fuss for a dead nigger!” sneered Legree of poor old Uncle Tom. And in the Roman Empire a slave wouldn’t be thought much move of than that. Many slaves were clever and educated and good, but they knew all the degradation of bondage. Now, there are many slaves in the world other than those who have been bought in the market place. There are those who are slaves through birth. They have been born into the slavery of sin and are made captive through heavy chains of bad habit forged for them through the sin of their parents and grand-parents. Heredity is a very powerful force. Then there are those who are in captivity through their own folly. The chains they bear were forged with their own hands. Every drunkard and every inveterate gambler and every helpless sensualist has been taken captive through approaching too near the power of sin. Many of them were clever and educated and even good, but they are captives just the same and they know the misery and degradation of slavery. But there is help for them. 3. For next we see the Saviour’s help. When the centurion told of his slave's need, the response was immediate: “I will come and heal him.” For Jesus pitied that slave and ttis heart went out naturally and eagerly to him in his need. Our Lord always has loving sympathy for all slaves. As Longfellow says in “The Village Schoolmistress”:

“She reads to them at eventide Of One who came to save; To cast the captive’s chains , aside And liberate the slave.” Jesus does set the prisoner free. There is no slave, no one in the bonds of sin whom Jesus cannot set tree. All who feel the shame of sin can find in Him their great Liberator. And notice, too, how Jesus honoured the Roman centurion. “I have hot found so great faith, no, not,in Isreal. Jesus could always honour a good map and whether the goodness was found in a Roman or a Jew, he was delighted to recognise it. Yes, none is too great or too low to win the love of Jes Us. He cares for the highest and the lowest. Jesus blesses the slave and the master, the poor and the rich, i