CHURCH OF CHRIST MISSION

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 28 June 1935, Page 7

CHURCH OF CHRIST MISSION

“IS GOD UNREASONABLE?” Spirited singing was again a feature of the Mission service held last night. “Is God Unreasonable?” was the theme 1 discussed. Mrs G. Redpath and Miss Lorna McPherson rendered the duet: “The Hands that were wounded for mo!”, Miss D. Knapp accompanying. “A religion which makes no appeal to my reasoning faculty makes no appeal to me,” declared the Missioner last night. “The principle of ‘yours is not to reason why’ may be all right in the army, but it has no place in Christian living. Some people think God is unreasonable ; so do children about their earthly parents; but the more one thinks, the more one has to admit that God never asks anything unreasonable of anyone. Listen : ‘Come let us reason together, saith the Lord’ (Isa. 1:18) ‘I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service’ (Rom. 12:1). The laws of Nature working so. marvellously all around us'are but- the laws of God. Science is ••daily discovering the reasons for phenomena once unknown;.and in the realm •of the Spirit, some truths so transcend our finite minds that we oidy grasp, little by little, the great purpose of it all. But the child need not be able to explain the process of the digestive' system to enjoy and benefit by a. square meal, so with the spiritual.” ‘.G.od sent:** filisTswn Son into the world because there was a reason for it ; jan end to be gained that could not be I gained in any other way- When Christ ' died on Calvary,, there was,a jusj tifiable reason. The Gospel scheme of {.redemption is built on the assumption that all men and Women are sinners and ■ not saints. If men are not sinners, .there,.is no, need. of, the Gospel. . If.men aVe "notTost without Christ, then Felix trembled for nothing when Paul ‘reasoned.of righteousness, self-control and future judgment.’ But admitting that ‘we cannot lift ourselves over a fence by our own boot-straps’ then the Gospel comes to us as a Divinely originated remedy for the danger to which we stand exposed. . ‘The wages 6f sin is death, but the gift of God is Eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ God, who is the Expert on this problem of sin, has based His Salvation on what Christ has done for us. He is the ‘Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world’, ‘in whom we have our redemption through-His blood the forgiveness of sins’. But because. Christ has done all in His power to make the best life possible for toe present and the hereafter, it does not follow that there is nothing that, we can do to bring our lives, into-line with God’s will. If it were simply a ease of philanthropy, God could save; everybodybut He has endowed us.with freewill and He never ignores it on tins great question. “While a man still loves sin and still practices it; forgiveness .is impossible. He -must cease-to rebel against God and His laws. Gdel proposes no remedy for the wilfully impenitent ‘A man can’t help- his beliefs’ says someone. Can’t he help believing -a lie? A half-truth? Then the whole truth is within his reach. A sinner ’cannot, be. pardoned without repentance, neither can he re-’ I pent without faith. The story of Calvary has stirred more hearts than the sum total of all other stories written. But if a man believes with his whole, heart, heartily repents, where should lie stand? In the quietness of his own room, never to tell others of his deciI sion ? Out with it! For your own sake ; : for the sake of others; for the Christ, who has saved you ; , stand out before the whole world and confess that faith, pledging your unflinching loyalty to Christ for time and for Eternity! '“God has set His own institution to mark this change in a man’s experience; symbolising his death to the old life; a burial of the old nature ; and a resurrection to a new life, by immersion into the name of the. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is the. most reasonable thing in' the world.”

The topic to-night is “Who should be baptised?”