SUNDAY READING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6578, 16 December 1882, Page 3 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING.

A WILL. TO BE SAVED. If any man desires to be saved, he has the means in his own hands; let him will to be saved. If any man deeires to enter the kingdom of hearen, let him will to enter it. Remember this : God has given to every man a free will. He would have all men to be saved. He willeth not the death of a sinner, but He has given man a free will. He cannot force himself to be saved, and drive him into hceaven without his free consent. A contract is entered into by God with man. God says to him, " I will thy salvation. I throw open the kingdom of heaven to every man who will enter therein." But, theD, on man's Eirle there must be a consent. God says, "Thou must also desire My salvation. Thou also must approach the heavenly gates." We are told in the Acts that our blessed Lord, when on earth, went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed with ills. Now, let us look back at the Gospels and see His manner of proceeding. When He came to Bethesda, and saw there a man who had suffered from an infirmity 3S years, He addressed him in these remarkable words : " Wilt thou be made whole ':" The Lord was ready with the healing virtue, but without a readiness of will to receive it, the virtue would not flow out. A blind man sat by the wayside begging, and when he heard that Jesus of Xazareth parsed by, he cried out, "Thou Son of David, have mercy on me ! ;, Then Jesus stood still, and commanded liitii to be brought unto Him, and asked him, " What wilt thou that I shalt do unto tliee ':'' And when lie had showed

thai he had a will to be healed, Jesus gave him his sight. Thus, in almost all of the miracles, He exacted an exhibition of a will

to accept before Ho granted the restoration. So docs He act with us in our spiritual

maladies ; we must show an eager and earnest will to be healed before He can heal us. We must show an earnest desire to receive grace before He will confer it. We must show an eager and earnest will to enter

leaven, or we will never enter the narrow

way that leads to it. The sister of one of the profouudest theologians and teachers of the Church (Thomas Aquinas) once said to him, " 0, my brother, 1 am troubled with doubts and difliculties. lam full of frailty and feebleness, and am girt about with temptations. What ehall Idoto be saved ':"

" Will it!" was all his answer—very short, but it contained the kernel of everything. Unless there be a Rood, lusty, determined will to be saved, then you will be blown about with doubts, hindered by difficulties, give way through frailty, make no progress through feebleness, break down under temptation. There was once a poor fellow who was terribly beset with melancholy and a temptation to destroy himself. He

thought he heard a voice saying night and day, "Get a rope and hang yourself." He was aware that this was a temptation, but he was in sore fear lest it should overmaster

him ; so he went to a priest and asked his advice. The man of God exhorted him to earnest prayer and fasting; but he got no good at all from these religious exercises so

far as he could see. In deeper depression than ever he walked iu his garden. Kow, he had an old gardener who had been in his family all his life, and, seeing his master very low-spirited, he ventured to aek him what was the matter. "Jonathan," said the master, "I don't mind telling you. I am tormented night aud day by a voice in my car saying, ' Get a rope and hang yourself;' and I can find no cure." "Well, master," answered the old man, " I can give you one that is infallible. Whenever you hear a voice say, * Get a rope and hang yourself,' answer stoutly, 'No, I wont.'" Now, for the application I say to you, whenever you meet with a temptation, whenever world, or flesh, or devil breathes into your ear advice to do that which is wrong, answer bluntly, "No, I-wont." And if lam not greatly mistaken, the force of temptation will at or.ee be broken. If ever you are allured to evil say, " No, I wont," and the allurement loses its power. A good stubborn will is a rock which you may build your house upon, but the feeble, imcertain, shifting purpose is the sand on which, if you attempt to construct the edifice of a Christian life, the walls will speedily show cracks, and with the first violent storm down it will go.

I have spoken of the essential need of a good will to be saved, but I must not let you suppose that the will is everything. No, no ! the ready will must be there ; but the grace of God must also be there. The sick and blind might have willed to be healed, and to get their sight all their lives long, but bad not Christ with His grace been present, they would not have been restored. So with us. We must wn.r. first, and then seek God's grace to perfect.—Rev. S. Baring Gould, M.A.

UP TO THE HILLS. There are some of us that have known what it is to drink bitter draughts of afiliction, and to have the four corners of our house smitten liy a terrible sorrow. At such times, how hollow and worthless were many of the stereotype prescriptions for comfort. " Time must do its work" w.ia one of them. As if time could bring back the dead, or cruelly eradicate the beloved image from the memory. "Travel" is another of these (jiiack recommendations for a wounded spirit. Just as if God had ever made an Atlantic wide enough to carry us out of the reach of heart-breaking misery. Wretched comforters arc they all. The suffering heart heeds not the voice of such charmers, charm they ever so wisely. Never, never have I been able to gain one ray of genuine consolation until I lifted my eyes unto the hills from whence cometh the Almighty help. As soon as I have begun to taste of God's exceeding great and precious promises my strength began to revive. As soon as His everlasting arm got hold around me the burden grew lighter. Yoa, it carried me and the load likewise. God opened to me the paths of usefulness which were in the line of His service, and also of blessings to my fellow-men ; and so help flowed down to me from the hills like the streams that make music from the precipices to one who climbs the Wenzern Alp.

This sublime passage from Psalm exxi. throws its suggestive side-light on the question why many of my readers have never obtained a solid and satisfactory religious hope. What you need is to lift your eyes above your sinful, needy self, above your church-goings and other religious observances, above every one and every thing to the only mountain whence cometh your help. That mountain is Calvary. The crucified and now living Son of God is the object on which you must fix your C3'e. As .1 living man, you need a living Christ. You want, not a system or doctrine, but a personal Saviour. You need some one, not only to lay your hand upon, but one who can return the grasp of that hand. The lift must come from Him. The new life must come from Him. "His blood cleanseth from all sin" is a. mere abstract truth until you come up to that atoning blood for yourself. Submit to its cleansing, as Naaman submitted to bis washed in .lonian. "A living trust in Jesus has power unto salvation only because it is the means by which the saving power of God may come into your heart." Faith is not a mere intellectual opinion. It, is a hc.irt transaction, by which you lay hold on Jesus anil Jesus saves. His sacrifice for sin avails for you ; His strength becomes yours; His example teaches you how to live your own daily life ; His spirit comes to dwell within you : His armour protects you, and Ilia service becomes the inspiration of your whole being. When you ascend into Christ, you reach a loftier, purer atmosphere. Security is gained up there as in a stronghold on a cliff. Six times over in this I'salm the inspired penman tells us how the Lord is thy keeper, and how He shall preserve thy soul to all eternity.—Dr. Cuyler. TIIF, SPIRITS KEYFXATION OF SIN. Holy God, before the light of Thy grace had shone upon me, how foreign to me and fa" away was any earnest desire to have my transgression blotted out : But now, when conscious of the very slightest aberration from Thy precepts, how uneasily my heart beats ! I can find no rest, nor even think of amendment, until I have cntcroi my closet and acknowledged to Thee my transgression. Yes ; vain is the attempt at amendment in the future until amends have been made for what lies behind us iu the past. O, this sensitiveness of conscience ! which sees its sin continually iicfore it until it has been forgiveu. Is not this the surest evidence that the spirit of the Lord is at work upon the soul ? No doubt they denounce it as extravagance when even a little fault gives a man so deep distress. But what fays the Apostle James?—" Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty in all." Iβ not the law with its precepte a body with its members, and

each of them animated by the same soul, namely, the Spirit of God? Yes; the divine commandments are all, as it were, suspended upon a golden thread, which thread i 3 the love of God, and against the love of God does he offend who breaks the least of these commandments. Or, as Luther so beautifully says, "The first among the ten commandments contains the germ of all the rest." And does not this, the distinction drawn between great and little sins, too often rest upon mere appearances ? Tell me, ye who pass bo merciless a judgment upon some one transgression in a human life, have you had so little experience of the I power which opportunity and an unguarded moment exercise over man? On the other hand who does not know that there are impious thoughts in the secrecy of the closet, subtle sins of pride, which can raise a greater barrier between God and man than the worst sins of the flesh ? Was not Luther richt when he said that "the black devil is often less dant'erous than the white one ?"

"Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned," is a weighty word, and may be called the true mystery of repentance. In the case of the benefits which we receive from men, we so often look no further than the persons from whom we receive them, in place of carrying forward our thoughts to the supreme benefactor whose ministers men are. We act in precisely the same way with our sins. All we think of is the harm which we thereby do to this person or to that, or to ourselves. But, as we hare said, there runs a golden thread through all the commandments of GoH, and for that reason every trespass is an oflence against His love. The little concern men show about their evil deeds, their unwillingness to take them to heart, must partly, at least, have its origin in their unconsciousness that by every sin they distress their greatest benefactor. Were they aware of this, their chief auxiety would be to obtain forgiveness from Him whom their trespasses most offend. Nor would they less acknowledge the righteousness of a. holy God in His judgment upon ein, for they would then see in it more of ite true sinfulness. —Tholuck.

THE ACCEPTED TIME. During the delivery of a recent sermon, distinguished more for Divine power than for learning or eloquence, the speaker invited the unconverted to an immediate surrender to Christ. It was an unusual occurrence in a church somewhat noted for religious formality, and was the cause of much adverse criticism on the part of certain Church ollicials. One of these expressed regret at the inexcusable disorder on account of the presence of an influential lady who hail been a silent observer in the congregation, and whose religious life had been greatly hindered by worldly associations. Her answer was a sufficient rebuke. To the surprise of all, she said, "I myself felt an irrepressible desire to bow at that altar a penitent. Ido so long to have a conscious knowledge of God. Th« unsatisfying world I have tried long enough."

In every congregation hearts are longing for Divine sustenance. It is the mission of the Church to give the bread of life. How often it is the case, that power to afford succour is wasted upon mere external trifles, or is altogether set aside by undue attention to the manner in which, as we think, religious services should be conducted. When the speaker is overwhelmed with a sense of divine tilings, conscious that hungry souls are before him ready to receive that bread which God has commanded him to digtribute, shall he pause on account ot proprieties? Why not, whether at the morning or evening hour, descend from the pulpit, and in beseeching words invite famishing souls to partake at once of the royal feast '! On what just grounds do we postpone the immediate application of thp principles we profess to believe ? At which of these services may we say. " Behold ! this is not the accepted time ? Behold ! this is not the day of salvation?"

A distinguished professor in a theoloprical seminary said to us, "I never preach without remembering that before me are weary, needy souls, who expect to receive help during this brief hour of worship." This is the genuine spirit. Whatever is foreign to this corrupts faith in the heart, botli of the speaker anil hearer. That wonderful little word "Now" opens the door to an opportunity, immediate, soul-inspiring, along the highway of daily life. Not alone in the pulpit may we speak of it ; it is the one word whose inspiration ought to lill the Christian parent and Sunday-school teacher with blessed hope in their responsible tasks. Redemption holds this word in its innermost structure. Holy angels, ministering spirits, bend over us with this. Voices of the redeemed adopt this word in that perpetual melody, "Unto Him that loved xis." No one upon earth need despair, for the Holy Spirit testifies through all revelation that (iospel provisions are framed, not only for individual, but for immediate acceptance.— New York Christian Advocate. TO SEEK MORE FOR INWARD THAN OUTWARD PERFECTION. You are good ; you want to be better, and you are making great ellorts in the details of life ; but I am afraid you are overreaching rather too much upon the inner life in order to adapt the outer life to the demands of society, and that you are not sufficiently denying the very inmost self. When we fail thoroughly to attack the internal stronghold of self-will concerning those things we love best, and reserve for ourselves most jealously, I will tell you what ensues. On the one side, great impetuosity, sharpness, and hardness of that same self-will ; on the other hand, a scrupulous notion of a certain symmetry of external virtues, which resolves itself into a mere observance of regularity and* propriety. These externally cause great restraint, and internally a very lively state of rebellion, an altogether intolerable struggle.

Try, then, to work a little less from the outside, and a little more from within. Take the strongest desires and affections which rule in your heart, and place them, without conditions or limits, in God's hands, to be subdued and overruled. Resign to Him your natural haughtiness, your worldly wisdom, your delight in the greatness of your house, your dread of want of consideration in the world, your harsh severity against whatever is irregular. I should be less grieved to see you petulant, cross, abrupt, wanting in self-command, and, as a result, thoroughly ashamed of yourself, than strictly correct and externally irreproachable, but fastidious, haughty, harsh, hard, ready to take offence, and self-suffi-cient. Accustom yourself in God's sight, and through experiences of your own weaknesses, to compassion and forbearance toward the faults of others. Earnest prayer will soften your heart, and make it gentle, pliable, accessible, kindly. AVould you like God to be as critical and hard toward you as you often are toward your neighbour ?

We sometimes indulge in certain halfconcealed clingings to our grandeur, our reputation, our comforts. If we look carefully within ourselves*, we shall find that there are certain limits beyond which we refuse to go in offering ourselves to Him. We hover around these reservations, making believe not to see them, for fear of selfreproach, regarding them as the apple of the uyo. Jf any one should break down this intrcuehment, we should be touched to the <|uiuk, and inexhaustible in line reasons to justify our feelings— a. convincing proof that we depend too much upon such things. The more we shrink from giving up any such reserved point, the more certain it is that it needs to be given up. If we were not fast bound by it, we should not make so many efforts to persuade ourselves that we are free. Let us not bargain with God with a view to what will cost us least, and bring us in most comfort. Let us seek only selfdenial and the cross. Let us love, aiid live by love alone. Let Love do whatsoever he will to not act self-love. Let us not be content to pray mornini; and evening, but let us live in prayer all day long. Let this prayer, this life of love, which means death to self, spread out from our seasons of prayer, as from a centre, over all that we have to <10. All should become praver; that, is, .1 loving consciousness of God's "presence, whether it be social intercourse or business. Such a course as this will insure you a profound peace.—Fenclon. PERSONALITIES AND ILL-REPORTS. Keep clear of personalities in general conversation. Talk of things, objects, thoughts. The smallest minds occupy themselves with personalties. Personalties must sometimes lie talked, because we have to learn and find out men's characteristics for legitimate ebjects ; hut it is to be -with conGdentia] persons. Do npt needlessly report ill of others. There arc times when we are compelled to say, "I do not think Bouncer a true and honest man." But when there is no need to express an opinicn, let poor Bouncer swagger

away. Others will lake his measure, no doubt, and save yon the trouble of analysing him and instructing them. And as far as possible dwell on the good side of human beirjgs. There are family boards where a constant procees of depreciating, assigning motives, and cutting up character goes forward. They are not pleasant places. One who ie healthy does not wish to dine at a dissecting table. There is evil enough in man, God knows ! But it is not the mission of every young man and woman to detail and report it all. Keep the atmosphere as pure as a possible, and fragrant with gentleness and charity.—Dr. John Hall. ALL FOR JESUS. Toiling on for Jems ! Oh. how passing sweet 1 lie has called to service : He has made ns meet • Meet to !>e co-wnrkcrs with the God nf mif;ht; Meet to be partakere with the saints in light. Toiling cm for Jesus, not for power or fame I Toiling on for Jesus, not for party name. Love to Him tlic motive which our ardour fires, 110 Himself sole object of our heart's desires. Toiling on for Jesus, 'neath the noontide sun. Toiilng on for Jesus till the day is done ; Toiling on for Jesus through the shadows dim. Till He call the labourers to their rest with Him, Great indeed the harvest, and the fields aro white. Who will gain the '• penny" when the Lord shall come Who will share the gladness of tho Harvest home ? Who will follow Jesm, counting all hut loss? Who will win new triumphs for the Saviour's cross? Who, for this, will welcome shame aud toil and pain ? Who will suffer with Him. and hereafter reicn ? For Imlf-he.irlcd service, let the past sntlice • We are His by purchase. His own blood the price ? We are His to follow whither He doth lead ; Wα are Ills — Ilia servants—Ho " the Wd indeed " His by sweet and solemn •• All for .Tesue" vows • Ilia to serve Him hotter in His Father's li»u;e • Hie to sh.ire Hie ?lory ; Hi-i to share His throneGlory be to Jesus—We are not our own ! IUCV A. liKNSKTT.