SUNDAY READING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7270, 7 March 1885, Page 4 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING.

REPENTANCE. SY BKT. JAMJS GALL. Yon ask, Must I not repent before I can get Christ? I answer, If you mean by repentance that which the Scripture means, a change of mind, then I say " Yes." You must repent, for that is what God calls npon yoa to do now. But if you mean by repentance a godly sorrow for sin, then I say "No." You can have no godly sorrow for sin until you yourself are godly. It is one of the new instincts of the new nature, when the heart is changed; and that can be got only by believing. If, then, you must have "this nature before you come to Christ, there can be no need of your coming to Christ to get it. And, if you wait till you have a godly sorrow for sin, you will never come to Christ at all. The only thing that you can feel before yoa come to Christ is the fear of hell, and a desire for rest; you can have no merit in motive, and therefore yon have no higher coming to Him. It is not love to God, or even a real hatred of sin, that the unconverted man feels. Hβ may be disgusted with some sins to which he is not inclined, and he may hate the sins he indulges in ; but it is not because they are sins against God, and dishonouring to Him, and without this there can be no godly sorrow. Your coming to Christ, therefore, must be an act of the purest selfishness, as God's willingness to save you is the purest benevolence. He knows that you have no love to Him, and that your only anxiety is to escape the punishment of your sin, but He invites you notwithstanding, aud appeals to your very seltishuess as an inducement to come. "Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die?" He knows that you dislike Him, and therefore He cannot appeal to your love; He knows that your heart is polluted, and therefore Hβ oftuuot appeal to your hatred of sin. What He wauta ia that you would have compassion ou yourself, and what He mourns over is your maduess in neglecting your own most important interests. The rcpentauoe spoken of in the Bible is a change of mind, and not a change of heart. It is not a godly sorrow for sin, for that none but a child of God can feel, a aorrow which ia necessary after conversion, but which cannot exist before it, for it is one of the evidences by which we are to know that we have been forgiven. Repentance is the turning-point of a man's history, when he discovers his mieery, and turns to Christ as his only nope of salvation. He thus chaDges his udnd ; he repents and believes the Gospel, not from any love to God, or hatred of sin, but simply because he can do no better. The prodigal eon repented when he rose from the swine-trough to return to his father, saying, "How many hired servants of my father have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger." This was pure selfishness, but it was true repentance notwithstanding; as for any sorrow for his sin, or shame at the treatment he had given his father, these he never felt until he had received the kiss of forgiveness, and was restored to the place of a son.

But is it not said, "Strive to enter in at the strait gate?" (Luke xiii. 24.) Yes, but though the gate be a strait one, it is open, and not shut, and the striving is not with the keeper of the gate, but with your own evil heart of unbelief, that struggles hard to prevent you from going in. The door is strait, but it is wide enough to let the sinner through, if he will not attempt to carry his iiole in with him. He would fain make a compromise by giving up first one sin and then another ; but, nutil he is willing to part with all hia sins, he cannot enter. Perhaps the very last thing he is willing to part with before entering in is his own righteousness; he would fain enter with some rag of his own to cover him, but it is impossible ; no wonder, then, that it is called a strait g?te, for it is too strait even for that. And yet, as soon as he consents to qo in empty and naked, helpless and ruined, trusting all to Christ, that ruoment he passes through without any difficulty. In one sense, this may be called a gradual process, but it is nothing the better for tbat; an instant and unconditional surrender would have been more pleasing and more honouring to God. But, moreover, it is not a gradual conversion, but the entering in, when it does take place, is an instantaneous act, which renders it impossible for anyone to be both in and out at the same time.

But is it not said that " Many shall seek to enter in, and shall not be.able?" Yes; bat that is when once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door ; and then we are told that striving will be in vain. In the matter of salvation, it is God's call to the ainner that makes the door open, though it be strait; bat when the sinner has to cry to God the door is shut, and then it is too late. "Becauae I have called, and ye refused ; I have stretched out My hand, and no man regarded : I also will laugh at your calamity ; I will mock when your fe»r cometh ; when your fear cometh aa a desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you, then shall they come upon Me, but i will not answer ; they nhall seek Me early, but they shall not find Me" (Frov. i. 24). But is it not said that we are to knock, and it ehall be opened unto os ? And have we not the parable of the importunate widow, and the friend who wanted three loaves, besides other passages, showing that, although prayer be not inswered at first, it shall be aesarediy answered at last 1 Yea; but these promises are all to God's children in Christ Jesus; and the only reason why He does not at once give them what they ask is, He is their Heavenly Father, and knows best what and when to give them. God r s children have many trials and diffiuultuß in the world, and He invites them to bring all their wants and sorrows to Him; but it would be neither for their good, nor for His gtory, if these trials were to be removed the moment when they ask Him to remove them. Yet, notwithstanding, He wishes them to continue praying, assuring them of Uis Fatherly love, even when He does not answer, and promising that, when the time shall come, He will avenge His own elect speedily. When a man believes in Christ he virtually gets "all things," for "all things are his ;" but it would not be good for him to get all things at once in possession. He is an heir, but at present he is under age ; but Christ, who is his Tutor and Governor, and to whom be is commanded to apply for everything, will give him that which is good, and deliver him from every grievance at the proper time. It is not sovereignty so much as love that prevents God from avenging His own elect tbc moment that they cry.

Bat it is a fatal mistake to suppose that which is the believer's privilege is also the sinner's misfortune. It never can be good for him to continue under God's wrath and curse, an enemy to God, and a slave to sin, even for one moment. If God had really promised salvation to those who prayed, instead of to thoeo who believed, the very first cry of the unbeliever should have been answered, % for there can be no love in withholding mercy. Bat, again. Did not the publican cry for mercy, and is he not held up to us for an example ? Yes, but his cry was the cry of faith, accepting the atonement as a propitiation for hie sin. Therefore, he did not need to wait for pardon; he went down to hin houeo juetitied in the very act of believing.

YOUNG ENGLISH MISSIONARIES. Wβ find the following further particulars in an English paper regarding the Cambridge missionaries, which will be of interest to the general public, as well as to those who have hitherto been accustomed to admire the prowess of the University heroes in the cricket field. It will be seen tbat in this account no mention is made of the crack oarsman, Mr. Smith :—During the visit of Messrs. Moody and Sankey, the American evangelists, to this country ten years ego, a Mr. Studd attended the services at Camberwell, and such was the influence exerted upon him by Mr. Moody's addresses that he became an entirely changed individnal. From a sporting man he suddenly became an enthusiastio Christian worker. Mr. Studd, who is now deceased, began by reforming his own household. He disposed of hia hunters and dogs, and his country seat henceforth became a centre of misaionary effort for the district. At that time his two eone, then unknown to fame, were quietly pursuing their studies at Eton. The influence of the changed aspect of their homo told upon the lads. Passing to Cambridge, the young Studds came to be regarded as amongst the most famous cricketers of the present generation, one of them being the captain of the University eleven The recent viait of Messrs. Moody and Sankoy to London had the effect of bringing the brothers Studd prominently forward as religious worken, along with other under* gradual who had been alike influenced by

Mr. Moody. The young Studds took an active part in the varions rnissionß, and their enthusiasm was no* allowed to evaporate with the departure of the American evangelists. One of the brothers, Mr. C. T. Studd, has decided to l>e jome a missionary in China, paying hifl own expenses ; and, in addition, so it is rumoured, placing a considerable sum at the disposal of the society under whose auspices he will labour. Mr. J. K. Studd, the brother, is entering upon mission work in East London, in which he will be assisted by one of Lady Beanchamp's daughters—whom he is about to marry— the fairest of the two young sisters, whose voices were heard throughout the entire nine months 1 services conducted by Messrs. Moody and Sankey. A son of Lady Beauchamp, who was chief steward at several of the missions, following Mr. Studd's example, will also devote hi* life to mission work in far-off China. Not content with quietly betaking themselves to heathen lands to work for the Master they decided to leave all and follow, these young men are now striving to enlist recraits under the foreign mission banner. They recently visited Cambridge, and have kindled such missionary enthusiasm in the hearts of their fellowstudents that something like thirty of their number have decided to proceed to the foreign field. Encouraged by their success to Cambridge, Messrs. Studd and Beauchamp are now going through Scotland to plead the claims of the heathen world. IMPRUDENCE. Dr. Parker, in "Tyne Childe," siys :— "They say I am imprudent, and I both believe and deny the statement. If I may bo say, there are two kinds of prudence— the little, clever, timid, mousy prudence, that peeps out and draws back, and blesses itself that it makes no mistakes. _ That is not prudence in my view. It is shortsighted selfishness, which generally ends in showing its own shallowness and trickery. There is prudence that believes in God, that practises the audacity of faith, that takes in a wide view, that is telescopic rather than miscroscopic ; the prudence that asks to be vindicated by serene and impartial time. For such prudence I daily pray." THE LOVE OP CHRIST. That love, so wide and fathomless, is always in harmony with holiness, truth, and justice ; and with all these conditions which ensure the perpetuity of God's righteous government. If that love could be supposed in the slightest particular, and for one instant, to disregard man's secret rebellion against God, it would be no longer love. Such a compromise with evil would destroy every essential element of Christ's love, because the rectitude of the Divine character would thus be swept away by a single stroke ; the ground of trust in Christ would be for ever gone ; the conviction would force itself upon us, that if love may be manifested in behalf of sinful beings contrary to justice, then sin is, after all, a very little thing. Much of the modern teaching concerning Christ's love is secretly corrupting in its influence. There may be no intentional displacement of other essential truth ; but in reality this is the inevitable result. The love of Christ is made, not too prominent, not too real, but too exclusive. The Divine theme is lifted out of its necessary relations to other truths just as vital, just as Scriptural, as is this. Such teaching is only an illustration of the danger of half-truths in the Christian system. Said the dying Bishop Gilbert Haven, " Preach a whole Christ, a whole Gospel, a whole Heaven, a whole hell, a whole Bible." Equally important it must ever be to avoid the suppression of Christ's love in our conception of His character as exhibited in the mediatorial work. If, for example, we think of Him as stern and rigid in His requirements ; if we only speak of Him as God, and not at the same time as the Man of Galilee, possessing all those sympathies common to our humanity, we will surely miss our way. Christ as a man loved men. That sympathy which He delighted to show in healing the sick, or in feeding the multitude upon the hillside, had in it all the characteristics of human love ; a love no less human because He was, at the same time, truly God. It is mest delightful to feel that Jesus is still such a Friend ; that He, in this sense, occupies the same plane that we now occupy ; that there is no moment of our life in which His love is a mere abstract theory ; that with Him it means gracious help in all our human needs, just as truly as wben His tender heart moved toward the snffering.of Judea. Did He pity the famishing? Did He remove darkness from the blind ? . Did He restore the wretched paralytic to health ? Christ is the same to-day. The impulse that then moved Him to acts of mercy is still, and must for ever be, unchanged. The harmonising of love with all other attributes of His nature, is most distinctly displayed in redemption. Here justice has no voice contrary to love. Here lore enforces the demands of justice in all the minute details of inflexible law. Mercy and truth meet together in Christ. Mercy, long-waiting truth unchanging meet in the homeless, despised .Nazarene; in the words of His earthly ministry ; in that matchless pity, with which he stooped to relieve human woes ; in the darknets and agony of Gethsemane ; in His intercession upon the cross in behalf of Bis enemies; in His walk to Emmaus ; in His benedictions, descending upon the disciples at His ascension. As the ages pass away, more and more luminous will the love of Christ appear— love which will vindicate holiness, truth, and justice; the whole subsisting in bonds o eternal affinity. THE BETTER WILL. To have each day the thing I wish, L..rd, that .eems b-st to me ; Bat no, to have the thing I wish, Lord, that seems best to Thee. 'Tie hard to say without a sigh, Lod, let Thy will be done ; 'Tis hard to say my will is Thine, And Thine is mine alone. Most truly, then, Thy will be done, When mine, 0 Lore , , is crossed ; . 'Tis go d to tee my place o erthiown, i'Jy ways in Th ne are lost. Whate'er Thy purpose be. O Lord, In things or great or small, Let each minutest pit t be done, Ihut Thou may'st still be all. In all the little things of life, Thyself, Lord, may I see; In little and in great alike Keveal Thy love to. me. So shall ray undivided life To Thee, my God, be given ; And all this earthly course below Be one dear path to Heaven. —H. BONAB, D.D.