SUNDAY READING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7567, 20 February 1886, Page 4 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING.

THE PAST YEAR • ITS PORTENTS AND ; ; 7::/ ...v ■ - HARBINGERS. ;;;. ; [BY THE RKV. WILLIAM GUEST.] Through the invincible loving-kindness of our God, we who, as sinners, have sought to be "in Christ,", have been brought to the end of archer year. With what benignity and tenderness *' has the Infinite Father borne with our waywardness I What for*' giveness and acceptance have we found in the boundless ' sea of His immeasurable grace P His embrace has held us in its ever-enoircling . oare, and through the Saviour's perpetual intercession the blessed Spirit has, kept us, pleaded in us, and com* forted us. J : : And the " depths of His infinite patienoe" have still reapsoted man's moral freedom, and endured the manifold workings of the self-life of our race. Another revolution of the 'globe on its orbit sends up to Heaven the old and fearful story of human sins, and bears fresh witness to the riches of Divine goodness and long-suffering. But it is for Christian brethren I write; for those to whom the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ is the supreme object in life. Thtf times are ominous. Throughout Europe a momentous epoch is approaching. With us the year now ending has been one of violent '' politics, ' agricultural sufferings, heavy stagnations in trade, and embittered ecclesiastical strifes. It has been in* oreasingly shown also how a neologioal Christian doctrine, which by grewv theologians would have been pronounced defective unto falseness has been endured, then • acquiesced 1 in, and then openly preached in hallowed places which once heard Paul's inspired Gospel, and where the arrows were sharp in the hearts of the King's enemies." Out of this false dealing with inspired Scripture doubts have become rife; and, although infidelity has been beaten all along the line, floods of sceptioism and of irreligion everywhere threaten the land. What then shall be said

IN RELATION TO PROGRESS? This we must hold. The extremes in opposite directions indulged in by the sanguine and the morbid-minded cannot determine this question. Neither oan, it be answered by the material changes that are going on. If a man, to borrow an appropriate figure, has disease of the heart, his progress to health cannot be determined by the coats he wears. A bishop, speaking recently of improvements during late years in church-building, church psalmody, and ceremonial, warned against these things being taken as evidence of spiritual life, and added that there never was a grander place of worship than the Temple and its ceremonial in the days of Him whom the nation crucified, and at that time Temple, ceremonial, and people were on the brink of destruction. New material conditions may offer new incentives to ungodliness. Nor can numerical increase of churches be taken as sure signs of progress. Multitudes, alas ! of men and women are there who on the Sunday go to the table of the Lord, and are so little in sympathy with Him that on a following day of the week the worldly see them in associations where they inquire, Are ye also become like unto us T" Rooms and halls are built for Christian work, and are often used for semi-theatres. Members of churches there are who are never seen where Christians meet to pray, and never express interest in Christ's work of human salvation, and yet are eager to intensity, both with brain and hand, to provide entertainments to which the unsaved can go without fear of a converting word being spoken to them. < No estimate of an age can 'be made if we forget or deny that which, while a great mystery, is, undoubtedly, the subject of the clearest revelation. There can be no honest acceptance of inspired Scripture if we refuse to believe that there is

A DEMONIACAL KINGDOM, which has ever sought aotivity for itself through the race of man. And truly we may exaggerate this mystery. We know that mind can act on mind, and spirit on spirit. No sane man is there who does not, whatever his theory, take account of evil among men. To deny superhuman evil is superficial; and the denial of this fact plunges us in greater difficulties than the acceptance of it. What a fearful world we live in. What confirmations are there of that which Scripture speaks of when it tells us of him "that is called the devil and Satan, the deoeiver of the whole world." What unutterable vices and crimes are in these countries of Europe. What wars have there been, with their hatreds, and horrors, and bloody slaughters. As to the heathen world, half the human race is, to all intents, within the spell of a paralysing fatalism. There is, over these myriads, the death-grasp of a Buddhist atheism, the social severance and unqjeanness of Hinduism and a proud Mohammedanism, with its implacable hatred to the Divine nature of Christ. The inspired apostle writes of "spiritual hosts of wickedness and the world-rulers of this darkness," and a professed Christian who should speak snearingly of this demoniacal kingdom, and of him who is its central head, has renounced cordial belief in revelation, and has no longer reverence for the unambiguous teaching of the Lord Jesus, But let us not forget that Old Testament seers foresaw

THE BEGINNING OF A NEW REIGN. It was in relation to this Dew reign that the theocratic Psalms open with the exultation, "The Lord is King," which is the true rendering. Floods of devastation threatened th a time when these Psalms were written ; national gods claimed power; fearful judgments were impending; bat over arch-enemies of might they saw a Divine Person who was inaugurating a new reign of righteousness, and would "wS fail nor be discouraged until He had set judgment in the earth." The progress of an age is, therefore, to be determined by the signs it bears of a coming kingdom of God. I know how difficult it is to do this, and what a posture of diffidence and of prayer it demands. Neither would I forget the mistakes of men who have misinterpreted contemporaneous events, and regarded them as the immediate forerunners of the end. How much has been done thereby to hinder the adequate effect of prophetio teaching, it is not easy to say. If, however, signß are latent, they are to be discerned. The faithful are warned against overlooking them. Underlying all Satanic countermioinga, and all present; aspects of humanity, there may at least be said to be

THE HARBINGERS 0? A NEW ERA. Among the generation about to be the leaders, two opposite currents have set in. Literary and other young men, having vainly concluded that Christianity was effete, have resolved to cast off Christian customs, and to sweep away the old re-*> ligious obligations of social and family life. There is an informal but real conspiracy in this direction, out of which there have come desperate hatreds and workings of iniquity. But, on the other hand, a crusade for Christ, for purity, and for the emancipation of the earth, has remarkably drawn to it the most promising young men of the period. Not only, so, Christian witnesses have thrown off a cloistral, self-considerate, and emasculating piety. They have recalled the figure of the Master, confronting alone the false opinions ' of His time, and rebuking corrupters in the metropolis of His nation. They have refused longer to be swayed by a sentiment that would regale itself with Christian hopes and fellowship, and which has shrunk from a contest that would save the prey from the mighty. At all costs, such witnesses have determined, in God's might, to maintain at once the truth of our holy religion, and at the same time its protests on behalf of humanity against all the powers 'of the enemy. A John the Baptist's work have they to do ; but their testimony, like his, iff a forerunner of a new era, and they can speak also of his works, through them, who is " Mighty to save." During no period have these distinct ourrentß been so marked as in the year now closing. ; <-'• !.,■■■ And amid violent ecclesiastical agitations, unwarranted assumptions of sceptics, impostures, of modern philosophy, and attempted changes of Christian belief, the Providence of the Spirit has made the dosing year memorable for „ UNUSUAL MOVEMENTS 01 LEARNING. Never, assuredly, it may be affirmed, has Christian scholarship offered richer fruits on the altar of the Lord than during this year. A D. 1885 has witnessed the sending forth of the complete Revised Bible, and this will be its mark in the coming generations. If a scrupulous conservatism has marked the labours of the Old Testament Company, as a scrupulous conscientiousness did that of the New, the • twofold result has been wondrously. timely. . The intelligent and consecutive study"; of , rioly Scripture has been powerfully furthered; the sole au«

thority of God's Word accentuated ; hun« ! dreds of millions who speak the English 1 tongue have had their 'confidence strengthened that "•> they now have access to ! the uncorrupted fountain' of inspiration, and the devout will find 1 patience «and guidance in the bewilderment to come. — . - 1 '•*••• -»•'< j -Nor : has this great gift to the age stood alone. The year has remarkably furnished solid and irrefutable proofs—both of"• the authenticity and genuineness of the New Testament. Those who have followed this modern scholarship have ceased to speak of the' cumulative probabilities in favour of Christianity, and have been • almost prepared to take a firm stand on the assertion that Christianity cannot be untrue. No language can adequately depict ' the confusion that has fallen on a hostile Biblical criticism.. Assumptions that lately were misleading even - the educated as to the origin of New Testament books are now shown to be without proof; assertions that were thought the fruit of learning, now are manifested to have been inventions manufactured to suit a theory ; before the touch of : a wider learning, and the application of common sense, German notions that passed aa truth are now proved to have been dreams; and to aocount for the origin of New Testament books by rival parties among the first Christians is- fast becoming a forlorn absurdity. It may be replied that the mere word of official teachers of religion carries less weight in our days than in any previous one. It is surely so. Christ made nothing of officialism, and an age is coming nearer to Christ's thought when simple officialism, however high its prestige, is discredited. It is at suoh a time' that the supreme authority of the Word of God is rising to asoendanoy. And with this everywhere

MAN IS INTERPRETED TO HIMSELF. - If there is any one testimony on 'which there is general agreement it is that Christ's plans are rapidly developing throughout the Eastern world. The peoples may cling to their corrupt idolatries, buff it is as birds trying to live and build {heir nests in dead trees. In cities where Satan's seat is there is coming up a new generation, with the cry, "Surely our fathers have inherited nought but lies, even vanity and things wherein there is no profit" (R.V). ' Yea, we see around us the evidence that the captives to evil ' are compelled to listen to the voice of their own original nature, and are not content with the devil's lies. If men and women have gone into a land of' estrangement from God they have found "a mighty famine" in that land. If they have joined themselves to a citizen of that country, he has sent them into his fields to a hunger which would fill its emptiness with husks. How unhappy men are. How they complain of their dull pleasures ! Out of what unrest goes forth the cry, " Who will show us any good ?" Sensationalism has all but got to the end of its resources. Animalism cannot stifle the spirit-want for something better than swine's food. Pleasure has of late ' years spread its endless attractions; civilisation has multiplied its facilities ; appetite has gone after its new piquancies; art and literature have offered their ministry; infidelity and atheism have promised immunities; innate scruples have been overcome, and ancient barriers broken down. But a nature originally made in the image of God has found that the experiment has been a starving one. Poor, infatuated captives of the Evil One have come to find that they have been spending their money for that which is not bread. Their desiderated things mock them by their inanity, and they are hungry in the midst of their enjoyments.

Since these things are so, what in the duty of THOSE WHO ARE JESUS CHRIST'S? This we must see that, while the Lord has taught us that order and organisation in His Church are jealously to be observed, He, nevertheless, whose fan is in His hand, comes to purge His floor, and is bringing into judgment all those human ecclesiastical arrangements which have had their origin in the pride of worldly man, The true Church can never be in danger. " The gates of hell shall not prevail against it." But we have come to a time when the different churches are little thought of by men. Their testimony for a kingdom not of this world is little heeded. The form of godliness carries no weight, and irreligious ritn&lism is but an empty parody. Before us, therefore, ar6 times of breaking up and of perplexity. Let not the faithful be afraid. A bout many things which appeal to them let them hear the voice of the Lord that says, "What is that to thee? Follow thou Me." Neither let them be too curious as to the future. The good servant does not want to know his Lord's plans beyond what his service requires. Meanwhile we may close the present year with the words of a peer and a poet who has died during its progress 'Tin well with deedi of good, though small, to strive; 'Tts woll tome part of 111, though small, to cure; "Til well with onward, upward hopes to strife, 'Tie better and diviner to endure.