SUNDAY READING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7656, 5 June 1886, Page 4 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING.

ETERNITY ! ETERNITY I ETERNITY 1* Vain were it for the finite mind of mortal to fathom the boundless, impenetrable depths of eternity; vainer still were the effort to attempt to convey in words the faintest idea of its vast and illimitable duration. The mind recoils from the task, oppressed with the feeling of the overwhelming impossibility of even attempting to grasp the subject, or to pen any adequate .representation of its never-ending periods. 'Futile were it to express any conception of the subject by comparison with finite tune, for its most lengthened ages are but as minute, inappreciable points in eternity s tremendous range. (The number of seconds «rhich have elapsed since the crcation of Adam to the present time is loss than the third part of a billion.) Lot a period be imagined consisting ot 100,000.000,000,000,000 years, each one of which years is of a duration equal to a hundred thousand of our years, a very prolonged period is indicated. Now, imagine a line of those figures to bo eontinued to the most distant visible star, and then back again to the earth, and each one of those years to be equal to a thousand millions of our years ; yet when the very last of these awe-inspiring ssons has been reached, the end of eternity is no nearer than it was at the commencement; no, not even when those tremendous cycles have boen repeated in countless succession, still eternity goes on—on— ! If sucn, then, bo Eternity, what is our lifo ? It is even as a vapour which pasaeth away. The more this subject is considered, the move weak, and insiguifioant, and little does everything connected with mortality appear ; the more one contemplates it, bo much the more infinite and overpowering and stupendous docs its illimitable duration appear. If a man were told by some powerful potentate, whose word he could not doubt, that if he consented to perform a certain easy task during one hour only, the entire remainder of his life should be passed in the enjoyment of unlimited riches and pleasures, but that, if he refused to do that easy task, he should be confined in a dungeon, and be tormented with horrible tortures during the entire remainder of his existence, would not that man apply himself with the most eager assiduity and determined earnestness to perform that task, even if, instead of being an easy task, it were one involving hardship and pain How senseless, then, does the folly of those appear who, refusing to take upon them the easy yoke of the Lord, incur the certain risk of receiving far greater punishment than it would be in the power of any earthly potentate to inflict, while, had they enrolled themselves under Christ s banner, they would win that glorious reward —the Kingdom of Heaven. | How, then, iB that- Kingdom of Heaven to be gained'! For the reply to that unutterably momentous question we must turn to the revealed Word of God, and there we trace, in the following sentence, the key-note of the whole of Holy Writ : — "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth iu Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John iii. 10). The subject referred to in this text is the most sublime and glorious that it is possible {or the mind either of man or of angels to conceive. It is a subject which overpowers the intellect, and wnich must be of far greater moment than any other event which has ever happened throughout all eternity. We are taught by this text, and by mauy others in the Holy Word of God, that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son of ! Almighty God, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, co-equal and co-eternal with the Father, who is omnipotent and omnipresent, the Ruler of tho universe, by whom all things were and are created — that He, that mighty Being, came down from Heaven to take upon Him tho form of man, sinful man, who had sinned and rebelled against His holy laws, and who had forfeited all claim to an inheritance with the blessed. Yea, He even condescended to assume the conditions of the ordinary lot of mortals, as a helpless babe, born in a lowly manger, and undergoing the usual vicissitudes whioh occur during childhood and youth, until He arrived at length at manhood ; then, notwithstanding that, had He chosen, with a word He could have destroyed His adversaries, or even have condemned this sinful and ungrateful world to destruction ; yet He consented —wonderful condescension !—to undergo contumely and reproach, insult and mocking, and finally to suffer an ignominious, yea, an agonising, death upon the cross, in company with thieves and robbers, amid the insults and gibes of a heathen soldiery. Yet He who hung there, racking and bleeding on the cross, and crying in agonising strains, as He felt tho dread load of mankind's sin resting upon Him, " My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Ale?" was none other than the Immortal, the Eternal, the only wise God. the Second Person in the ever glorious Trinity. It is expressly stated in Holy Scripture that Christ, having died once, dieth no more ; death hath no more dominion over Him. How favoured, then, must be this earth, of all the vast and incalculable series of starry and planetary bodies, the myriads upon myriads of stupendous worlds, of a magnitude far surpassing that of our little globe, to have been so honoured as to have been the scene of such incomprehensible condescension on the part of the Omnipotent Creator; and yet, alas! how little do its inhabitants regard the amazing and fearful events which occurred at so comparatively recent a period. We will, for a moment, endeavour to Euppose that oue of the most distant of the myriads of heavenly bodies is peopled with inhabitants endowed with mental faculties similar to our own. itli what mingled feelings of awe and wonder would they be filled were it revealed to them that in that distant, insignificant star, the earth, almost imperceptible to their vision, and surpassed by far in brilliancy and lu3tre by millions of other stars, that He, who is the Creator and Ruler of the entire serried mass of starry bodies, had resigned, for a time, His glirious position in Heaven, and had taken upon Himself the nature of the inhabitants of that planet, and had, wonder of woni'e-?, actually permitted Himself to be cruelly tortured, and slain by them, suffering the excruciating pangs of an agonising death, in order that such of them who chose to accept the offer might obtain an entrance into His glorious abode— Heaven—the title to which they had lost by their sin and rebellion against Him. But would not those feelings of awe and wonder give place to sentiments of utter amazement, bewilderment, and astonished anger were it told them that very many of the inhabitants of that planet thought less of that extraordinary manifestation of the Divine love and condescension of the Almighty than of the very commonest affairs of their shortlived terrestrial existence, notwithstanding that they were fully alive to the fact that upon the acceptance of that Saviour depended their future fate for ever, either in the glorious realms of Heaven or in the fearful depths of hell!

Wo will now ask why the Lord Jesus Christ consented to undergo that suffering and death at the hands ot His remorseless judges. It was in order that mankind, who had wickedly and without cause sinned against His holy laws, and thereby incurred the loss of all claim to a blessed eternity, might be rescued from everlasting destruction, might be saved from the torments of hell, from that fire which is never quenched, prepared for the devil and his angela, whore, if we are to believe the express statement of Holy Writ, those who refuse to accept the proferred salvation must suffer punishment. But, blessed be God, a way is open whereby we may escape with certainty from being condemned to that fearful punishment; a way is now open whorcby we may instead partake of everlasting joy and unspeakable happiness and bliss—such happiness and bliss as man in his present mortal state is wholly unable to understand in the least degree. " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive the things which the Lord hath prepared for them that love Him." Yes, there is a way open whereby we may ensure the highest possible state of happiness and heavenly joy for ever and ever ; and that way is in the Son of God, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life ! " For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Believe, then, on the Lord Jesus. The sole and only way to attain everlasting salvation is through Him, and Him only. Take His yoke upon you, for it is easy, and His burden, for it is light. Flee from the wrath to come. Flee uuto Him who is Able and who ia willing to save to the utter

most all that come unto God by Him ; unto Him who will not cast oat aDy that come onto Him in faith ; who died that we might live, and who ever intercedes for us with the Father.

The Christian must not, however, think that because he believes in the perfect and complete efficacy of the atonement, it is permitted to him to lead an indolent life, barren of good works, and useless to his fellows. No, the whole Gospel teems with exhortations to good works and deeds of charity, and, if a man he destitute of these, it iB a proof that his faith is dead, and that he has not the love of God within him (for the tree is known *y its fiuits), and to neglect to exercise the virtue of practical charity is a direct disobedience to our Lord's commands.

We are, however, justified by faith, not by good works, which are only an evidence of our faith, and cannot in any degree whatever bo substituted for faith.

Many are deterred from becoming Christians from the fear that it must involve a melancholy and plcasureless life, and that anything like pleasure of any sort must be renounced, and that many of the harmless and pleasurable forms of social intercourse must be given up. Bat is not that idea entirely opposed to the whole tenour of Scripture? In what part of the Bible, let it be asked, is it stated that salvation is to be attained by perpetual mortification and penance ? Rather do we not read that the conditions of salvation are faith in the Son of God? "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved." "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life," "lie that believeth in Him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already." In the olden days, when the plague of serpents was sent upon the Israelites, those who had been bitten by the venemous reptile had only to look up to the brazen serpent which was raised by Moses in the wilderness, and those who did so were immediately healed. Precisely in the same manner those who have been poisoned by the venom of sin, which is the inheritance of all the children of Adam— for as in Adam all die" (that is, the taint of sin is in every descendant of Adam)must look to the cross of Christ, of which the brazen serpent was a type ; must look to the allprevailing atonement made by the Saviour, and, casting away all trust in anything and everything which they have done themselves, must rely for healing, and cleansing, and salvation, 'solely and wholly upon the Sun of Righteousness, who is risen with healing in His wings, and who ever liveth to make intercession for us.

But, as in the time of Moses, the mere fact of the brazen serpent having been raised in the wilderness for the healing of the Israelites was not attended with any healing power to those who had been bitten unless they "looked npon it," so the mere knowledge of the historical fact, but with a wilful refusal to think further of the matter, and a resolute rejection of any benefits which may be derived from it, that the Son of God suffered death upon the cross, will not deliver a soul from perdition unless that allprevailing atonement be, a3 it were, " looked upon" and appropriated, unless all one's care be cast upon the Lord Jesus, and all one's hopes of salvation and Heaven be confided to Him, and personally and individually rested upon His mercy and loving kindness.

Bat let an earnest and solemn note of warning be uttered against the fearful danger of procrastination in anything which relates to the eternal welfare. Some persons, on being spoken to about the concerns of their soul, say, " There is time yet; there is ample time yet," or that in a year or two, or even on their death bed, will be time enough to make their peace with Heaven. But what sinful folly to postpone a matter of such supreme and vital importance to a time when the senses may possibly be benumbed by the cold hand of Death ; when that icy monarch has chilled their nerves and feelings, and it is impossible for them to realise the precipice upon which they are standing, owing partly to the racking pain or exhausting fever which they may possibly be suffering, and partly to the deadly stupor which sometimes supervenes when the spirit is about to take its departure from its mortal bonds—a stupor which renders the mind insensible to the momentous importance of the salvation of the soul. Again, what is the fate of those who trust in that false refuge of the careless, a deathbed repentance, if, as occasionally happens (and which is always possible), they meet

with a sudden death; if, whether by a socalled accident, or by any other means, their spirit is suddenly removed into the presence of the Eternal Judge ; if the dread summons has gone forth from on high : — "Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required of theewhat, lot it be asked, will be the fate of those who, while in the enjoyment of hea'th and strength, have not chosen that good part which cannot be taken away, and cast themselves entirely upon the full atonement made for all sinners by the blessed Saviiur? if they have not, like the Israelites of old, looked upon Him who was pierced and slain that they might live, and whose precious blood cleanseth from all sin ? Let all those, then, who read these lines be earnestly adjured to make up their minds and decide at once, if they desire to spend eternity — never-ending eternity—in that blest abode where God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and where there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain ; no, no more disappointments or aggravating and unpleasant occurrences ; or whether they will run the certain risk of being placed on the left hand of the Judge, aud being among those unto whom He will address that awful and irrevocable sentence, " Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels, where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched for upon their present decision, perhaps, their future fate may bo determined.

Those who decide upon enrolling themselves under Christ's banner soon experience that He is very gracious and merciful to all who trust in Him. They feel that they are accepted by their Saviour, that He loves them and cares for them, that He overrules all things which may happen unto them, and will not suffer any real evil to befall them, albeit He may, at times, see fit to chasten them ; yet even then they feel that it is for their soul's good, and they sorrow not as those that have no hope. Even in comparatively trivial occurrences they feel that an overruling power is directing everything for their good; that He who seeth a sparrow fall, and numbereth even the very hairs of their bead, will order for them their earthly lot, and will cause all things to work for their good. But, if in temporal things they feel the love for their dear Saviour unto them, how much more in spiritual things ! They know that in love to their souls He has pardoned all their sins and blotted out all their iniquities, and made them meet for the inheritance of the saints in light; that, although their righteousness is but as filthy rags, He is their Righteousness, and that the Eternal Father accepts them for His sake. They feel more and more, as they grow in grace, the power of the Holy Spirit within them, filling them with joy and peace in believing—a joy which is indescribably enhanced when they reflect that their Redeemer has prepared for them a mansion in Heaven, and that, when their allotted span upon earth is finished, their souls will join the heavenly choir, and mingle with the blessed company of the redeemed. THE STREAM OF DEATH. There is a stream whose narrow tide The known and unknown worlds divide Where all must to ! Its waveless waters dark and deep, 'Mid sullen silence downward sweep Wltn mounters flaw. I «aw where, at that dreiry flood. A smiling infant prattling stood, Whose hour was come; Untaught of ill, it neared the tide, Sunk, as to cradled rest, and died, Like going home. Followed with languid eye. anon, A youth, diseased, and pale, and wail; And there alone lie zed upon the lcad»n stream, And feared to plungel hoard a scream, And he was gone. And then a form in manhoo'.'s ttrengtli Came bustling on, till there at length He saw life's hound ; He shrank, and raised life's bitter prayer Too late !— his shriek of wild despair The waters drowned. Next stood upon that surgeless shore A being bowed with many a score Of toilsome years; Earthbome aud sad, he left the bank, Back turned his dimming eye, and sank, Ah ! full of years. How bitter must thy waters be, O, Death—how bard a thing, ah, mo ! It is to die ! I muse, when to that stream again Another child of mortal men With smilej drew nigh. 'Tin the las' pan?, he calmly said ; To me, 0 Death, thou hast no dreid ! Saviour, I come. Spread but Thine arms on yonder shore I see—ye waters bear me o'er, There is my home.