SUNDAY READING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7824, 18 December 1886, Page 4 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING.

CHURCH OF ENGLAND congress. SOME OF THE GOOD THINGS SAID. \ Tub annual Congress ■of the Churoh of England has recently concluded its meetings at WakeSeld. We glean some of the good points from the able and instructive addressee, which will interest many of our readers. . . THIB PREACHING THAT TKLLS. The Bishop of Liverpool : I believe there needs to be a complete reform in the style of sermons commonly preached in rural pulpit , . The immense importance of preaching ie at last fully acknowledged by all schools of thought in the Churoh of England. But I take leave to assert that nowhere is preach' ing so important as it is in country cobgregations. , Farmers and labourers depend extremely on oral teaching. Their business keeps them in the open air from morning to night moat days in the week, and, , very naturally, they are often too sleepy to read much when thoy come home in the evening. The Sunday sermon is consequently their chief source of instruction, and, if the Sunday sermon is not what it ought to be, the loss to their minds and souls is most serious. Now, I am obliged to deo'are my conviction that an immense proportion of the sermons preached by the clergymen of country parishes might juab as well not be preached at all. The preachers may* mean well, but they have not the least idea of what is needed by an agricultural population. A well-oomposed essay, couched in the first person plural, and full of "we, we, we" (what " we" ought to be, and " we" ought to do), written in good Johnsonian English, with Well-finished sentenoee, nicely-balanced periods, and classical language, is perfectly useless to most rural hearer?. It might just as well be preached to the stones on the top of Soawfell, because the hearers do not understand it. They may listen respectfully, bat they carry nothing home, and are like Tennyson's " noithern farmer, who said of hie parson's sermons,

" I thought an he laid what he ought to ear, And theu 1 contort away." A sermon to strike and stick, arrest attention, and be remembered by country hearers, must, of course, contain a very full and dietinot Gospel, and a very plain statement of those grand elementary truths whioh St. Paul preached for two years at Kphesus— ropentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, repeated again and again. Deep intellectual and metaphysical discussion, and nice criticism of words and readings, are thrown away upon farmers and labourers. They want food for their souls when they come to church, and they are not satisfied if they go away hungry. TUB KFFIOACY OK PRATER. Some have objeoted that prayer for temporal blessings must be useless because of the unohangeableness of the laws of nature. I acknowledge that at one time this weighed heavily upon my own mind, and I think that possibly the line of reasoning by which I myself arrived at a dear solution of the difficulty may be a help to others. When I take up an apple from the ground, I do not interfere with or suspend the natural law of gravity; I only exaroise other laws, the physical law* of muscular exertion and of volition ; aud it is absurd to refuse to God a power whioh man himself can exercise. As to the objoction that is based upon the unchangeableness of God, this rests upon a confusion between unchangeableness of character aud obstinacy of purpoee, whioh may be forcibly illustrated by a reference to the treatment of the returning prodigal by the father. If the objection had any real basis, it would turn the father in the most beautiful of all parables into the relentless tyrant. It is because God's character is unchangeable that His purposes are flexible. Bat an appeal is made to our modesty. We aro too insignificant for Him to attend to. This objection rests upon an inadequate view of the nature and character of God. With Him, as the telescope and microscope reveal, nothing is great and nothing is small, nothing important and nothing unimportant. This is no appeal to modesty, but to thoughtlessness. But there is no duty so difficult to perform ae prayer. To feel that Hα is actually there, that He does hear as we speak, this is prayer; yea, to realise that He is what oar blessed Lord taught us to call Him when we pray, " Our Father."

HOW TO WIS THE LAPSED MASSES. The Bishop of Rochester, referring to the double question, " How to win the lapsed masses in our cities and towns," and, " How can tho Church's hold on members in all claasea be strengthened?" refused to consider them apart, tie said :— The problem before ub ie twofold. If I rightly apprehend it, the latter half should help to solve tiie former. The key to one ward will be found to tit both. To the question, "How can the Church's hold on members in all classes be strengthened ?" my answer is not only the best I can find, but there ia no other. It lies in each one of as, according to our light, and with tho gifts God has given to us, doing onr appointed duty ae well as we possibly can. The common life of the Church can never be loftier in its ideal, grander in its vision of duty, deeper in its grasp of truth, more joyful in its sacrifices for God and humanity, than the ideal, or vision, or creed, or selfdevotion of the individuals. If over the English Churoh is to become something bigger than an insigniriennt fragment of the more prospermia and educated class, and if we really desiro to see the groat mass of tho people thoroughly penetrated with our historic and reasonable faith, and going up as one great family to worship in the house of tho Lord, it can only happen through the conscientious acceptance of a higher ideal of goodneis, and a truer standard of pereonal responsibility on the part of the Churoh at large, thaa exists now. We have all of us learned, if we are men as well aa Christians, that salvation is a word with many aides to it, and that to save not only as many as we can, but as much of eaoh man as we can, is God's purpose and the Church's duty. Wβ recognise, welcome, and proclaim a salvation for both worlds, and for body as well as spirit, and for time as well as eternity, and for week-day as well as Sunday—a salvation which shall diminish social burden*, make food cheap, literature oloan, house room decent, schooling com plete ; a salvation whioh shall open up to the artisan in the town and to the labourer in the village that door of hopo for material progress whioh gives such a spring of action to ua iu our own rank, and which for them mifcht vastly help to heal that brooding discontent against God and their neighbour, whioh breeds atheists and nurses revolution ; a salvation whioh, giving justice, and sympathy, and simple Kindness, and scrupulous care never to lightly spill upon the ground the tiniest " bowl of human happiness," whether in the soft palm of a child or the- rough hand of a man, engenders a real brotherhood, whioh, neither stooping to patronise, nor presuming to flatter, shall nurse self-respect, and win affection, and soon open the way into grateful hearts orer crumbling ruins of bitter prejudice, for the higher and fuller salvation of the redeeming and eternal Christ.

Nothing can ever take the plaoe of the Church'e Divine message of reconciliation and grace in the great work of recovering the masses to God. The conscience must be penetrated with the sense of Bin, the will converted by the paramount claims of God, the heart touched with the boundless love of the Saviour, the understanding approaohed, informed, and occupied with the majestic truths of oar revealed religion, the ordinances of our faith used as the channels of supernatural help, the Word of God put in its proper plaoe, with the other more partial revelations of Him in nature, history, and conscience, as the final and complete manifestation of His charaoter and purpose, if the Church is to accomplish with any sort of completeness her great office of bringing men to know God and to lova Him as tbeir Father, Without this message other efforts are a well-meant bat abortive impertinence ; this, with others, adopts and trantfiguree them into subordinate ministries of the Gospel.

OUR LOBD AND THE SORIPTORBS. The Rev. H. C. G. Moule said: Our Divine and Sovereign Master, in the days of His flesh, was the Supreme Believer in the Bible, the Supreme Lover, Student, Expositor, and Kmployer of the Bible. With the letter of the Bible He sustained Himself, and quelled the enemy in the temptation, and the quotations He then selected themselves suggest the minuteness of His study. Upon the written Word He spent the whole Easter afternoon. Accepted Sacrifice for ain, Conqueror of death, Lord and Head of life, He had come that morning from the grave ; and He came, a< it were, with the Scriptures in His hands. He found around Him in those earthly days a mass of religious popular opinions, and Hβ spoke Hie

holy mind freely againet the false among them. But there was one opinion which Hβ noticed only to sanction, to sanctify, to glorify. It was the opinion that the Soripturea were were charged with the authority of God. I pray to Him, and trust Him, my Master and Lord, to hold me now humbly firm to the end. after many a struggle, in Hie opinion of the Holy Scriptures. I would enter into, as Hβ abode in, their rest; therefore I accept, as Hβ accepted, their yoke. I would feel «yhat Hβ felt, that living incitement to their study which is indiesolably bound up, if I mistake not, with the firm persuasion of their supernatural character. I would read them, as Bβ read them, above all things to act upon them in the life in which we, His followers, have in Him; that life whose exercise and outcome means our whole life here, «b well as our whole life hereafter. I would regard them, as it is apparent that He regarded them, aa being (in a eacred sense) selfsuffiaient; not, indeed, to the self-sufficient reader, but to the reader who prays in reverent simplicity that the Holy Spirit may dispel every moral mist, every hindrance of heart and will, from between Him and the written Word ; and who intends in trustful sincerity to consent to, to obey, the discovered meaning; and who is taking pains over the Book. HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. The Rev. Canon Fautset: All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profit able for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. How is the ordinary reader of the Bible to arrive at the doctrine, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness ? 1. Let the student ascertain the general features of a book, and its historical connection. 2. Study the literal sense of the text and contents with the help cf the Revised Version. 3. Aeoeittin the spiritual lesson of the Book to the Church at large. 4. The lessons to the individual boul. 5. The teaching and aotual prophecies of the Messiah and Hie Kingdom, both thoso already fulfilled and those still to be fulfilled. 6. Pray for the Holy Spirit's illuminating faoe whilst he looks at parallel references and compares Scripture with Scripture. Lastly, llotrl only a little each day, and read it often, and digest it well; aim at multum, and not multa; and uee the Divine promisee in the Word.

CHRISTIAN KVXDE>CES. The Eev. J. M. Wilson spoke as follows on this subject:—What were the evidences that Christ gave, apart from those peculiar powers over the minds and bodies of men which we cannot exercise? The evidence was that Hie teaching supplied the deepest needs of the soul; He spoke of God as His Father, and a Kingdom of God on earth, and Hiu life gave credibility to His words. He presented Himself to the world as the Son of Man, and, when they knew the Son of Man, they learnt of themselves that He was the Son of Gad. This was the order, this the method, of His teaching. Essentially the evidence is the same now, except that it Iβ stronger. It rests on facts, not on authority. The proof is still experimental and verificatory, and cannot be otherwise. The evidence lies in human experience. Where else can it be ? It is true that whoever comes to Christ has life. Hα who willeth to do the will knows of the doctrine. There is no shadow of proof or probability that Materialism will make a religion which will contribute to human progress. Christianity has done so, and does do so, in spite of all defects of its presentations. It is contained in very earthen vessels. Nevertheless it "works." I desire that evidences should be treated in the same large, and learned, and oandid spirit in which origins are being universally studied. We must not close our eyes to facts beoauee they seem iuconsistent with our theories; and precisely as it is beginning to be seen, and will, 1 believe, soon be plain, that evolutionary theories of biology are inadequate to account for the existing order of nature without supra evolutionary forces as well, the operation of which is yet undiscovered ; so it may be made even more evident that in the history of man, and in the development of religion, there are also elements which we may describe as supraevolutionary, or supernatural, or Divine, and that Christianity explains tbem.

THK KIGbT SORT OK KUK4L CLKHGYMKN. The Biuhop of Liverpool, referring to this subject, said: —l do mean that, if any districts in the Church of England need incumbents who are men of Goci, converted men, muu inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost, it is the agricultural districts. The farmers and labourers, as a class, may not be highly educated, or able to appreciate great intellectual attainments, but they have a very keeu sense of reality. The rude fathers of the hamlets have horny hands, no doubt, and are not deeply read theologians, but they have not soft heads. It is an immense mistake to think them stupid because they are not great talkers, and sneer at them as " Hodge" and " country bumpkine." They understand a few things besides bullocks, and sheep, and pigs, and corn, and they are often quiak to discern the difference between an ordained hireling and a true shepherd of souls. They dislike worldlinues in the rectory or vicarage. They have no confidence in a clergyman who seems nothing more than a clerical sportsman, or farmer, or gardener, or lawntennis player, or singer, or ball-goer. They like a man to live consistently with his profession, and they secretly despise the clergyman who does not live up to his ordination vows. They have an instinctive horror of formalism, ceremonialism, priestcraft, hypocrisy, and false profession. They hate all this with a perfect hatred. No clergyman will ever be of much uhh in a rural parish unless he knows something of inward saving religion by his own heart's experience I am afraid that

zealous and well-meaning curates are sometimes sent to country parishes, after working for a few years in a rich and well-dreased town congregation, who fail entirely in winning the confidence of the farmers and the labourers by their injudicious proceeding*. They forget that town and country are not the same. It ia utter madness to suppose that a highly ornate ritual, psalm chanting, a surplioed choir, processions, flowers on the communion table, daily services, and the like, suddenly imported from London into an agricultural parish, will be at once swallowed down and appreciated by a population entirely unaccustomed to such things. It is more than probable that the country folks will regard them with deep displeasure, and impute false motives, even Popery, to the well-meaning young zealot who introduces them. They always suspect what they do not understand. Again, I believe it to be an immense mistake to suppose that the affections and confidence of a rural population are to be won by an incessant succession of recreations and amusements. Penny readings from Piokwiok, and village concerts full of comic songs, may produce a rich crop of temporary cheers and smiles ; but they will not reach the hearts and consciences of the people. Life is too hard for farmers and labourers in these days to allow them to be satisfied with such proceedinge. They want something higher, deeper, and more soul* sustaining, They want spiritual food,

YOKED WITH JESUS. " Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Mo." Jnsus, Savionr, by Thy side Day by day would I abide ; Take my hand, be Thou my guide, Whatsoever may betide. Shadows darken ; day has fiod; Bf Thee, Lord, would T be led ; Forward would 11>0 with i hee, Though the path I tuny not see. I would hearken, would nboy, Follow Thee, though daik the way ; Out of weakness make me EtroDg, All my sighing turn to song.. for Thy mme and Thy dear sake, I the path of service take ; Help me glory iu Thy cross, counting earthly things but dross. Sweet the service, sweet the call, O udly I surrender all ; All, Lord Jesus, give to Thee, Now and through eternity. Onward to my home above. Guided by thu hand I love ; Citoled by ihy arm of grace, Till I tee Thee face to face. —S. Trevor Feincis.