SUNDAY READING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 8928, 17 December 1887, Page 4 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING.

POSSIBILITIES IN LIFE AND SERVICE. Dr. Dale, of Birmingham, spoke as follows at a recent meeting in Sydney : lam anxious to impress on the heart* of all Christian people to whom I have the opportunity of speaking whether under these Southern skies or at Home; I want to remind them that already the personal Spirit of the Eternal actually dwells in them ; that they hare not to appeal with passionate outcries to God to send Spirit the Spirit has come as truly as Christ has come, and every man that has found Christy has received the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of the Father ; and I want you to consider how great and wonderful are the possibilities suggested by that great gift-—what knowledge you may have concerning God and things divine since the Spirit dwells in you ; what power for Christian righteousness since the Spirit dwells in you ; what passion of devotion to God since the Spirit dwells in you ; what victories of faith since the Spirit dwells in you ; what hopes of glory, honour, and immortality since the > > pirit dwells in you. Don't measure your personal strength by anything less than the ideals of Christian perfection suggested by the character and teachings of Christ. Despair of no sanctity. Why should you, you the children of the Eternal, who have been made partakers of the divine nature — the inspired men and the inspired women-— you who have received the Holy Ghost, although the Holy Ghost may have been suppressed by your negligence and carelessness All things are possible to those in whom God dwells, and God dwells in you—in your personal life and in your church life. I entreat you in God's name to remember how much God has done for you already. His Eternal Son has descended from the height of His throne to make your nature His own and that yon may receive the forgiveness of your sins; you have been drawn into union with Christ, so that the life that dwells in Christ is yours and you with Him are heir* to the glory of God, and the Spirit of God dwells iu you. All things are possible to those who are inspired.

"CHRIST IN US."

Justification id generally regarded as a gift of God; but Banotification is the work by which man ought to respond to the gift ot righteousness. St. Paul, on the contrary, sees in holiness a divine work no lesß than in righteousness; Christ Himself is the holiness of the believer as well as bis righteousness. His new work is due to His exaltation to glory, whence tie seeds the Holy Spirit; and by Him He communicates His own lite to the justified belforer (John vii,, 39; x*i., 14). if, then, our righteousness ib Christ for ns, our sanctification is Christ in as. Christ is our holiness as well as our righteousness.—Professor Godet,

THE GOSPEL AND OUR NEEDS. Professor Taylor, of America, says :—"I know it is said that the Gospel is not adapted to the nineteenth century. Men are different now from what they were. Yes, they may be different externally, but essentially they are the same. What man was, man is. What man needed, he needs still. In problems of the sciences much is gained by assuming the uniformity of the laws of nature, In problems of the soul mnoh will be gained by you by assuming the uniformity of the laws of human nature. No, the Gospel is not adapted to the nineteenth century. It wasn't adapted to Any centuiy. It wasn't intended to be. It was intended that the nineteenth century should be adapted to the Gospel. Your work is not to make the truths of the Bible tit into all the crooks and crevices of the lives and beliefs of men. Yon are to stamp, not overlay ; to coin, not gild. You are to apply the teachings of Christ with such force to the hearts and lives of men that their hearts will ever after bear the impress of the image of Jeans Christ, and their lives be conformed to Bis will, there are peculiarities of the times that will require special methods of delivering the truth, not special truth. You may have to leave the pulpit and .stand at the door, or on the street corner, in order to preach to men; but; when you preach, preach the truth."

HOW TO DO GOD'S WILL. A teacher was explaining to her class the words concerning God's angels, "Ministers of His who do flis pleasure," and asked, " How do the angels carry out God's will V' Many answers followed. One ssid, " They do it directly." Another, They d» it with all their heart." A third, "They do it well." And, after a pause, a quiet little girl added,

"They do it without asking any questions,"

ONE HOUR OF PASTORAL WORK. One cold winter 'evening I made my first call on a rich merchant in New York. As I left his door, and the piercing gale swept in, I said, " What an awful night for the poor !" He went back, and, bringing to me a roll of bank bill*, said, "Please hand these, for me, to the poorest people you know." After a few days, I wrote to him the grateful thanks of the: poor whom his bounty had relieved, and added, " How is it that a man so kind to his fellow-creatures has always been so unkind to his Saviour as to refuse Him his heart ?' That sentence touched him to the core. He sent for me to come and talk with him, and speedily gave himself to Christ. He has been a most useful Christian ever since. But he told me that I was the first person who had talked to him about his soul in nearly twenty years. One hour of pastoral work did more for that man than the pulpit effort of a lifetime.—Theodore L. Cuyler. SURFACE AND DEPTH. We all need to be much more alone with God. If without this communion we go .and throw our common life at others, what wonder if we only get common results. Power belongs to God, but, though God is with us, and God is in us, for the most part we do not get down deep enough to find or reach Him, bat we are all on the surface; that is, in the flesh, and flesh, with all its busy work for Chrißt, is only flesh still.— ttev. A. Jukes. PAUL NO AGNOSTIC. St. Paul, like Christ, was no agnostio. Id these days, when a whole school of philosophy takes upon itself not merely to disparage the poor flickering knowledge of God which man has but attained, but to draw a sharp line, to build a high wall, beyond which the knowledge of man cannot go. To contemplate how much is unknown may be otteu very good for us. To declare anything of God to be intrinsically and eternally unknowable by man is unreasonable. May we not even Bay that It is insolent, insulting both to God and man? Here we may say, as St. Paul essentially says, as we seemed to hear Jesus say when we were listening to His words, that to know that God knows us is itself a knowledge of God, and promises what depth of future knowledge no man can begin to say.Phillips Brooks. THE BOCK OF JOB. I call that, apart from all theories about it, one of the grandest things ever written with pen. One feels, indeed, as if it were not Hebrew ; such a noble universality, different from noble patriotism or sectarianism, reigns in it. A noble Book; ail men's Book ! It is our first, oldest statement of the neverending problem—man's destiny and God's ways with him here on this earth. And all in such free-flowing outlines; grand in its sincerity, in its simplicity, in its epic melody, and repose of reconcilement. There is the seeing eye, the mildly understanding heart. So true every way; true eyesight and vision for all things ; material things no less thaa spiritual i > be horse" Hast thou clothed his neck with thunder? he laughs at the shaking of tha spear!" Such living likenesses were never since drawn. Sublime sorrow, sublime reconciliation; oldest choral melody as of the heart of mankind ; so soft and great; &a tho summer midnight, as the world with its «eas and stars I There is nothing written, I think, ot equal literary merit.—Carlyle. WHO ARB RESPONSIBLE! Says the Rev. J. A. Jcoob :—"Surely for much of the ignorance, the misery, the sin, whioh is in the world, those mainly re« sponsible are not so much the infidel or the licentious, the worldly or *he frivolous, as the Christians who do not 'shine.' What with Christians who cannot or will not do God's work, the Church of God is 4 sore let and hindered,' and Satan laughs and angels | weep. What with the idle Christians, the sossiDius Christians, the cowardly Chris-

tians, the parsimonious Christians thChristians who caanot stand should*/; shoulder with their brethren, but molt h always working out queer little fancie. ?» their own, the Christians who can n«! distinguish between the big and the litti things, strainers out of gnats and swallows of camels—what with these, and such m these, the only surprise is that any oJS whatever is done in the world." 8

A FAITHFUL WITNESS.

A boy twelve years old was the imporW witness in a lawsuit. One of the lawyers aft cross-questioning him severely, said, "Yd" father has been tolling you how to te.tif-' hasn't he?", " Yes," said the boy. «jK said the lawyer, "just tell us how vonr father told you to testify." "Well" ..-i the boy, modestly, father told m lawyers would try and tangle me in m! testimony; but if I would just be camfni and tell the truth I could tell the same thins every time." »

THE CRY FOR SABBATH REST. The crv of earth's unrest--Of ceaseless toil's dull pain, From north to soatu, from east to vreit, Like murmur of the sleepless mala, In growing volume seem < to say, | " On, for a restiui Sabbath da;." The steamship's surging throb; Where mammon chafes the tideAs If the Terr wares to rob of rest which Heaven had ratifiedResounds, as though it would iuveigh 'Gainst outrage on the hallowed day, The railway whistle shrill, Piercing the peaceful air, Where else the loudest sounds had still Been chine of b-lls, and praise, and prayer Screams down the thundering iron war. Demanding back the sabbath day. The clattering tramway cars, Bearing their goodly eight Of comfortable worshippers Tc many a sanctuary gate, Cry oat, "Mast Christians, too. betray The sanctity of Gods own day?' The weary, toil-worn horse, Through seven days doomed to plod, Would fain the mute apptal endorse, Uprising to a righteous God, From iie.rts that have no hour to pray Through all the toiling Sabbath day, Attend, yo sons of toil, To history's lesson plain, That seven-day laboui's cruel toil Follows in " Suud&y pleasure's" train. Then prize your mat, Uod'« law obey, And sauctlfy the Sabbath day. Belfast. W. Matwlit.li,