SUNDAY READING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9452, 24 August 1889, Page 4 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING.

THE GOSPEL OF SALVATION. [by key. iidgii PRICK hugiles.]

" So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the Gospel to you that are at Home also. For lam not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that bejieveth."Romans i., 15, 10.

Paul said that he was not ashamed to preach the Gospel of Christ in ancient Rome, and that was not a hasty or thoughtless utterance. He was a very gifted, highly educated, exceedingly sensitive man. " Fools rush in where angels fear to tread," but Paul was no fool. Like Ulysses, lie had travelled far and seen men and cities; lie knew what was meant by preaching the Gospel in Rome. Rome was then the mistress ot the world, and combined in many respects the great characteristics of London, Paris, and Berlin to-day ; it was the great contre of commerce, literature, and empire. It was crowded with nobles and soldiers, thinkers and poets; and, as you have the deepest shades whereever you have the brightest light, so Rome was full of desperate sinners. A truly awful place was Rome, and yet Paul, who weighed his words, wrote deliberately in this letter that he was not ashamed to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Rome. Why? He gives us TiIRKK REASONS. 1. Because the Gospel of Christ which he preached was a real Gospel. "It is the power of God unto salvation." As human society greatly needs to be saved, there are many who oiler to be the saviours of society, and, as we are supremely in need of a Gospel, there are a great many gospels offered to us to-day. There is, for example, a political gospel. Some tell us that if certain changes are made in the laws, customs, and habits of this country all will be well. Parliament can cure all human woes, lint will any conceivable political improvement staunch the bleeding hearts of men ? I need only ask one question to answer that. In the past the laws and customs of human society have been carefully arranged at any rate to promote the well-being and comfort and happiness of kings and aristocracies and privileged classes. 1 wish to know from any student of history whether kings and aristocracies and privileged classes in every age have been happy. And, if law has failed to create happiness in palaces, it will equally fail in cottages, unless there is something else in addition to it.

Others offer an artistic gospeL Thev say if art is developed and advanced in all directions we will relieve mankind of misery. I am also greatly in favour of every artistic development; but again we must take the principle of Bacon, and bring all these things to the test of fact. I want to know whether Athene, and Rome, and Constantinople, and Florence, and Venice, in the days of their supremest and most splendid artistic development, were happy. Again, we are told by many that a commercial gospel is what we need; that if everybody had plenty of money, everybody would be happy. That is a favourite gospel. There are young men who are tempted to believe that if only they were rich, and had a carriage and pair, and lived in a suburban mansion, they would very soon be able to quiot their troubled hearts; but there was one remark made by the great Augustine many centuries ugo which is true, even in London. He said, " What is the use of a golden key it it will not open the door?" And, if you had all the money in the Bank of England, it would not enable you to open the door of happiness'. It is quite clear that you need no physician of these political, commercial, or artistic gospels. Admirable as far as they go, they are cursed -with a fatal impotence. They are fair of promise; but where is the performance ? I was much struck by the honest confession of a modern thinker, who was, unhappily, a stranger to the peace of God, that what he wanted, and what those he represented supremely needed, was

A LIFTING I'OWKR: they knew perfectly well they wanted to be lifted out of their misery and self-torture, and they had a noble desire to lift others, but they had no power. The still small voice is wanted. He must speak whose words leap forth at onco to its effect, who calls for things that are not, and they come, rower belongeth unto God. That is why the Gospel I proclaim to you to-night is indeed the Gospel of Gospels. It is the power of God unto salvation. I earnestly appeal to-night to any who have tried to find rest to their souls anywhere else, to come back again to the everlasting Gospel of God. I appeal to your own consciousness. Have you not been labouring in vain and spending your strength for naught? Have you not been hewing out broken cisterns, positively broken as you make them, so that all your happiness leaks out directly? Who is there here that has never trusted in Clu'ist who has a pure heart, and that which Shakespere declared of greater worth than all jewels and coronets—a quiet aud a peaceful conscience ? This is the Gospel I offer you. By the grace of God, I am able to tell you the secret of porfcct present happiness, and will you turn your back 011 me? Will you despise this truth because I rejoice before God that I see so many young men and so many young women here who have not had the opportunity by bitter personal experience to learn that the way of transgressors is hard ? God forbid that your life should be the life of one of the successful citizens of London, of whom I have heard, who, whilst he lay dying in his luxurious bed in his magnificently furnished chamber, said in a hoarse whisper to his daughter, " Annie, we have made a great mistake." Poor wretch! at the last hour the light burst in, and he saw that, while killing himself by inches for the sake of his money-bags, he had been sacrificing the supreme happiness of his soul, and,' horror of bon'Qi'S, the )Wl>Vie?S of Ul3 duusbtw also, . > -- - .

2. The second reason why Paul was „ . ashamed to preach the Gospel even to th? great City was this : It was not only aS Gospel but it was a universal Gospel, f or h 1 says it is the power of God unto salvation TO EVERYONE." 1

What would be the use of nreachin, other gospel, except a truly catholic one it the city of Rome, the most cosrnormlll city in the world? To Rome, where ta two thousand years ago preached this Go.rti came the curious traveller from fhoS? ' East, the hated Jew, the subtle Greek 5? even your barbarous forefathers from (S,i and Britain m the far west; and Paul kn that, however motley his congregation, thil Gospel suited all. Here we have nearevery nation under Heaven represented •> this immediate neighbourhood, in a,1,1,A 10 to Englishmen, Welshmen, Scotchmen & men, we have crowds of Jews, German Italians, and a smaller number of represent ' tives from every quarter of the cdo£* What would be the use of my standing „ and proclaiming a gospel suited to Enlist men only, or Europeans only? Blessed V God! here is a universal Gospel, suited ? all, young and old, healthy and sickly and ignorant, the good and the bad,' and" whoever you are, sitting up there perharw' ill a remote corner, not knowing a single soul in the multitude—you may scarcely know why you came here, but God brought v 0 here that, in the name and living presence of Jesus Christ, I might assure you you are not too bad to be saved by this Gospel, that you , ore not too ignorant, not too old, not too young, not too highly educated. You mas j have tried to serve God before and failed It was your own fault. You physicked your* and made a mess of it, for you are a supreme quack ; you know little about it. Now let the true Physician try His skill and He will cure you. 1 3. Lastly, he was not ashamed of this Gospel because it was also in a supreme sense

A PRACTICAL GOSPEL, for you observe it " is the power of God to salvation to everyone that believeth." J^ ow what a mercy it is that everybody can be saved who believes! You have nothin« to do but to believe; you have nothing to do but to trust in Jesus Christ. Some time a-o I was preaching in a church in the North of London. Just in front of me sat a dear little girl, who could scarcely have been 12 years. I was explaining in the simplest language the nature of saving faith ; I showed that it was simply trusting Jesus Christ and taking Jesus Christ at His wordand as I spoke the little girl nestled up to her mother, and, with a smile ol brightest astonishment, for she had pro. bably heard long theological words before she sudd, " Why, mother, even I could dc that." And it is a blessed truth. The youngest child in this congregation can trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the one thing we can all do. Unless we were in a thousand different ways trusting one another now, as I am spcakin» there -would be a panic in the building From your infancy, from a period before yon possessed intelligent thought, you did by instinct trust your mother and your nurse. We have simply to treat Christ as we treat everybody else, only we have to trust Him in proportion to His veracity and ability and all who trust ill Christ, not hi themselves, not in their own merit, or their own fancies, are saved.

There are some medicines which are very efficient, but very dear, and, therefore, beyond the reach of the poor, and we can conceive a real gospel which would be very effective, but the conditions would be sc severe that they would be beyond youi power and mine. I go into Athens, and ] see over the door of one of the halls a now famous inscription : " Let no man enter here who does not understand mathematics.* Poor chance for many of us! Igoon to Jerusalem, and I hear the great Saviour say, " Suffer little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not." Learned and unlearned, all are equally welcome, everyone who trusts in Christ, who allows Jesus Christ, the living Saviour to save him, and to save him in His way. Therefore this is a present as well as a free salvation, and I conclude by solemnly declaring in your presence to-night that God is willing and able to save everybody who is not yet saved. A minister of religion ouce said to me, " Why, Hughes, you very much shock me by the way you declare in public that God is able and willing to save men and women in such a hurry. Now, it seems to me that conversion is like the wheeling round of a great army— a very slow process." I said, " Dear brother, what a mercy that Christ's idea of salvation is not yours! because what would have become of the dying thief 011 the cross when he said, ' Lord, remember me,' if Christ had turned His dying eyes on him, and said, ' I should wry much like to do so, but it takes Me three -weeks to save a sinner, and I shall be dead in three hours ?'" 3S'o purgatory, at any rate, for that dying thief and murderer; and the same glorious Saviour is at this'very moment in every hall, every sanctuary, able to save. There is no word more constantly used in reference to the great works of Jesus Christ than " immediately." When men come to Him with auy need—bodily, mental, or spiritualHe gave them immediate relief. When it was a question of forgiving sin, or raising the dead, if He did it at all, lie did it immediately ; and it is the same to-day and for ever. I can stand as a living witness to-day to testify that it is so. Igo back tonight ill

51V OWS RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE to a little chapel in an out-of-the-way place in Wales, so different from this great hall. As I sat in that little congregation in the midst of my schoolfellows, a stranger whom Iliad never heard of before, whose name I did not know, and have never heard since, who was just passing through from America, happened to occupy the pulpit. I have forgotten the text, but I remember at the end he said, "Now. I have no time to go into all the theological definitions of repentance, faith, regeneration, sanctification, and everything else, but for you practically," he saw, in that plain American way by which they come to the point at once, " it means submit." I saw it in a moment. I had been, like Bunyan's Pilgrim, conscious of a great load on my back, and had been the victim ot this delusion that I had to do something to overcome the willingness of God to save me. I remember how for weeks I had wandered oil the hills about Swansea and Lamlore, and had rolled in the grass with no one to guide me. I thought I had something to do to overcome the reluctance of God, to persuade Him to save me, for Christ 3 sake; but at once I understood it was not I who I had to overcome any reluctance on the part of God, but He had to overcome a S rea lnctance on my part; that whatever difficulty existed had been altogether removed by the atonement of Jesus Christ; 'I 1 1" the only difficulty was on my side, in being persuaded that God was full of love to me. The news seemed too good to be true, but realised it by the help of the great Spirit ° God, not in an inquiry-room or at an altertime, but 'then and there, as the nimist ;f' bringing his remarks to a close, shut to Bible, for one can remember these very dramatic incidents in life. I spoke to wo in the silence of my young soul, and sal > " Oh, my God, I have been supremely miserable for months, and I can never be happ. again until my sins are forgiven. realise that Thou art love, and that Gars : my Saviour, I cannot fight against -L' iee > cannot resist Thee any more; here ana no I yield to Thee, and submit to be save' ) Christ;" and at that moment a light nilmy sold, and I rejoiced in Christ as my Saviour. Most assuredly, whoever you a [' if you are not saved, that same Saviour wn saved a little Welsh boy more „ quarter of a century ago is able andwi' is to save everybody here and now; and in _ presence of God and the holy angels, a:no another, you must, everyone of you, l ' before you leave this building whether y will be saved or not. Thank God tha many have trusted in Christ. Isl j. night, however, to those who li^ e trusted in Christ. YOU MUST DECIDE. Remember, whoever you are, if yon ' u of this building, you have decided as 1 as if you remain behind and put; ou ? [IOW in Christ. The whole responsibility on your head. Christ has died to .y otl God has sent His Spirit in your heart. have come to the parting of the ways, a s may never be here again. Standing _ ce an ambassador of God, in the livnig 1 irS> of Christ, who will be my Judge am J f I command you and implore you < * olt brother. Life and death are set before }° good and evil—will you choose Christ .

THE NARROWING CIRCLE. I was weary of earth and its t^' s ' Life seemed little but parting- > For I hold a black-edged That told me 1 had lost one more. "How the family circle 11:1 r^: h 1 said, as with throbbing breatn I thought of the many loved.ones. Taken home by the hand of deatu. Perhaps it was only a fancv Brought on by a fevered bmi . But it seemed in the dream) I heard someone call my nam . And a low voice softly w vtTest, "Those loved ones are all. tf £*» A loving Saviour has call®;l th And He knows and does the bes& "Ami think of the welcomes waiting For you in the land of ' o c '- j As the circle narrows earthward, It widens in Heaven a bote. _

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