SUNDAY READING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8270, 31 May 1890, Page 4 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING.

THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD. [BY 1)U. MACLAKEN.] A half Christianised world and a more than half secularised Church get on well together. " When they do agree their agreement is wonderful." And it is a miserable thing to reflect that about the average Christianity of this generation there is so very little that does deserve the antagonism of the Church. Why should the world care to hate or trouble itself about a professing Church, large tracts of which are only a bit of the world under another name! There is no need whatever that there should be any antagonism at all between a Godless world and hosts of professing Christians. If you want to escape the hostility, drop your flag, button your coat over the badge that shows that you belong to Christ, and do the thing that the people round about you do, and you will have a perfectly easy and undisturbed life.

Of course, in the bad old slavery days, a Christianity that had not a word to say about the sin of slave-holding ran no risk of being tarred and feathered. Of course, a Christianity in Manchester that winks hard on commercial immoralities is very welcome on the Exchange. Of course, a Christianity that lets boer barrels alone may reckon upon having publicans for its adherents. Of course, a Christianity that blesses flags and sings To Dennis over victories will net its share of the spoil. Why should the world hate, or persecute, or do anything but despise a Christianity like that, any more than a man need to care for a tame tiger that has had its claws pared If the world can put a hook in the nostrils of a leviathan, and make him play with its maidens, it will substitute good nature, halt contemptuous, for the hostility which our Master here predicts. It was out-and-out Christians that He said the world would hate; the world likes Christians that are like itself. lie sure that it is your goodness, and not your evils or your weakness, that men dislike. The world has a very keen eye, and it is a good thing that it has, for the inconsistencies and the faults of professing Christians. And the loxtier your profession the sharper the judgment that is applied to you. .Many well-meaning. Christian people, by an injudicious use of Christian phraseology in the wrong place, and by the glaring disproportion between their prayers and their talks and their daily life, bring down a great deal of deserved hostility upon themselves and of discredit upon Christianity; and then they comfort themselves and say they are bearing the reproach of the cross. Not a bit of it. They are bearing the natural results of their own failings and faults. And it is for us to see to it that what provokes, if it does provoke, the hostile judgments and uncharitable criticisms, insulting speeches and sarcasms, ami the sense of our belonging to another regiment and having other objects, is our cleaving to Jesus Christ, and not the imperfections and the sins with which we so often spoil that cleaving. Be you careful for this, that it is Christ in you that men turn from, and not you yourself and your weakness and sin. Meet this antagonism by not dropping your standard one inch. Keep the flag right at the masthead. If you begin to haul it down, where are you going to stop? Mowhere, until you have got it draggling in the mud at the foot. it is no use trying to conciliate by compromise. All that we shall gain by that will be, as I have said, indifference and contempt; all that we shall gain will be loss to the cause. A great deal is said in this day, and many efforts are being made—l cannot but think mistaken efforts — by Christian people to bridge over this gulf in the wrong way ; that is, by trying to make out that Christianity, in its fundamental principles, does approximate a great deal more closely to the things that the world goes by than it really does. It is all vain, and the only issue of it will be that we shall have a decaying Christianity and a dying spiritual life. Keep the flag up; emphasise and accentuate the tilings that the world disbelieves and denies, not pushing them to the falsehood of extremes,' but not one jot diminishing the clearness of our testimony by reason of the world's unwillingness to receive it. The onlv victory is to be won through absolute faithfulness. Aim, lastly, meet hostility with unmoved, patient, Christlike, and Christ-derived love and sympathy. The patient sunshine pours upon the glaciers, and melts the thick-ribbed ice at last into sweet water. The patient sunshine beats upon the mist-cloud and breaks up its edges and scatters it at the last. And our Lord here tells us that our experience, if we are faithful to Him, will be like His experience, in that some will hearken to our word, though others will persecute, and to some our testimony will come as a message from God, that draws them to the Lord Himself. These are our only weapons. The only conqueror of the world is the love which was in Christ breathed through us; the only victory over suspicion, contempt, alienation, is pleading, persistent, long-suffering, self-denying love. The only way to overcome the world's hostility is by turning the world into a church, and that can only be done when Christ's servants oppose pity to wrath, love to hate, and, in the strength of His life who has won us all by the same process, seek to win the world for Him by the manifestation of His victorious love in our patient love.

PRAYER: BE TALKING TO GOD. [BY MRS. HARRISON LEE.]

Braver should really be shaking to God. As a lowly subject, when brought into the presence of a mighty Emperor to personally ask a favour, would use words of humility, entreaty, or pleading, and, when the favour was graciously granted, words to express deep, heartfelt gratitude, so should the subject of the Majestic King use like words when addressing Him. No irreverence, no frivolity, no careless use of mismeaning words should there be. Sincere, fervent, passionate, with all the suppliant's soul in Ins words. This is prayer; and prayer that reaches to the Great White Throne, gaining instant attention, and obtaining instant answer (Jeremiah xxxiii., '.)). It should be "speaking to our Father/' With what simple confidence and fearless trust the beloved child stands before its father, and makes its little wants known, and if the wise father sees it is for the child's good, how readily and lovingly he grants his wishes (Psalm lxviii., 19). Or, if the child has got into trouble, we see it come and throw itself on that father's breast, we see the strong arms folded around the little form, the gentle hand wiping away the bitter tears, and hear the soothing words comforting the heartbroken little one. And to a father ten thousand times more indulgent, more tender, more loving, we should come with the same undoubting confidence and childlike simplicity. Tell Father everything. Never mind the words ; He understands. Only let the faith and trust be there. Then shall we sing the glad song of David (Psalm ciii.), remembering specially the wonderfully hidden beauty of the thirteenth verse. The whole of God's glorious Gospel teems with messages of tender love, of Fatherly care, and unending mercy; and when we hear the wail of bitter sorrow wrung from that gentle heart, "Ye will not come unto Me that ye might have life," our tears mingle with His, and we wonder in grieved amazement how any creature of dust can reject the Father's boundless, long-enduring love. That prayer is a necessity and a joy we know. That it is often turned into a disagreeable duty we also know. The fault is entirely ours. Instead of talking to our Father, instead of pouring all the burdens of our hearts into His sympathetic heart, we string long sentences of cold, dead words together, and come away with our burden just as heavy, our souls as dead, and our hearts as cold as when we went to Him, or rather pretended to go to Him. Oh, if we could get out of the habit of saying our prayers and pray—really pray as Christ prayed, as Daniel prayed, as David prayed (Matthew xxi., 22; Daniel ii.,23; ix.,3-2l; Psalm xlii., S). Then, indeed, would the windows of Heaven be opened, and such blessings be poured out as there would not be room in our hearts to receive. One of the most simple and beautiful prayers I ever heard was that of a little Indian boy who was told to pray to Jesus. He asked what it was to pray. "Just kneel down and tell Jesus what you want," the missionary answered.

The little child thought a minute, and then, dropping on his knees, prayed, " Dear Jesus, come into my heart, shut the door, and never go out again." Ah, that was what he wanted, and that is what we all want. Christ in our hearts, Christ in our lives. Then shall we be able to talk to Him, and hear His sweet voice saying peace to our souls. Then shall prayer be not a dead duty, but a living joy.

———— —■ — -a Oh', a little talk with Jesus, how it cheers the rugged road, How it makes the heart grow lighter, when sinking 'neith the load. When in the realms of glory, His gentle face I see I know I'll talk with Jesus and He will talk with me.

MOSES AND DARWIN. [BY REV. JOHN MCNEILL,] From a sermon on the Burning Bush preached recently by Mr. McNeill we give a few passages which will be read with interest at the present time. After pointing out thai Moses got the wonderful revelation because of his reverence, Mr. McNeill said—"Now, the spirit that is abroad to-day would say, ' Moses, that is a very remarkable sight you are looking at, ami in a spirit of bold yet reverent inquiry, go forward and subject this phenomenon to frank and fearless criticism.' We are told to-day that the Church is greatly indebted to men of this spirit—men who have gone up to the burning bush and fingered the thing and told us about it. Now, I am not indebted, either as regards methods or results, to the Strausses and Baurs, and Renans, and Darwins and Huxleys—l am indebted to no man who' doe.> not bring me nearer God. lam the very opposite. If the spirit of Moses did not dictate his method, the ' Glory of God' will not come out in his results. Any man who makes the glory to be dim, how shall I be indebted to him? And they do make the glory dim ; the glory on the grass, as well a.< the glory on the page, and the glory of the Person. When Moses might have come in i the spirit, if it can be got up, of bold, and free, and candid—to use- these cant words of to-day—candid criticism, tied said, 'Moses, keep back.' As I put it before, ' Come near enough to see and hear and give an intelligent worship, and then, if you are not to turn your blessing into the blighting of the lightning, do not come nearer !' Our modern critics go, and you know what happens. I cannot quote poor Darwin's own words, bat nothing can he sadder than his own words as to what happened to him because he went too near without the reverent spirit. He virtually tells us that his scientific studies put his eyes out. That is the sum and sub. stance of it. He came too near the bush without the reverent spirit, and Ids light went out. His mind, he says, became a mere machine for grinding out general laws from masses of ascertained facts. God pity all such as have come too near the flame ! That is what you get for coming too near. Let uptake care. We are only human at the bust, and even the man with the microscope is only human, and should not be worshipped nearly as much as he is. The tone of to-daj is, because a man has a microscope, and ha; found out some extra things with it, worship him, all ye gods! 'Draw not nigh hither; put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.' He was near enough. I can quite well understand that very likely no man more than Moses would feel' Oh, I would like to sue this great sight, and get to the bottom of i;. But he could not, and we should not. Cod has set bounds to the inquiries of the human spirit, not cramping grounds, but wise and safe ones. ' I want to know all about this. There is purpose in that burning bush, and I should like to have it explained.' And God says, 'Take care, be reverent. Go so far, and go no farther, for you cannot no beyond a certain length and prosper.' So with many other difficulties. How am I at once body and spirit? But lam warned by this, that many men who have gone into that question in order to find out about it have put out their eyes. They come back from the examination of the human frame, from wonder upon wonder, they come back, and say. ' We have found no spirit, no breath of God; all that has no warrant from our researches.' Out you go with your researches! And they go to this Bible, and say, 'It is a very wonderful Book, and we have examined it in the spirit of frank, candid, and fearless inquiry. We have not scoffed at the Book, nor scorned it; we have examined it in the spirit of frank and tearless inquiry, and we find the glory is gone.' It is just so. There is only one method—the reverent; and one result— and that is to know God better and bow down flatter before Him."

WHEREFORE DIDST THOU DOUBT J How is it, child, thou canst not fully trust Me? Why hast thou loft the shelter of. My side? The way is dark I know, thick clouds oppress thee : But still My arms of love are open wide. Come close, My child ; My heart for thee is yearning. I know this path seems very hard to take ; But I for thee have chosen it in wisdom. And I will not one moment thee forsake. Each step is right, though dim, mysterious shadows Appear just now to compass all the land ; But I can pierce their gloom, and 1 am caring, Doubt not My love, but Cake My ottered hand. Thou canst not see My face, but I am with thee, So fear thou not, but still in faith press on ; And soon the gladness of My heavenly sunshine Shall crown thy path, and this dark night In gone. CiiAULorra Murray.