SUNDAY READING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12242, 11 April 1903, Page 4 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING.

DOES IT MAKF YOU HAPPY? # [by THE RIGHT ItEV. J. C. ETLE, D.D., LOUD BISHOP OF LIVERPOOL. You have some religion, I suppose. You are not an infidel or an atheist. You believe you have a soul to be lost or saved. You believe there is a world to come after death. You believe there is a God Who takes account of all your ways. You believe there as a life beyond the grave. All this is well. I am glad of it. It is a fearful thing to have no religion at all. - But, reader, what does your religion do for you? Does it afford you any comfort? Does it give you any peace? You live in a dying world world full of sickness and infirmity, or trial and affliction, of losses and crosses, of disappointment and _ tears. Now, is your religion a help to you in this world? Does your religion make you happy? The question is one of immense importance. It ought not to be neglected. Give me your attention while I tell you a simple story, which may throw some light upon it. An infidel was once addressing a crowd of people in the open air. He was trying to persuade them that there was no God ana no devil, no heaven and no hell, no resurrection, no judgment, and no life to come. He advised them to throw away their Bibles, and not to mind what parsons said. He recommended them to think as he did, and to be like him. He talked boldly. The crowd listened eagerly. It was " the blind leading the blind." Both were falling into the ditch. • In the middle of his address a poor old woman suddenly pushed her way through the crowd to the place where he was standing. She stood before him. She looked him full in the face. Six-," she said, in a loud voice, ■'arc you happy?" The infidel looked scornfully at her, and gave no answer. " Sir," she said again, " I ask you to answer my question. Are you happy? You want us to throw away our Bibles. You tell us not to believe what parsons say about religion. You advise us to think as you do, and to be like you. Now, before we take your advice, we have a right to know what good we shall get by it. Do your fine, new notions give you ranch comfort? Do you yourself really feel happy?" The infidel stopped, and .attempted to anwer the old woman's question. He stammered and shuffled and fidgeted, and en- | deavoured to explain his meaning. He tried hard to turn the subject. He said "he had not come there to preach about happiness." But it was of no use. The old woman stuck to her point. She insisted on her I question being answered, and the crowd took her part. She pressed him hard with her inquiry, and would take no excuse. And ( at last the infidel was obliged to leave the \ ground, and sneak off in confusion. He could not reply to the question. His conscience would not let him. He dared not say that he was happy. The old woman showed great wisdom in asking the question that she did. The argument she used may seem very simple, but in reality it is one of the most powerful that can be employed. It is a weapon that has more effect on some minds than the most elaborate reasoning of Butler,, or Paloy, or Chalmers, or any of the famous defenders of Christianity. Whenever a man begins to take up new views of religion, and pretends to despise old Biblo Christianity, thrust home at his conscience the old woman's question. Ask him whether his new views make him feel comfortable within. Ask him whether he can say with, honesty and sincerity . that he is. happy. The grand test of a man's faith and religion is, "does it make him happy?" r Let me now affectionately invite you to consider the subject of this article. Let me entreat you to prove your own life and your own religion by the question which stands before your eyes. Let me warn you to remember that the salvation of your soul and nothing less, is closely bound up with ! the inquiry. That heart cannot be right in 1 the sight of God which knows nothing of ' happiness. That man or woman cannot be in a safe state of soul who feels nothing of peace within. 8 If _ you want to be happy you must repent of sin, and seek Jesus Christ for the salvation of your soul. Faith in Christ is the PW - se " e * + ° happiness. Union with Christ is the true fountain of peace. Seek Onnst this very day. Perhaps you think you are so bad and unworthy that Christ will not have you. I do beseech you to cast away such fear for ever. SS n ¥ e^ very nor C quench thr s mo°king fl*?® b Jw nofto draw near to Him, if you would be happy. There is a confessional ready for you. You need none made by man. The ™.°" e • of Q ac ® 18 the true . confessional. There is a Confessor ready for you. You need no ordained man, no priest, no bishop no minister, to stand between you and God. Q. he Lord Jesus is the true High Priest The Lord Jesus Christ is the real Confessor. None is so wise, and none so loving as He' None but he can give you absolution i and send you away with a light heart and in perfect peace. Oh, .take the invitation I brine you! . Fear nothing. '. Christ is not an " au stere man." He despiseth not any Arise this day, • and flee to . Him. - Go to Christ and repent this night without delay. Then you will be happy. . J . Anen DYING LAMPS. [BT THE HEV. ALEXANDER KACtAItEN, D.D ] "Our lamps are gome "-Matt.' xxv.' 8 ' (K.v.) The rendering of the Revised Version is to be • preferred to that of the Authorised, as more accurate and far more vivid. The sleeping five hastily looked to their lamps when they woke, and saw them flickering and dying down. A note of alarm as well as. of Surprise is audible in their startled exclamation. Their discovery and their dread were < alike too late, and as they went on their hopeless search for what they mitrht once have had in abundance the last faint glimmer ceased and they had to grope their way m the dark, with their lightless lamps hanging useless in their slack hands, while near at hand the torches' of the bridal pro cession, in which they might have had' a part, flashed through the. night. The issue of the process of extinction does not concern us now; the process itself does. > —vv .. . The uniform usage of Scripture determines the meaning' of the oil, which always signifies the influence of the Spirit of God communicated to men.. What, then, is meant by the lamp? Biblical usage ' seems to an-

swer that question as clearly 'as the a < and to interpret the lamp as the fV • ~6 r: %!= *>' 4 life of the individual, sustained bv tliifl*> " of God. : * 7 UIQ Spx r i t That life may gradually die out. All *J.'*'•> ttal emotions, and the lifo of which th ' the manifestations, die unless nourished Tn? t# 'AV have no guarantee of : perpotuitv y plain conditions. We may live,'and our i? tt ? # may die. \\ e may trust, and our t 8 may tremble into unbelief. We' m.l vjwt ' and our obedience may be broken 1» ous risings of self-will. We may uS ?'-' ■■ paths of righteousness, and our feet m. V? tor and turn aside. The lamp may be Si -; ■>' died and (therefore) shining," but it will t r '■ ■■'J but for a season,' unless it is f„j ,be the source from which it was lit. * Rom §j5 fs The process is slow, lie flame of a i,~ does not go out at once. -The white ? lessens, and the imperfectly consumed w" ■ portion encroaches on it, then the fhme i- i? # '*i ers. and as it were, shudders ilelfoff . wick, and leaves a charred, red line fj, h ® soon breaks up into points, and these '.J i, '* "v. out one after another, and then Xuffi* ness, and the lamp has gone out. So ct ' , K " - s *' - may the light in the soul die »wav •TV ' i ~ process of extinction may be long protraotj " V like the reluctant close of a summer's tW J " ' like the slow dropping of the blood from > - fatal wound. . 111 a ■?;£, That extinction of the light is browriifc i by simply doing nothing. The fiv o £o sgj£ v , maidens did not stray into forbidden 2! They merely slept. True the other five sW and if we wore studying the parable a? ' C ! whole, there would be much to say a ,%® the difference between the slumbers 0 tv two groups; but for om present purnoJ ' is enough to note that nothing i s XL'J against the hapless five except necli™*! deepening into slumber, and the consent! failure to provide oil. They did nof It their lamps to go out, nor out of sot .7 pose omit to provido for their keeping al£u if They were simply negligent, and that »„ fatal. ■ The spiritual life is sustained bv mm mnnications from the Divine Spirit, and th« will be imperceptibly lessened, and mav x! " ' altogether intercepted, unless diligent atte tion is given to keep the channels open 1™ which they are poured into the spirit Wat™ ■ pipes are sometimes choked by a matted maS ' of trifles. Simple torpor lias more shir! ; wreck of professing Christians to answer f£ than positivo wickedness has. We have 01X to do what a- great many of us are doinJ ■ -that is, nothing in order to quench the - light in our lamps. The only way to on -• sure its continuance is to keep close to Jesus Christ, m faith, love, communion, and obedt ce ' ... P hok ! u , p . our emptiness to Him He will fill it with his fulness, and the light that seems to be flickering to extinction will " flame up again.. He "will not quench tho dimly-burning wick," but, as the priests walk! ' ' Ed all through the night to tend the golden ;:v lamps of the Temple, so He Who walk, amidst the seven candlesticks will see that each little lamp is fed according to its canacity and need. p , The process may be going on and the lamn - ' bearer be quite ignorant of it. A sleemnV woman could not tell if her lamp was aliX A drowsy Christian does not know that his. ' is nearly out. To bo unconscious of an proximation to such a condition is bne'of ' the signs that it is ours. A frost-bitten limb is quite comfortable; it tingles only when " life is coming back. No one was more sur ' prised than those five witless women when' they opened their sleepy eyes and' saw the ' true state of affairs. It is wis© for all of us to ask, Is it I? and to make sure thai) ' our loins are girt about and our lamps burn ing.