SUNDAY READING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12419, 14 November 1903, Page 4 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING.

DOWN BY THE HOUSE OP THE POTTER. [BY KEV. a. B. SIMPSON.] " Behold as tnc clay is in the potter's band so are ye in Mine hand, 0 House of Israel."— Jer. xviii. 6. : •' Oh Lord, Thou art our Father, we are the i clay and Thou our Potter, and we all are the j work of Thy band."— lxiv. 8. The art of fashioning the plastic clay into various vessels of beauty and utility is one of the most ancient and most interesting of the arts and industries of man. The ruins of the past and the galleries of the world are full of the curious and graceful specimens of Ceramic taste and loveliness more costly even that the precious metals. There is no figure that more strikingly suggests the lessons of Divine grace and the work of the Father's hand in moulding the lives and characters of His people according to his will. I. The first lession is suggested by the clay. Nothing is so common and apparently so useless as'the dust we tread beneath our feet, and yet it is the material out of which God has made tile, world and probably the orbs of space, and the shining constellations of the heavens above. It is out of the clay that Be evolves the verdure and the bloom of this fair world. The flowers of the garden, the rose, and the majesty of the palm, arc but formations of the Potter's hand out of clay of earth's soil. Nay, even man himself, the paragon of creation and the pattern according to which God formed even the body of His own beloved Son, is but a piece of pottery, a vessel of clay, made by the Creator's skill. But the clay itself is helpless without the living touch of a master hand. It is only material, and it needs a wisdom and a power beyond itself to make it of any value. It cannot form itself. It cannot evolve its own destiny. And so we are but helpless materials, in the hand of Gcd. We are utterly dependent upon His power and grace to work out the purpose of our being, but in His hand the earthen vessel becomes the very temple of 15is glory and the instrument of His wisdom, power, and grace. 11. The Potter. The figure of the Potter suggests: .: 1. The sovereignty of God. He has absolute control over the clay. He can make it according to His will. And yet this figure of Divine sovereignty in Jeremiah is softened by the parallel passage in Isaiah until it becomes a source' of hope and comfort rather than a cheerless picture of absolutism and fatalism. "Now, 0 Lord, Thou art our Father," the prophet cries, "we are the clay and Thou art our Potter." ""It is the cry of a heart that i* not afraid to " Lie passive in His band And know no will but His." The sovereignity of God is limited by His love, and we need not fear to be at the disposal of' so kind a Father and so true a Friend. _ It ought to be delightful to know our destiny is in His hands, and that He has the power to control our future and shape the whole course of our existence. Have we yielded to Him the right to choose our way, and with profound submission and filial confidence put our future into the hands of the Lamb, who opens the seals, and said: " My Jesus, as Thou wilt, Ob may Thy will be mine, Into Thy bunds of love I would my all resign." 2. The next thought suggested by the figure of the Potter is a Plan. The Potter has a puqjose for the clay. Back of that shapeless mass He sees a figure of beauty which His hand is patiently evolving. And so God has an eternal plan for every life. The act of consecration just brings us into that plan and makes it possible for him to work out for us His highest and His best. "In Thy book," the Psalmist says, "all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there were none of them. How precious also are Thy thoughts, oh Lord. If I should count them they are more than the sand." These are His thoughts of wisdom and love for our future, the innumerable details of His plan for our life.

What a privilege to have such wisdom and almighty power working for us. Surely it is wise to say, "Lord, not ray will, but Thine, be done." . 3. The figure of the Potter suggests the providence of God. The turning of the wheel is as necessary for the Potter's work as the touching of His hand upon the clay. It is necessary to bring the wheel into every position where the Potter's hand can most conveniently get at it to accomplish His purpose. This represents the vicissitudes of life, which come to us in the providence of God and place us in the various attitudes where His grace can most fully reach us and His Holy Spirit teach us the lesson of each new situation, and work out in us the grace that is necessary for each new condition. Sometimes He is teaching us the more congenial lessons of prosperity, and His lovingkindness showers upon us every earthly blessing, while His Holy Spirit awakens in us the spirit of joy and praise. Then it is necessary to turn the wheel and bring us into some situation of trial where we can learn the lesson of patience or courage or confidence in God. Again, when Ho would teaoh us love, the wheel turns once more, and we find ourselves in the midst of enemies, misunderstandings, and countless irritations and provocations. And so the wheel turns and the clay revolves and the Potter's hand presses, moulds, and works with slow and patient touches, and back again the nrocess moves, while a new touch is added, a new figure developed, a new pattern evolved, or a new polish added to the work alreadv evolved Thus the providence of God becomes as sanctifying as His grace and we learn at length to say, "We know that ell things work together for good to them that love l-»ocl, to them that are the called according to His purpose." °

, +. But the end of all the providence of God is the work of His grace. This is expressed by fcne hand of the Potter." It is God's own hand that works out all the processes of grace, He may permit to circumstances fcho making of our conditions, hut the making of our character is His own handiwork. "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works." No hand but his own is permitted to touch the delicate and exquisite work of sanctifying a . human soul, and no potter ever watched over the evolving of some, exquisite design of grace and skill with the tender solicitude with which God works out the perfection of the vessels of His grace. V\ hen it was necessary to redeem there Was no angel great enough to send, but He came nimselt, and when it was iecessary to restore there was no seraph skilful enough to undertake the wondrous task, but the Holy Spirit Himself was entrusted with the difficult trust of restoring the image of God in the fallen spirit of man. 111. The Vessel Marred. But the vessel was marred in the hand of the lot tor. Some defect in the clay, some iailure to respond to the notter's touch, had ruined all His work, ami the fractured vessel is taken from the wheel and thrown aside, and for a time it seems as if all the Potter's trouble had been in vain. The picture is sadly true to the facts, for the human vessel has indeed been marred. 1 he fall of man seemed at first like a fatal Wight upon all the work of God. The glory departed from the face of creation, and doubt might well cry, " Thou ha:;t made all men in vain. But even after the grace of God has taken hold of fallen man, and the Holy Spirit has brought forth a now creation from the wreck of sin, sometimes again the vessel is marred in the hand of the Potter, and the newborn soul falls back once more into the life of sin. Nay, it is even possible for the heart that has known something of the deeD-

———————— — . —^^""'"^"!^jj er work of the Spirit's graco and felt W. sanctifying power, and 'i tasted the ec*% Word of God, and the powers of th* WO to come,' to turn away from the fountain, of hying waters, and ip back for a season '£ the life of J-elf and gin. Nothing is M c.» 3 as this, and every love but that which"?, infinite and divine might well Ixvom* j-7 raged when the son! that has tasted *h living water goes back to the broken ciWrr* that, hold no water. But even this j 3 "„■? without hope or beyond the reach of omri potent grace, for the vision of the Potto us not only of the vessel marred, but ' IV. The Vessel Restored. "For the prophet tells us: "He mad 9 » ' again another vessel even as it pleased tii Potter to make it." ~ a tlle Was there ever such a tragedy as that sad morning, when God camp, looking for IP lost human child, crying. " Adam, wher«„t thou?" And 10, the man that he had ,-2? '• in His image was hiding in the cover* of a 8 night, and cowering in guilty shame from th! glance of his rather, while tin? low mutter ings of the coming ruin and the groaning- f th» dumb creation were already begun Bnt ' God was not surprise or baffled even' th«n_ but instantly He began to reveal that wW drcus plan of redemption which had b» prepared before the ages. He took up 0* broken vessel of fallen humanity and to make it another vessel according to tb higher pleasure of His gracious will? a And yet again there was another U. when under the shadow of Sinai the pecmil that a few days before had entered into covp nant with their God. and cried, "All that in" Lord hath spoken will we do, and be obeT lent." were dancing in idolatrous carnival around a, heathen shrine. Moses was <* angry that he flung from his hands the sacred tables, and for a little even his brave heart gave up all for lost. But even then God was ready for the crisis. Indeed, for fort* days upon the mount He had been quietlv preparing, and that Tabernacle and .Ark of which He had been giving Moses the nat tern was just the Divine provision of <r TS( I and mercy which this very crisis needed " Immediately He began the building ot that wondrous structure, which was all one Ion? object lesson of redeeming love, in wh : cK the altar and the Saver, the incense and ' the Ark all told, not of a people obedient and righteous, but of a sinful race, a broken covenant, a God who was waiting to begraci. oils, to cleanse, to sanctify, to restore the weak and erring. Or shall we turn to the individual portraits which His Word has given us and learn the lessons of His grace from them. Look at Jacob, chosen just because he ws. a marred and broken vessel, and see th« patient love with which (kid in His pro vi donee and grace worked out the plan of his life until at last the Supplanfcer became t'-« Prince-of Israel, and the patient patriarch could say, "Lord, I have waited for Tlvr salvation." and be constituted the head of Israel's tribes. • •:

Look at Moses as he begins his life with all ill-considered zeal and then flies from the effects of his recklessness, and for forty years is turned round and round like a potter's vessel in the providence of (Jed in the desert of Midian, until he is ready once more for the great work to which Cod has called him and meets the commission with shrinking modesty instead of the reckless presumption with which he had sprung to the front forty years ago. 3 Look at Elijah as God turns him round on the Potter's wheel, showing alternately his weakness and his strength, until at last even he is ready for the- chariot of fire, and out of his strange life comes forth the benediction of the gentle and mighty Elisha. Look at Simon Peter, 'marred in the hands of the Potter until a last it seemed the clay was shivered into fragments and never could be used again, and yet out of it all ther* comes a chastened and victorious life prepared by its very failures for the path of crucifixion, in which ho was to follow his Master until the cross became the crown ' So God is taking hold of the broken lives ■ Of earth and using the wreckage of humanitr as materials for the vessels of his glory There is no soul so sunk in sin; there is no career so defeated and degraded; there is no blackshder so far away from God; there is no error or even crime so aggravated by former blessing and high privilege and calling, as to be beyond the reach of His love and the power of His grace. Only let Him liave the wrecked materials. Only let the clay be plastic in His hands, and the marred and broken fragments will become a vessel unto honour in the chambers of His palace and the temple of His glory.