SUNDAY READING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13483, 6 July 1907, Page 4 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING.

GOD'S MAN",

B-rVGirsv '.'. Smith

|. "Re ye reconciled to God."-3 Cor. r. n, d Ovn text means, in other word*. "think it Hod's thoughts and walk in God's way*."' p Or, in other worn-, "dethrone sin in'your ' ■« life and enthrone Christ." Or, in other } '.- words, " give up your way ami take His d way." Or, in oflwi word*, "Old thing*'.:' '- must pass away—old things must n.-iv* away ' 3 —and there must bo a new creation." And I men, would it not he a wonderful thins for '' this city and for tin"-. State, if it could go 0 out within mi hpttr and a-half from this II service to the length and breadth of th.« 0 land that every man in:this audience \t V } 0 stood tip and said, "Christ for mo?" Would s it. not. he a wonderful thins; if every mart. 1 ' old and voting, in this house were to, say ' before he left, the building, "from this " day, O Christ, 1 will lake Thee as „iv * Lord, mv life, my lover, my mailer, my 3 king; from this day Thou shall come into e my heart and make Thy home; from Mm ' day Thou shalt come into my heart and j make Thy home: from this day Thou shah- • he %^A ido of '"- v life; from this ''ay s I will 'think Thy thoughts and J will walk ' in illy ways; from this day I will re * no unco wrong. I .will put my foot upon f it now and for ever, .secret and public s wrong, and from this day l will stand for - Christ, and for righteousness?" Would it i not be a wonderful thing for your city? 3 HOW TO BEACH THE BEST. .' And you know. men. you are not at your , best until you come to, that decision. You cannot, be your best until you eome to > that, decision. I don't cure how successful i you have been as it business man; how 1 clever you may be; how brilliant in mind. - I do not care how men may look at you; 3 though they think your life has been » 1 triumphant march, you have not reached * the place where- (kid and 'the angels exI pec-ted you to reach, and you will never ' reach it until Jesus Christ has become the 5 Lord and Master of your life. You never « can get there until then. You do not • begin to measure up to your possibilities ' until Jesus has become enthroned in your . life-. You cannot see or feel or understand or comprehend, and you never will > until Josus has become enthroned in your * life. You cannot, you cannot. The ' natural man cannot, understand the thing* ' of God; they are foolishness to him. It ' is only when you stand beneath the cross; ' it is only when yon look through tin l microscope of Calvary; only when your heart is ' fired by the flame of Pentecost, only when he has come into your soul and made you clean, Unit you begin to measure up* to your opportunities and possibilities, with all your success. Listen! With all your success, you are not yet the men you might have been, and you never will be until you are right with Cod. You, yourself, your character; your mental outlook; the whole man of you, in and out, up and down, nil around, past and present and future; nil thero is within you i- handicapped, dwarfed, cribbed, cabined, and stunted until Jesus Christ has made you free, and' then you will be " free indeed." And what, we come to plead is. 'that you shall bo Christ's men, Christ's men. And . whether you are prepared to bo like that or not, I am prepared to make another statement Ixjcauso I. believe it. You are Christ's men already. If you don't admit it, you are. Ho has redeemed you. You s belong to Cod; and'if you have not recognised that fact, that is the cause of the mischief, of all the blundering, the secret of all the sorrow, at the bottom of all the tragedy; that is the forging in every link in overy chain that has bound yon hand and foot; that, is the poison that is eating the ; life and soul out of you becauseyou have not recognised fho crown rights of Jesus Christ. ouiust's title. Now, what wo, want you to do is to recocniso that fact to-day—God help you!— that you are. Christ's man, and then, with ,- youi intelligence and with your sens© of right, if you will only recognise that glorious fact "and write it in golden letters oft tho tables of your soul, 1 think you will live with it ever before you. "1 am Christ's man"—that will help to make lovely everything and everybody you touch. That is what wo want you to believe; that you, are Christ's man; that He loves you*, that he claims you ; that Ho longs for you —that Ho wants you to be at, your best; that He wants to give you a chance, though you have blundered and wandered and have muddled up and tangled things; that you have twisted and that you have made such a, hash of the part. And' though looking at it from every standpoint, it looks almost impossible for it over to be straightened out; and 'though you are ashamed of yourself as you sit there and are glad within, that the man next you does hot know that you are us bad as you are, for if ho did know that you are as bad as you are, he might get up and walk over to the other side of the building and refuse to sit beside you because you have got so low down; and though yon ar-c, done up with disease, and though there be not an inch of soundness in you, and though from the crown of your head to the sole of your foot you arc done up with unclcanness and filth— you are still God's man; and love waits to forgive and forget; and if you were the worst—the worst, kind of a man in this city, the Christ I am preaching can make you a, now creature before you go out. That is tho Gospel. That is our message. That is our hope for you, my brothers— for you. THE DEBT TO THE HOME.. And I think you should think of this, fceo, because of those about yon. Your home has some claim on you; your wife and your children. Some of you are fathers and you have boys and girls growing up ar.und you. .Some of your children may have heard you swear, and they may have seen you drunk, and your children may be able to say: "I have seen my father drunk and I have heard my father swear,"' but they cannoe say, " I. have heard my father pray." And that is a terrible thing for a child to experience. I made this statement, or something like it, in Clinton, lowa. There was a man in the front'seat, and lie said, when 1 uttered it, that I looked straight at him. I was not conscious of it, but in one or two days ho came to me and said: "You said last Sunday evening that there was a man. somewhere close to you whose boy may have heard him swear and seen him drunk, , but never heard him pray." I say, 'Yes, I said that." He went on; "I "am that man, but, God helping me, my little boy shall never see me drunk again,"and he has heard me pray since last Sunday, for I wont home and got down the old Bible that I have not looked at for a long while, and I said to my wife, ' 1 do not know how to do this tiling, but that Gipsy said I ought to do ft; and even if I break down,* lam going to try.' " Ho read two or three verses and said: "I will pray." But when he got on ' his knees he could not u.ier a word, and finally faltered, "Our Father which art in Heaven," and it was all over, and the angel rejoiced over one sinner that repentcth. Yes, your children may have heard you swear; they may have seen you drunk, but have they never heard you pray? Man, but it is a terrible thing for a boy to have a father who drinks and swears. A boy never getts over that disaster. Drunk, before they can walk, and drunk before they are born! Cod Almighty, have mercy on such parents! What hope is there for such boys and girls—what hope! And I say to you men, you fathers, you ought to be right with God far the sake of your children. Go home, to-night and : gather them around you and begin to pray. Spend the evening with them. It, will bo worth spending the evening instead of going to church in learning; how to pray with your children. You have never spent an evening so practically in your life. You men ought to get right with God for the sake of your boys and girls. Aye, and for the sake of your wife! . Some of yotl married a girl that was a Christian when you married her. Where is her religion to-day? Sho belonged to a church when you married her, and you dragged her away from it. She. was pure and.beautiful . when you led her to the altar, and one of the most lovely things that God ever give* Jo a man in this world, next to the Cross, is the pure love of a pure woman. And some of you men promised to take care of that beautiful gift; that you would be faithful to that gift. You must get right with God for your own sake, and you must get right with God . for Christ's sake; you must get right with God for the sake of the good you can do; for the sake of your brother men, and you ought to get. right with God for the. *aio of the good you' can do in this mission. I believe God has a golden column in glory where He writes the names of men and women who help to save His world, arid: I want my ufcme in that column; and you can begin now, if you have never begun,' a to help Jesus to capture this whole planet . " foe Himself and have your name written.. .in that column.. .;■■:-