SUNDAY READING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16020, 11 September 1915, Page 8 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING.

THE ENEMIES OF TEE CROSS, j '■;■'? ■BY _B_Y.<G.' ''%'■. WEEKS, M.A., li.D> j- We Breach. Christ crucified, onto Jews a, •tumbling-block, and unto Gentiles foolishfc ness.— I. Cor. i. 23, R.V. The slightest acquaintance with the teachj ing of Christ discovers the place of parar; dox in that teaching. Some of His most % memorable sayings owe their force to the startling form in which" they are cast: "If any man . . . hateth not hi 3 own father, mother ... ..he cannot be My disciple" (Luke xiv. 26). '" Whosoever j hath not, from him shall be taken away even that "which lie hath" (Matt. xiii. 12). Be it said with all reverence, this was not a pose of would-be originality, a straining after effect. A far deeper purpose impelled our Lord thus to address the ears of men. It was that men might be compelled to face the issues, temporal and eternal, with which His teaching was ever fraught. Hence, now by parable, and now by paradox, He sought to probe the conscience and enlist the will. Take, as bearing upon our subject, His own assertion as to the purpose of His mission : "Think not that I came to send peace upon the earth : T came not to send peace, but a sword" (Matt. x. 34). That is to say. Ho knew His message would arouse determined opposition, and that His claims would clash with the dearest passions of the heart. Those claims, it has been well said, flattered no pride, held parley with no passion, gave quarter to no sin. The dividing power of the Cross was manifested simultaneously with its erecwitness the incident of the two robbers crucified —and ever since, whore fairly faced, it has. been the great » divider, arousing either passionate devotion or bitter enmity in the hearts of men. The reasons for this latter phase are clearly intimated in the New Testament. Let us notice three. The Cross creates enemies because— disturbs conscience; it offends prejudice ; it wounds pride. (1) The Cross Disturbs Conscience. Three times in the Book of Acts (ii. 57), j v. 33. vii. 54), as the result of Apostolic : preaching, we meet with " pricked in" j or " cut to the heart," and in each case it follows immediately upon the charge of a personal participation in the tragedy of the, Cross. So always. The Cross is not only an execution; it is an indictment. To every unconverted man it says: " This is your work! This is the last and most desperate issue of your attitude towards (_; —your attempt forcibly and effectually to silence His messenger at all costs." Nor have men's hearts changed with the i lapse of years. A recent report of the v Bible Society demonstrates this unmistakl ably:— * V • " Last year our. colporteurs were ar- | rested as spies in Nicaragua; robbed and j reviled in Burma i< bitterly« mocked by - Social Democrats in Berlin; ; knocked down * in Bosnia; driven out of villages in Peru ! v by priests who burned their books; * stoned in remote comers "of the Philip- % pines; beaten by Moslems, in Belucbistan ; "f forced to bide among the woods in Brazil." sjj " Coming nearer'home, the freezing " ailence which at - once descends upon the |v flinner-table, should one dare to speak, s not merely of , conventional religion, but „ '""'i of a personal Christ.; All this is due to >i the antipathy of "■' the "natural heart to I God, and of this antipathy the Cross is ' # the perpetual manifestation and ' memo- -"* rial; and hence whenever the Cross is '■•I ■''preached' conscience is'disturbed and en- ■■■ mity^wouseoy."- '"■"■-■ rK '-' -■" (3) The Cross Offends Prejudice. " "To Jews a stumbling-block." None knew this better than St. Paul, for it had been his own personal experience, and the [.''■ great v sorrow of ->his >• missionary Work. The Cross contradicted all the ideals the l"Jew had cherished. His Messianic expec:X rations were merely political "and "material; '-" y rising .no higher than? national aggrandisement. In painful contrast with this the "{ *lj;eg«i ; Messiah camej,; obscure and poor, v arid-; -deepest-degradation -of all, hanged ,- upon* a' v 'trTO/-accursed 'of God; - *■ ''jr- Such,.,a.. message, offending deep-rooted ; and long-standing prejudices, could not | ; fail to ? awaken contradiction, ; and bias- 1 : phemy,-such as St. Paul experienced at I •Antioch and other centres of Jewish in- j influence.. So to-day. Men approach the /subject of personal, religion' with pre- J ' ■J-conceived notions with which the Cross • must inevitably clash. "Do your best— '; you will not be far off at the last." 4 Then, if that be so, the Cross is the most amazing blunder ever perpetrated. For God gave His Son just because men could not "do their . best," -even > when they • perceived it :.-,*: ■;.-"> •

I see the right, and I approve it too, I loath the wrong, and yet the wrong I do. The confession of the Roman poet is the Miserere of the human race. And if ever man's" best were achieved, it would still fall infinitely short of God's "best demanded. iVVi-'-.- " I tail to see any need for an atonement." But if you-were as holy as God is holy, you would not! The "profound requirements of His awful holiness are satisfied at the Cross alone; and thus, while to mere prejudice it is a stumbling- ; block, to the contrite heart it is the • power of God: _ ..'.-', (3) The Cross Wounds Pride. .• "To the Greeks, foolishness." The Athenians' love ? off, dialectic was well known. To them the message of the Gos- • pel was new matter for argument, and Jesus and the Resurrection new gods for discussion. , But further acquaintance .with these only; hurt their pride of intellect. They-'found -fcbat the Message was not a philosophy to be discussed, but a Gospel to he received,.and once again enmity was ' aroused:' : ' ' ' : .." With many a clever man to-day the simplicity of the Gospel is its chief umhling-block. Where be- would spin • theories, it presents facts; it demands the • simple confidence of the child, and has no place for the professional scepticism •of. the philosopher. Therein the Gospel resembles God's other volume, the Book ( of Nature. 1 '"Sit down before fact as a little child,", wrote Huxley. "Be prepared • to give up every pre-coticeived notion, and humbly follow wherever Nature leads, or - you shall learn nothing." ; "Difficult as it is to dislodge intellectual tnide, moral pride is even more stubborn. When a man has persuaded himself that he is " not as ofher men," his lips will never, without sore frame the prayer: " God be merciful to me, a "iMiier:" A lady, hearing George Whitened preach, turned angrily away, denouncine his message as "intolerable for people of position." James Hannington, as an Oxford undergraduate, hurled in disgust across the room ««• copy of " Grace hi • «« wh,,jh demonstrated that •.nrT C m' 8 -"° difference" between man S P„t' n *l 1 '! S, r t ° f the demands y f 'vhatevJreo 't a of s C If D V St b ° faCed ' ai ;.;,:., \ l cosl oS self-abasement, as the vtl a 1)P0U tho I,nw,l 'd way to t£cl[iZ?T„ ft is VO«r attitude rffends^dU^'t^*^' When KffSirft Pridc? dock of a canE "" n »> on tne ?P»** hTs a h^7 ar ' tb6 in*. "No, sir" sairl + " d ln e,-eet - Vour sword" nV S t." aK k K t IlCis1 lC is X t , of victorious lot-e \ U TL* * dem:in d its appeal! <" When »« ™ wondroo* is «-ere reconciled to God hTth?Tf^% His Son."' Shall no* »W he death of ;lkv C Hs way 'Iih 0t ™ S EL aPPe ? ] , but the dread alternative " w here ,R i reign, till he hath «,,♦ ,1 - '~ ■ He must -~ I His feet " Crusl IV " e,lcl U les beneath .)• which shall it be? dor °n«led-_ isfil Wr P e s s 1 0 m K T,o b Tt tr ff ar - d ~«b a * d sw ?*- „., ouiriSaT 11 MBan * ew»ned-iiot van\\houit says " FoririTOTll ,, y i