SUNDAY READING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16205, 15 April 1916, Page 8 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING.

PASSING BY. :: v

: BT, IHB M.V. J. AVttßUft. CHAPMAN, D-D.

>•*' Jesus of Nazareth p'Bsseth by.St. Luko xviii. 17.

: * .Somebody has said that St. Luko's is the ' Gospel of humanity— it is here that you find Jesus as a great physician, hero you eeo Him as a helper. Hero you beioid Him going here, there, and. everywhere on errands of mercy. Hero He is speaking in' parables. Here you. behold Him working miracles to raise the sick

and the dead. Therefore it is called the Gospel of humanity. I suppose you know tho felting of the text Our Master is en His way to Jericho- Multitudes of beggars throng the way iu these days. I had to fight my way to get into Gethsemane. They thronged us;on overy side. ' This was especially truo in tho days of Jesus. A blind beggar sat by the wayside, lie heard that the Master was coming, and long before you could have seen Him with your eyes, lie heard Him as only the.blind ran hear. Springing to his feet when ho knew that Jesus was approaching, ho cried out, spying, "Tell me, who is coming?" • And someone, to quiet his cries, speaks in the words of tho test, "Jesus of Nazareth passeth by." , '* And Ho is still passing by. He is tho central figure in history. Take Him away, and yon have lost the keystone of the arch : lose eight of him, and tho foundastone is gone 5* take Him away, and peace departs; lose tho vision of Him, and there is no pardon. He is still passing by. I suppose there is scarcely an intelligent person in the country who would not say that he accepts Him at least as'the historic Christ. We know that Ho existedIt is as cosy to prove that Jesus Christ came into this world and lived and suffered and died as to prove that George

Washington lived and died, or to prove that any man of renown connected with ', .history lived and died.- .But tho question is not so much His. existence. 'The question is as to whether, or no we will accept

His claim that Ho was'not only a man, hut tho Son of God as' well. If ho exI isted, wo know what He claimed for Himself, and by all that Ho said, by all that He did, by all that He was, we believe Him to be equal with God the Father in power and authority. .' , • I was once speaking, on this subject, and A gentleman came to pie at the close, and said, "Yes, but

He may have been deceived." " Oh!" I mi, "you mean to say that He was a fanatic "No," said he, "hardly ' that, but, He may have been deceived when Ho made His claim." ' I had a little Bible in my hand. Holding it up, I said to him, " I do not know whether you own a Bible, but if you will take mine and : read through the ' Now Testament and can find one single place in the New Testament where anything that Jesus said, any system of morals He taught, any doctrine He proclaimed, was anything but tho sanest mes--sage that the world has ever heard—if you can prove it otherwise, then I shall be perfectly willing to resign ray position tod take yours." "No, sir,", ho said, "I will not take your Bible, for I have one; but I will read it." He came back to me about a week later, ; and told Via that he had spent a good part of the week going over all the sayings of Jesus. He said, " I laid aside my agnosticism. I put aside for a moment my 1 questioning. I simply read with an open mind." Beaching out his hand to take < mine, he said, "I have' come to tell you i that I believe Jesus was all that He I claimed to be.", And you will come to /believe'; it' if ' you' can turn away for the \ time being from the arguments of men, turn away "from your- prejudices, turn "". away from your sin, and consider Him. . He is the Son of God. "Jesus of Nazareth passeth by." ~ '■ : ,^' A But where is He 1 I know ! where He is. He is at the right hand of God. This seems like a contradiction ■< of the '■ text, does it,not Speaking very, rapidly • ( one evening in my own church I found, "after had gone a sentence.or two along, ''that I had made 'a" great mistake. I said ; • that Jtsus is stauding at the right hand : of. God, but Ho is not. The priests pi • earth 'stand; and they stand because theirs is an unfinished work, but He. our blessed . Redeemer, after' He had fulfilled all the conditions, after He had ordered Himself « a sacrifice for you and for me, made His way up into the presence of the Fa':her, and sat down. His is a finished work. All you need to do if you would turn away from sin, all that you need to do if you will repent of wrong-doing,' is to lay' hold upon Him and His finished work.

If the text seems 3 contradiction, may I read another Scripture to yon It is St. _ John xiv 1618. My text' says, "Jesus of Nazareth passeth by." But I have just v elated that Ho is seated at the right hand of God. Now, how do you reconcilo tho two statements ? Listen—sixteenth verse: "And I will pray the Father, and Ho shall give you another Comforter, that Ho may abide with you for ever." Seventeenth : " Even -the Spirit of Truth; Whom • the world cannot receive, because it eceth Him not, neither, knoweth Him, but ye ' know Him: for Ho dwelleth with you and shall bo in you." 'Tljen. the eighteenth verse: ''I will not leave you Comfortless; I will come to yon." ■ So He is at the • right hand of God, seated; but He is here, in the person tlio Holy Spirit of God, moving in tho singing, stirring in the speaking, quickening your memory, holding up before you your own sense of need, and'then speaking to you as only God. can speak, " Come unto m, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.". He is passing by in the impression that has, been made [upon you in some evangelistic meeting. He is making His presence known in the 'singing. ■ You could not persuade me that as wo pass up and down the streets, and hear a snatch of a song yonder, and a bit of a whistle of a tuno there, that.it is simply because tho music may be catchy and fascinating. I know why men have been' singing, " Ho "ill no', let my soul bo lost." I know why tliev havo been saying over and over, "Be will hold me fast." This is the rea win: "Jesus of Nazareth passeth By." He is making His presence known in the pleadings of your mother. A little while ago you would have laughed at the tears, the pleadings, of your wife or your friend. day your mother's tears move you as no power of preaching can stir you. It is •lesus of Nazareth patting by. Going through the northern part of the Limed State.. « c stopped at a certain city just 10 receive two of our special : worker,. Two thousand people. I suppose came to say farewell to the parting evangelist-, and to offer a word of greeting 10 .is. .lust at w e were about to move out, lie engineer stepped up on the rear plat' form I was introduce!. to him. A friend said he was not a Christian. T besought him to yield to Christ. He said, " What <-nall I do, sir!" And I .said, "Announce to these two thousand people here ' tla ': >' 01 ,! ,avc become a Christian." • Well, sir, ho said, "'] could not- speak myself, but you speak it." Bo I told them the engineer of our train had become a I hnstian. Later we were thundering away . in the darkness up toward the north, and the engineer came back in the train, and he said, "1 have had two. Presidents of the United States as passengers in my lime Presicenl Theodore Roosevelt, and . President Grant I took though litis country, but this is the first time in all mv career that I have ever, had the Saviour 1 with me. 'I . have got Him, I have got Him." "