VISITING DIVINES IN LOCAL PULPITS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1095, 24 February 1893, Page 40

VISITING DIVINES IN LOCAL PULPITS.

The pulplls of the various Presbyterian Churches in city and suburbs wore filled on Sunday morning and evening by clergymen from other places who are at present attending the annual session of the General Assembly of tbe Presbyterian Church of New Zealand. Wo append brief partionlars of some of the sermonsjireaohed by them in city churches : REV GORDON WEB TER, M.A. Tho Rev Gordon Webster, M.A., of Christchurch, preached on Sunday morning at St Andrew’s Church, Wellington terrace, taking for his text Matk viii, and 22nd verße. He said that the miracle performed on the blind man of Bethsaida illustrated the value of vicarious faith aud intercessory prayer. God had made us social creatures and united us in communities, churches and families where many sympathies and affections are developed, tI)U3 showing that He to take a warm and loving interest in one another, and particularly in those needy ones who either cannot or will not help themselves and bring them to Cnrist that He may touch them. But this privilege was not to take the place of individual faith, for this miracle wa3 also an illustration of the necessity of personal faith. Its progressive chsraotar likewise enabled U 3 to gain an idea of Christ’s method of dealing with difficult and obstinate cases, As Browning had beautifully said, in it ‘We catch hints of the proper ciaft And tiicks of the tool’s true play.’ REV DR SCOTT WEST, The Rev Dr Scott West preaohed at St John’s in the morning, taking his text from Luke xiv., 28 to 30. Ia the oourse of an eloquent address the rev gentleman asked thi S 3 present if they had really considered the oust of their present mode of living. Suppose, he said, they were successful in gaming wealth, position aud pleasure, what then ? They could not take those with them, they must leave them behind. Without excepti m to every mau af.er death there is tha judgment. Were they prepared to stand before God and say that they spent their lives for pleasures, power and wealth? On tiie oue hand there was Jesus Christ and a life of usefulness, on the other there was self and a life of selfishness. Which was it to bo? Their present life was lived at too great a cost to themselves and they knew it, aud Jesus Christ know it, and died for them and lived that they might become true to themselves, to their fellows, and to their God. REV R. ERWIN. At Kent terrace Church on Sunday morn, ing tbe Rev R. Erwin preached from Isaiah Iviii., verses 10 and 11, also Proverbs xxiv., verses 11 and 12. Ho remarked that the reward of self sacrifice oovered the whole of a man’s experience, and instead of his efforts to do good and to bless others exhausting or impoverishing they would result in a larger capacity to bless. Tho lova which he cherished la an increasing and enlarging circle of sympathy returned to him ia an increased capacity to love. The man who did not get lifted out of himself at length found in self his tomb, and over his grave God had erected a head stone, on which was engraved the epitaph, ‘ Hero lies a man who perished through loving Belf too well.’ They wore their own recotdlng angels, and] their hearts wore the books in which the record was being written. THE REV DR KLMSLI'S The ex Moderator of the Assembly (Rev Dr Elmslie, of Christchurch) occupied the pulpit at tlm'-Kent terrace Presbyterian Church on Sunday evening, the ihurch being crowded. The preacher took for bis text tho 22nd chapter of Job, 21st verso, ‘ Aoquaint now thysetf with Him, and bn at peace, thereby‘good shall coma unto thee.’ He said that there wao butonoway of poace, and but one source of real and lasting good. The first was to be found from and through acquaintance with God. Wo had one class of uubeliovers represented iu the toxt

because they said that such a condition of things as therein spoken of was not possible. Bat God was both Father and Friend as He had been pleased to reveal Himself. Without a knowledge of God as shown by tha gospel there was no peace.' The question was, how such acquaintance was to be arrived at. Knowing all our faculties He had revealed Himself in the works of nature, and iu the pages of Holy Writ, and it was in Jesus Christ that He showed His wondrous love. The great practical question for eaoh one was, ‘how shall this peace be mine?’ St Paul said that being justified by faith we had peaoe, and the preacher, therefore, urged his hearers to know this peaoe and to see that they had the living Christ, which time oould never take away.