Our Lay Sermon FOR Sunday Reading.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1288, 5 November 1896, Page 42

Our Lay Sermon FOR Sunday Reading.

WIIAT WE LACK. “ For what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.”—Homans, vii., 15. Saint Paul, in coining such a statement out of his personal experience and making such a remarkable confession, draws us into confidential relations with him as a worthy teacher. His hopes, his fears, his struggles after the ideal and his conscious failure to attain it, exactly represent the difficulties which we daily encounter. If, therefore, he acquired any measure of spiritual success, we are curious to know how it was done, for we may thereby be encouraged to go and do likewise. There is a large grain of comfort in the fact that he found it so easy to do wrong and so hard to do right, for we long since

discovered the same peculiarity in ourselves. If he found the secret by which the higher life can be reached, or this lower life transfigured, and is willing to impart it, we shall listen to him very attentively. He tells us that he knew perfectly well what he ought to do, but did it not. That has been true of the human race ever since the beginning of the world. We know enough but do too little. Of course there are circumstances in which we are perplexed as to our duty, but as a general thing and in the ordinary concerns of life our knowledge is sufficient. Instead of moral courage, however, we have moral cowardice. The great need of the hour is not education of the mind, but development of the heart, of the affections, of the aspirations. It is our love of God, not our theological theory, that makes us noble. The thief will not argue that thievery is right, but, on the contrary, will agree with you that in the long run it is fatal to happiness, and yet at that very moment he will steal in the full expectation that what he steals will render him happy. That is one of the contradictions of human nature. The poor drunkard needs no one to tell him about the logical consequences of indulgence. His head is clear on that subject, but his heart is dull. He will even weep over his own folly and despise himself as no one else can possibly despise him. “But what I hate, that do I.” This is another instance in which human nature is a puzzle to itself.

You would naturally say that when a man is convinced of the terrible character of evil habits and the inevitable results which follow on their heels, he will abstain on the purely selfish principle of selfpreservation. Will a man voluntarily injure himself ? Certainly he will. He will not only ruin his own life, but bring disaster upon those whom he honestly loves with a deep and pure affection. The passions, and I use the word in its broadest and most inclusive sense, are like a span of high-strung horses who take the bit into their mouths, dash along the highway with maddened fury and end by breaking the carriage to pieces and laming or even killing themselves. Many a man has run away with himself in like manner and closed his short career by utter destruction of both soul and body.

After death such a soul will awaken to the recognition of what it has done, and will have to unlearn what is false before it can learn what is true. In other words, a man may so completely waste the whole of this lower life that he must needs begin the other life at an infinite disadvantage. No miracle will make a good soul out of a bad soul—let that not be forgotten. Unless we make a profitable use of the earthly season we shall defeat the purpose of God in giving us our opportunities, and will find ourselves dazed and unprepared for the grander opportunities of the life to come. The Almighty means something by putting us here in this primary department of eternity", and if we misuse our privileges or wantonly abuse them we shall enter the other home on a lower level spiritually than though we had died in our infancy, and our regrets will be more poignant than tongue can tell. What, then, do we lack ? Evidently moral courage, and nothing else. We do not dare to be equal to our convictions. That is the fatal fact. The mind recognises this truth, the heart ignores it. Our vision is entirely clear. We really have no doubts as to what will make our lives noble. Our information on the subject need not bo enlarged. If we would do what we know w r e ought to do, a millennial peace and contentment. would fall on the world like a benediction. Not a larger head, but a larger heart, is wanted. Saint Paul took the Christ and the Christ principle into his life, and so became selfcontained e.nd brave. Nothing daunted him, for the spirit of God gave him power. Death had no terrors, for he was sure of seeing the dear ones in whose cause he had laboured and suffered. He did not dream of religion, he lived it. It was to him a law of gravitation, drawing him always to the centre of things. What was possible to him is possible to us. Act up to your convictions, make y r our faith vivid, love God and Christ and truth, for love will make you strong and kindle your nobler nature into brave activity. Have the courage to be your best self today and heaven will have a warm welcome for you to-morrow.