ON SABBATH EYE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 12415, 26 July 1902, Page 4

ON SABBATH EYE.

A COLUMN OF KELIGIOTJS

READING,

(Conducted by the Rev. F. W. Bobehah.)

. A SONG OF THE DISRUPTION". ' Must I leave thee, my liiause, where so lone I nave dwelt, 6 . W ' ler6 c ' l "' ( ' ren wound mo have The roof that has echoed out hymns', solemn sound; . . , . Must%l leave thee now hallowed, not idolised ■ ground? ~ . Yes, I leave for the stranger the place that was mine;' ' For my Gojl and His Gospel I will now resign. ' Mtistl leave thee, my garden, whose walks I have trod In the cool of tho evening, alone with my God? The flowers I have smelt while I read in their face The sweetness of Jesus, His glory and graco' Yes, I leave, ctc. . .... .. Must 1 1 leave thee, my bower, whose thick, ' twining boughs » HftV« hld my devotion and witnessed my vows? The seat where I Bat with my wife by: niv . side, • And conversed of the Shelter where sinners . may hide. • Yes, I leave, etc. Must I leave thee, my kirk, peeping out through rflio.trees, That yet whispera peace to the murmuring breeze ? : Thy time-honoured walls are as grey as this head; ■. :• . : Whore the flocks to the streams and the pastures • I've. led. ; Yes, I leave, etc. Must I leave you forever, ye tombs of the deid, With whom' I had hoped sooii to pillow my head? " Miftt I leave you, the graves of my forefathers .• dear? . . . Yes, I you; but Jesus .will always be near. Yes, I leave, etc, And, Lo, I am with you," I hear Him reply, " Thy hoilio is My bosom/thy house is on high. I am planting the garden whoso flowers never fade, Then,' bear up My banner, and be not dis\mayed." Yes, I leave for the stranger the place that, was mine; For my God and His Gospel I do now resign. GOD WAITS i'OR .YOU. A One-minute Sermon by the Rev. NbweUi ,0. Hiliis, D.D. God does not forget His sinning sons and (laughters. : Greater than a mother's; and more sensitive, i* tho heart of God,. There is no heartache and no pain, and no cry of the transgressor that does not touch-'the strings of sensitiveness and sympathy in'the mind of God. For Ho who beholds His pilgrim band going across the years, stumbling, wandering, falling, bleeding, dying, follows each pilgrim -heart with exquisite sympathy, and with infinite solicitude. Be it reverently said, no prodigal son can eFcapc tho sleuth-like love of God's pursuing providence. Go where, you will, you cannot elude it. Though you ascend up into heaven, God's love is there. Though you descend into the grave,"' His iove is there. Though you make your bed among tha vicious and depraved, God's love is there, still pursuing, still calling buck to love and happiness. Though your way ond in tho dungeon or. on tho waffold, one love burns on—the love of God. Ton cannot elude Him. His love would find you out and bring you back from the husks into the Father's house. If death cannot quench a woman's love, tliink you that sin can quench the. love of God? Know j'ou not that He is on tho side of, tho depraved? It is never too late to mend. Have you sunk so low that you cannot make your Confession to the wifo of your bosom? Grown hard and callous and grey in sin, do you seek to conceal your past even from your mother's knowledge? Is your life like a deserted house, full of 'vice and vermin, n house into whose chambers you do not dare take even your most intimate friond? God cares for yon, He has set His heart tiDon winning you. Begin again. Let the old life and habits fall away -like rags from your shoulders. Open your mother's Bible. J/i't your hands to your father's God. TheSe falling tears perhaps will cleanse your eyes that they mnv road the better the story of God's love. If your strength is as weak as tho roed, trampled down by some wild beast of passion, remember the bruised reed God will not break. If now and again a" littlespark of aspiration and repentance flames np, remember He will fan the spark into the flame of victory. ; .Thou homeless bovjn tho great.city, •thou broken-hearted stiri, como homo to God. He is waiting, and He will wait. Add not

to His grief and pain. Come soon—como late—thou wilt find Him nt the door, His locks wet with tho dew of the night, waiting to bring you in out of the darkness and the storm. For God is love.

. JOTTINGS. • The Rev.-.J. G. Greenliough,. who visited ■New Zealand last year, lias resigned liij pastorate at Leicester. : Dr Grattan Guinness, arfotlicr visitor to the colonies, has had a royal welcome home. jlr .Murray Spicer, the young ci(y merchant who was murdered by Hooligans on the night of the peace celebrations in London, is a sou of Mr Herbert Spicer, of Ockley, Surrey, and a nephew of Mr Edward Spicer, l of Kensington. Mr Murray Snicer was engaged, like his father, in the panelbtifine3s, and was connected with the firm" of opiced Brother?. Ho had only recently returned from the sceno- of the war, in which he rarved as an Imperial Yeoman. Dr Parker referred to the tragedy in his Sunday momirtff sermon .(it the City Temple, and spoke «L. ? y T f 3 "» young man wl.oseparents I married, whom I.baptised myself ps an infant, whose school caveer I nave watched from his curly-headed infancy ,hu twenty-sixth year." Mr 'Murray . nicer was an old Mill Hill boy, and on Sunday, Juno 8 Dr M'Clurc, preaching. in tbo school chapel, referred to his death, and said to nZZ eV I - it T t0 MiW Hiliiatls T)r'' ln highest possible way. of'* ? pro ! ) ? Ea J 4 s tl,a t on-the scene Starl nn ad I* I M ?" Hill phoujd Sten t " C r' onil r al \ d r T oatio » al club to the Hoolirriri 08 Mses from wtl °m worki, K £ Ba l' se a , re rccrnitctl Some suchai St/ Panels. ' nore Edmrd ° settlement o£| 11 8- ng - a sormou at Lane Chapel, Birmingham, the Rev. ,T. H. Wfc

And when we sing our Magnificat we raise ~the strains of a solemn litany: tloo'a f ? H lO w '' lows whom the dawn of TonolinL"® int enaified. tho dull hear usT * bereavement, good , Lord I ; f o tWi al i° rp i h! '" ts , who lack tlle strength ot a' fatherly hand, and whoso heart aches in the Por l! 1 ""' !, tant ' " ood Lord! bear us! nU«f if "rinsed and wounded soldiers Physically weary and heavy-laden, competed to •H « remainder of life's road be" eft of liealth. and hmb, good Lord! hear ua l Boel tL°" li elVeS '- and fellow ciHzc » B tlie £°" s - 7. at a . Passion and embittermont may be forgotten, that all recriminations inav cease, hat we .may enter into ever riclicr communion common liberty, and in the aits and exercises of an enduring Lord! hear us! ' T , : No building on earth has been bo frc.. (jucntly. associated with thanksgiving services as St.. Paul's Cathedral. Its history, oommencod such a celebration for its inauguration on December 2, 1637, 13 years beforo its completion, occurred on the day set apart for thanksgiving to commemorate the Peace of .Ryswick. But William 111, ' tearing Jacobite treason, did not'himself w" d v, he 60rvice which he had ordered, tsishop Compton, who, attired as a trooper, ■ had assisted Princess Anne in her flight from her-father, James 11, was thepreachor. Jixaotly two centuries ago Queen Anne attended the first of seven thanksgiving, services held in St." Paul's during her to commemorate victories over France and Spain. The most notable of these ' was * held.for the victory of Blenheim in 170!,: , (no greatest of Marlborough's triumphs ovor the French. .