SUNDAY READING.

Otago Witness, Issue 3098, 30 July 1913, Page 79

SUNDAY READING.

(By A. Morris ALoodie.)

A LITTLE FARTHER

‘■lie wont a lit tie farther.” —Matthew xxvi, 39. Jesus and J 1 is disciples, rising Ironi the table iu the upper room at midnight, passed through me streets or the sleeping city, and, crossing the Kedron, came to the Garden of Gethsemane, which lay at the foot of Mount Olivet, and was, doubtless, a well-known haunt of His. .AH the disciples, save three, ilo left at the entrance to the garden, but they had not gone very far when He bade even the chosen three remain where they were, while He Himself went a little farther into the shadows of the olive trees. And it was when He had gone a little further that the cup was put into His hands, and He wrought out the world’s redemption. Here ensued the awful and memorable agony. Here He suffered the final onset of temptation. Here He fought and won for man a complete victory over the forces of evil. He went a little farther, a little farther than others, that He might meet His doom and accomplish His work. These words might serve, might they not, as the motto of Christ’s liteV He went farther than other men, farther in the way of duty, deeper into the shadows. He <1 id everything in the superlative degree. We find good in many, but we find the best in Him. In Him dwelt “fullness.’’ Some hint of tlie Creator’s love the world had before Christ’s advent, but only after lie had looked upon the face of Christ had man any true understanding of the might and depth of the Divine mercy. Of the possibilities latent in human life the world was not wholly ignorant before Christ came, but the Son of Man shed a radiance on the path of men. No one has ever sounded, a(> lie did, the depths of sorrow. No one has ever touched, as He did, the heights of joy. He ever went beyond. These words rnav be said then to sum up and describe the life of our Lord, but they should not oulv faun up and describe the life of Christ. they should sum and describe the life of the Christian. it is character slit;. as it is also the distinction of the Christian, that lie goes a little farther than other men. It is, indeed, this "little farther’’ that constitutes all the difference between the Christian and the non-Christian. 'J in's it is (1) that makes the Christian’s, sorrow, (2) that makes the Christian's j y. 1 3j that makes the Cinisitan’s work. —Tim Christian's Sorrow.— To go a little farther makes the Christian's sorrow. We may tread a long way in the path of duly before we find ourselves in lie- shallows, but it :s only when ~my fall up-on our path that w-t- can claim kinship with Christ. Companionship, fellowship. with Him begins where sacrifice begins, ami not before. So long an we keep on the hither side of that line we have neither part nor Jot in Christ. It is thev who die in Ctno.-t who rise again with Him. J he Christian is one w ho suffers loss. The history of the Christian must ever be. iu large measure, the history of the Christ. The cross is never ohsijcte. U'-vt-r out- of fashion. The amphitheatre may no longer drink the blood ot the Christian, and tlie stake may no longer be planted ;u the sands or tile Solway Tilth, but that- is a little thing. It was never there that the- true battle was fought. It was never there that the darkest- shadow foil. 1 ho Kingdom of Heaven is within, and it is in terms of the spiritual that the history of the kingdom must be written. The battle-ground

is the human heart. Here clash the forces of good and evil. Here Gccl and Satan contend for the mastery. It is there we pay the price of our redemption. It was on the slope of Olivet, and not on the crest of Calvary, that Christ made the great surrender and paid the price that set us free. When He left Gethsemane “ the bitterness of death was past, and I He was able to go through the scenes that followed with a calmness which nothing could ruffle, and a majesty which Converted His trial and crucifixion into the pride and glory of humanity.” So while, perhaps, Calvary may not wait for us demanding its sacrifice, Gethsemane ever waits, and through the shadows all must pass who would have fellowship with Christ. The Christian’s Joy.— Christ never said that He had come to fill up the cup of man’s sorrow, but He did say that He had come to fill up the cup of man’s joy. And yet Christians often feci that though the one cup has been put into their hands, and thcv_ have j drunk of it to the bitter dregs, of this other cup they have hardly so much as | lasted. Why? Why is it that we so ■ | often seem to miss this joy? Is it not simply because we have failed to gt> this 1 ” lit tie farther”? We have gone, per- ! haps, a long way in the Christian life, j and yet wo have stopped short too soon, i and so have missed the lust thing—have j not, after ail, won the prize. It is not enough to come to the gate ot Gedisc mane; we must cuter in. Ihe image j and supe v scripti'ou stamped upon this i word “Christian” have become so sadly ! defaced, the value of the word has beI come so sadly depreciated, that one is i | compelled to say—if one may do so with- i | out being misunderstood —that it is not ! enough to be a Christian, it is essential to |be a Christ. Henry Drummond was accustomed to say that there were two classes of people who might he happy — | for one of them there were, indeed, great j possibilities of happiness —those who had never entered upon the Christian life and wore content to seek satisfaction in the things of the world, or who, having entered upon that life, went all the way. On the other hand, he said, there wan one class which must always remain supremely miserable, and it was composed of those who only accompanied Christ a little way, and who tried to make a Compromise as between Christ on the one hand and the world on the other. A miner spent long years in opening up a misery. Is it not wonderful that peace expense, there was still no sign of gold, and he abandoned the workings. Another entered into ins labours, and in a few weeks struck the rich reef the other had failed to find. A little farther down, and tiie other would have found the wealth lie sought. We do not dig deep enough, and so we do not find the treasure we seek. To grow weary in well-doing, to leave our task incomplete, to fall away in the race, is not 'only failure, it is misery. Is it not wonderful that peace should be written only on the brow of those who have yielded all? Satisfaction and rest only conic at the end of the journey ; they wait the victor at the goal. It is thoroughness, completeness in sacrifice, as in other things, that make or peace. To yield all is to recei\c all. It is only when we give ourselves wholly to God that God gives Himself wholly to us. How many a man might sadly say : Just a few steps more. And there might have dawned for un>. Blue, infinite, the sea. —The Christian Work. — To go a little farther makes the Christian’s work. Before Christ came to Getiisemane He had spoken many wise words, and had done many wonderful deeds, but what we really regard as Hislifework was the work lie‘did in that garden. It was there He wrought out the redemption ol the world. But tor that last step of His He would have been regarded as only one of many. He would have been nunioeied in “the goodly fellowship of the prophets,” ! j revered as a great teacher, first perhaps, ( but still only first among equals, the i chiefest of peers. But the last scene m I His life lifts Him high above His fellows, takes Him out of the ranks of the prophets, and constitutes Him Redeemer. He ! had gone a little farther than the best | who had preceded Him had gone, and so He accomplished the work given Him to do. And what holds true of Christ holds true, in lesser degree, ol all men who impress the world, and bring it for ever i so little out of darkness into light: iof the shadow into the sunshine. The. ! great names in lif-rature, science. art, are the names of thooe who have gone a little farther than their fellows, a little farther . than anv who had been before day the electrician or the chemist in his laboratory goes a little farther than his forerunner is the day he does Ids work. There mav have been long years of arduous toil l. Toiv he did this one thing, but it ie bv this he will be remembered. It is I this piece of work that constitutes his 1 contribution to the sum ot human know I led.go. So it is that the Christian is one i who goes a little farther than hie fellows, j 1 a little farther in the doing oi duty, a j j little farther in the givine of love. —What Is The ( hriot ian ? j The Christian is one who draws ids in- ■ | spirntion from above, who ILcs m the i ; light of etendtv. and who lias, therefore, j 1 to his life wide horizons, wide hon zone j i which preclude mean and petty views of i thine:•>. Dwelling in Cod, looking at m-n | I and things from a standpoint high and | j lifted up. interpret log lit- in d-nye o‘ the , I Divine, the Christian is distinguished _by 1 j his high ideals and large-hearted chanty, j ; id.-als which find ex pres* ion. not .merely in j 1 fbo doing of that dntv which is only a ) negation "of .sin, but in positive holiness. , the affirmation of righteous ness, and in I | but charity which finds expression in con- j I tinual self-sacrifice. The Christian Is one j who bears in mind that fine is the fulfill- j ing of the law, and that ‘‘true love hi j alwa.vs an infinite giving which holds no- j ' thing hark.” The Christian feels, as did j j the Christ, the call to service. He re- j cognises the imperative demand made

upon him hy the world’s needs. Ii we would enter, then, into the heritage which is ours, we must make it plain that we have not only a vision of the moral and j social redemption of humanity, but that i wu purpose to give form and .substance j to our vision. Salvation depends upon j and must express itself in ministry. Next I to purity, brotherly love was th‘> out- j standing characteristic of the early Church j TJu Church was called into existence, nob for the promulgation of doctrine, hut for | the doing of practical works of love. As j originally constituted, it was an association , for worship and work. Now we have to | get back, if we can, to the nld ideal. Ti» j Christian Church should he a brotherhood j i» «W<* rv "T"" ,V" ta “V‘ earnest to further the weal of every other i member; a brotherhood, also, every mem- j bar of which is pledged to combat the sin

and misery of the world without. Such an ideal is not Utopian. It can be realised, and upon its realisation will depend, if not the existence of the Church, at leas* the claim of the people. For the individual this meant; that hearing of the burden of the world’s sin and sorrow which made our Lord’s true cross. But when from this we would shrink, let us remind ourselves that those who go a little farther into the darkness go a little farther into the light. The road to Kdcn lies through Uolhsemane, and the celestial city, as Buuyan reminds us, lies not very far off from the valley of the shadow.