SUNDAY COLUMN.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 15, 2 September 1911, Page 3

SUNDAY COLUMN.

MEDITATION BY J. 11. JOWETT, M.A., DA). “We have tins treasure in earthen vessels.”- —'l Co:., In. What treasure? The of tiro glory of (Joel. But why put sudi rcspleiidcnt treasure into commonplace earthen vessels? In order that wo may not think more of tire vessel than of the treasure it contains. It is possible for a man to think move about the binding of a book than of the truth which the book reveals; and so God often enshrines His truth in hooks of very poor and unattractive binding. God likes to show His loveliest flowers in very plain and commonplace pots. He likes to pat a handful of His jewels into an almost forbidding casket. He likes do kindle tho light of 1,1 is glory o,n very ungainly lamps. And why? That the treasure may not bs eclipsed by the fascinations of the vessel which holds it; that the truth may not bo obscured by the personal or social grandeur of the man who proclaims it ; that the divine may not be lost in tho boastful protrusion of the human, that the exceeding greatness may lie of God and not from ourselves. Let ns look for examples of this method of Providence in the broad field of human life.

1. God puts His treasure into earthen vessels when he kindles, the prophetic fire in the heart of a po.body. How innumerable, .have boon the i instances where! God has. ;choson at nobody. |tp .be tfye prophet,,of his time. Look .hack. Aw;iy yonder, far hack in the history qf Israel,, the nation is riotous and full of sin, .abounding in cruelty, and injustice, ,and .superstition. into this people must be brought the consuming fire of tho divine word. Who shall bo; the vessel to bear it? On the hills of Tekoa there wanders a lonely herdsman following his flock. He is unknown to tlio “grandee's” of the metropolis, and when he shall stand in their spacious square his appearance shall betray him as a greenhorn from the country. Yet this rough and unkempt herdsman, made of very common clay, was chosen to be the bearer of the treasure of the Lord. Take the Book or Revelation, through which you get glimpses into the very heart and home of God. In what kind of magnificent casket were these magnificent visions reposed? In the/,hearti, of. a fisherman namodWJohn, who had one day been found by the Lord, “with James his brother” as they, were in tho ship mending their net,s. He was chosen to be the bearer of revelations whose deep and, ,far-reacliing splendours have gven not been all disclosed. In the last century, apd especially in its early years, our owp nation was deeply sunk in moral apathy and spiritual dp,ath. Yonder at tfie Bell Inn, Gloucester, standing, bphind the bar as a oyijunou drawer,* ■is a young fellow piaippd George, AVTutefleld, and he is the chosen vessel to bear the.treasure of prophetic truth. In him was kindled the; five of :a, Holy .Spirit.by whose burning the iniquity was consumed in innumerable hearts.

, li. Tho Lord puts His treasure into earthen vessels nwhen He puts tho .power of the Holy Giiost into socqljpd foolish and contemptible speech, it.is possible toihave a golden casket of eloquence and .yet for that vessel to contain no treasure. Eloquence u;ay be a wind-b;\g; Stammering lips may be burdened with the very fullness of God. 1 do. not wish to disparage the groat ministry of eloquent speech; 1 believe that God often puts His apples of gold into pictures oi silver, and His beautiful revelations into noble speech. . But 1 wish to emphasise the peril that tho golden vessel may draw attention to itself and hx the admiration there. Eloquence may point to itself, while .“contemptible speech” may point to God. Some of our Easter cards have pictures of the cross all wreathed in exquisite flowers. You think more of the flowers than you do of the cross. And a speaker may bury his Lord in Howcry language, so that we pay compliments to the speaker when , we should bo worshipping his Lord. Thus the Lord chooses the. plain, unlettered man, who cannot paint flowers or speak them, the rough uncultured man who can just put out his linger and point to the King. 111. The Lord puts Kis treasure into earthen vessels when he puts His strength and beauty into bodies of decrepitude and weakness. Paul was satirised as having a bodily presence which was weak.- it was- a characteristic criticism, from a nation of athletes. God sent to the Greeks a diminutive looking Jew, small and insignificant. The treasure was put into a most frail and ungainly vessel. How often it happens that the light of the glory of God shows most splendidly through the invalid of the family! What an amar-ungly beautiful treasure was put into the frail vessel of Frances Ridley Havergal! The Lord loves to use the weak things and things that, are despised. He loves to put the treasure of His grace into the feeble, that tho world may ask, “"Whence hath this man this power?”

PRAYER BY OR. MATHESON. Show me tho golden gate, oh Lord—the perfection, which i have yet to gain. I often go to compare my candle with the wax-taper of my brother and come back rejoicing. Lead me and my candle into thy sunshine, oh Lord. Instead of measuring that candle by my brother’s taper, let. mo poise it against the noonday, sun—the sun ol i ighieousnoss. My laughter will be turned to weeping and my light will, become invisible. Burn up my sellcomplacency with thy judgment lire! Strike me dumb before the whiteness of (hy purity. Extinguish my torch in thy glory. Expose my faded colours in the sunlight of thy love. My depression will be the tears the lainhow, the shadow of the house of my Fa I her. 1 may need to abandon Jerusalem: but 1 shall he bound fur Paradise.