SUNDAY READING.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 April 1923, Page 9

SUNDAY READING.

A PEN-PICTURE OF JESUS. “Jesus of Naazreth R . . who wentabout doing good.” Acts, x, 38. (By Rev. A. H. Collins, New Plymouth.) Of course you know that wc have no authentic portrait of Jesus Christ. We have -casts and medallions of Nero and Calegula, and others of the period; but we i have none of Jesus Christ. The reason I do not stop to discuss, save to say that, remembering the tendency to idolatry, there may be a providence in this. Moreover, the ones of the age would not think Jesus worthy of such memorial; but though v.c have no picture in canvas or marble, we have a pen-picture, and I want to quote it, not because it has any authority, but because it enshrines a thought of the Master I would have you cherish in your heart. A Roman of the period writes: “In this tiir-.e appeared a man who lives until now, a man endowed with great powers. Men call him a prophet. His own disciples call him ‘the Son of God.’ He restores the dead to life.and cures all manner of diseases. This nian is of noble and well-prcportioned stature, with a face full of kindness, yet I firmness, so that beholders both love and fear him. His hair is the color of wine and golden at the roots, straight, and divided down the centre, after the manner of the Nazareens, but from the level of the ears curly and glossy. His forehead is cmooth, without blemish, and enhanced by a tempered bloom. His countenance is ingenuous and kind. His nose and mouth are in no way faulty; his beard is full, and of the same color as his hair, and forked in its form. His eyes are blue and extremely brilliant. In rebuke and reproof he is formidable; in teaching, gentle and amiable of tongue. None have ever sene him laugh, out many, on the contrary, have seen him weep. Hrs person is tall; his hands beautiful and straight. In speaking he is deliberate and grave, and a little given to loquacity. In beauty, surpassing most mon.” Since that cameo was drawn we have had endless imaginative pictures of Christ—pictures rough as those in the Catacombs, or finished as those of Dore, Hoffman, Noel Paton, or Holman Hunt; Roman faces, round and almost animal; Greek faces, artistic and semi-senual :Italian faces, sunny and cheerful; German faces, studious and thoughtful; French faces, with laughter in their brimming eyes; Saxon faces, stolid and healthful. Yet none of them satisfy, for they lack the quality of manliness, vigour, vitality—in a word, strength. None of them suggest Tennyson’s lines: “Thou'seemest human and divine The highest, holiest manhood there.” TWO STRIKING PICTURES. But there are two pen-pictures of Jesus that do satisfy Christian hearts, and they are beyond all question genuine. One of fhese comes from the pen of Saint John, where he describes how Christ appeared in glory everlasting. We read it in this morning’s service, and it is the picture no man need blush to own as the portrait of bis Friend, for there is no line of weakness in it. Think! “His eyes were as a flame of fire.” Nothing dreamy and mystical there; H ; s look is starry, resolute and prophetic ; He sees to the soul of things and the souls of men. “And out of His mouth went a sharp, two-edged sword.” There is nothing halting or apologetic; His words arc sword-blades. “He spake as one having authority.” Note this, too: “His feet were as fine brass.” That is to say, He was stalwart, marshal and majestic in His ttride; He moved as a King among men. ‘‘And His voice was as the voice of many waters.” Thus from a stern Roman, and a devout son of Abraham, you get pensketches of Jesus identical in this: that they depict the “strong Son of Godand it is a conception we need to cherish, for such was the Jesus of history—strong in His teaching, mighty in His influence, and peerless in His character. FAULTLESS PERFECTION. And now I turn to the picture drawn by Saint Peter: “Jesus of Nazareth . . . who went about doing goodfor in that crisp, bright, epigram atic sentence you have a pen picture of Jesus completer than that of the Roman or Saint John. The Greek of the passage is even more terse than the Saxon translation. Three words constitute the record; three strokes of the artist’s pencil, and lo! —a picture of faultless perfection ! In the galleries of Europe you may see pictures that cover yards of canvas, but there are locked cabinets that hold ivory miniatures, no larger than your thumb-nail. In the Gospels you have broad effects, spacious portraits, but this is all ivory miniature. It may be said that the same is true of others, for have we not known men and women of whom it were no exaggeration to say that they “went about doing good?” Philanthrophy of a practical and winsome kind was the very spirit of their lives. Their very presence was soothing. They come into a sick-room like a burst of spring sunshine. Where, then, lies the difference between the Master and the servant? It is enough to say that Jesus is the original and the servant a copy. Once the die is cut, it is easy to produce copies; and it was Jesus of Nazareth Who cut the die of the mercies and charities of the world. NEW TYPE OF LEADER. But there is another answer. Saint Peter was speaking to Cornelius and his band of Italian braves; and Cornelius was the descendant of an old Roman family. And when the preacher commended Jesus on the ground of His active benevolence, you may be sure the Roman soldier rubbed his stern eyes in astonishment. This was a new type of leader. In many respects the Roman world dwarfed the Jewish world. In Rome, everything was conceived and executed on a scale of magnificence. Its public buildings were colossal; its public pageants glittering. Everything connected with the army and the Government was calcu luted to impress and awe the mind with a sense of gigantic power. But in the presence of all the glitter and opulence and parade of power, there was one fatal defect. Rome was a world without love. Rome was was a world of need and sorrow, a world of pain and tears. The vast and cplendid machine of state went round with steady, remorseless, awful grind, and with no regard for those it bruised and crushed. The compassions and mercies which flourished under the aegis of Christ’s Cross had no place under the Roman eagle. Granted, there were exceptions. Liberality was ex

tolled by Roman poets, and its praises were stamped on the current coin of the Empire; but the liberality they praised was not the fruit of love. It was a selfish and prudential expenditure, made to keep political influence. It was a btfsiness speculation, and because it lacked love as a motive it demoralised the recipients and created indolence and sycophancy. NEW FORM OF GREATNESS. Under this system of loveless charity men learned to hate work, and cared only for such ease and pleasure as could be wrung from their rulers by force and fear. “Sports and bread” became the slogan. There were no schools, no hospitals, no liberty. The mass of the people were, slaves. Cornelius knew that. Cornelius knew that in his loved Italy the poor, the sick, the unfit were regarded as an encumbrance, and because they could contribute nothing to the army or the public service there was no reason to keep them alive. Manhood was cheap. Yet here was Saint Peter telling of One Who loved and served this despised class—fed them, healed their bodies and saved their souls! His precepts and practise were in perfect agreement. This was a new form o( greatness. To say that rendering service was more than receiving it; to give more t’.an to get; to save life more than to slay life: to rule by love more than to wade to a throne through blood and slaughter. This was new doctrine indeed, and you may be sure such teaching set the Roman captain thinking furiously. The world has made great strides since then, but evpn yet the world has never frankly adopted Jesus Christ’s philosophy of life. We still hold by “The good old .rule, the simple plan, That they shall get who have the power, And they shall keep who can.” FIRST SOCIAL REFORMER. Jesus of Nazareth has sometimes been called the first in the long line of social reformers. The description is not true in the sense it is ofttime used, but in a broader, larger, more vital sense it is true; for He taught doctrines which have only to be applied to modern conditions, and the world will be turned upside down. He loved man; the whole man—body, soul and spirit. A large part of His ministry was concerned with the actual physical needs of sick and impoverished folk. He cared not only for “the man in the slum,” but for “the slum in the man.” He literally “gave His life a ransome for many.” He left His Spirit to school the hearts of His people to a continuance of the ministry of help, and the church that fails here fails utterly. SIMPLICITY AND QUIETNESS. And yet the arresting thing about it all is its simplicity and quietness. There was nothing strained or unnatural. Christ never-reposed or fussed. He made nothing of machinery. His work seemed effortless. You cannot conceive of Jesus organ ising a plan of campaign and advertising what He proposed to do. Isaiah, fore casting this very thing, said: “He shall not scream or talk loud, neither shall He advertise Himself.” He Himself said: “The kingdom of heaven cometh not with observation.” He likened it to the silent working of leaven, the noiseless growth of a seed, the unheralded fall of sunlight. His ministry was the ministry of personal influence. He did good by being good. He lived the life. More than all His doctrine was His life of self-renouncing love. Greater than all the miracles He wrought was the wonder of His selfless life—more enduring and influential than all beside is His goodTHE SUPREME NEED. “Jesus of Nazareth, who went about doing good.” Isn’t that the supreme need of the hour? The world is more highly organised than it has ever been, and the same is true of the Christian Church; and yet in both spheres the output of all the machinery is painfully small. Is it that the emphases needs to be changed from mechanics to dynamics, from controversy to character? When Sir Walter Scott lay dying, he turned to his friend and said: “Lockhart, I may have but a few minutes to speak to yob. My dear, be a good man; be virtuous, be religious; be a good man. Nothing else will give you any comfort when you come to lie here.” I leave it there. lam not responsible for making “crooked places straight” or scourging men cut of error or winning men to think as I think. I am only responsible to be simply, unaffectedly good. Some of the prizes of life can never be ours, but the prize of life, the prize of goodness, may be ours if life is linked to Jesus Christ. There are joys in pomp and splendour, Conquests and renown; But the heart of service tender Wins a nobler crown. Kindly deeds are kingly graces, Help and cheer have royal faces. Robes are merely rags and tatters, Splendid for a day; Heart is really all that matters On the Pilgrim Way. Pity him who in his blindness Fails to seek the crown of kindness.