SUNDAY READING

Taranaki Daily News, 4 September 1926, Page 17

SUNDAY READING

By

REV. A. H. COLLINS

WHY CHRISTIAN? “And it was at Antioch the disciples first received the name of Christians.” —-Acts xi., 26. Dr. Waymouth’s translation. Cities are famous, or infamous, for divers reasons. Florence was Dante’s home. In Bedford Bunyan suffered and dreamed. Stratford was the myriad-mind-ed Shakespeare’s birthplace. From Oxford Ridley and Latimer went to heaven in a chariot of fire. Bethlehem supplied Christ’s cradle., and Jerusalem His grave. Jerusalem held the judgment hall, and rose garden, where the Saviour sobbed out His soul, and “the Green Hill far away.” ft was in Jerusalem Ananias created the first church scandal, the first persecution; and Stephen the first martyr. Jerusalem ston.d the ‘prophets and slew the Lord. Antioch is immortal as the place where Christ’s followers received the name which best described their life and their high calling. It was here that Christianity found new power, and became a mental and moral dynamic in the world, and the souls of men were set aflame with swift and sweeping enthusiasm. Missions were born in Antioch, and under the spell of this transforming zeal a new name was coined, the name “Christian.” A SIGNIFICANT NAME. The new name is significant. “Jew” and “Gentile” were local and sectional terms. “Christian” dismissed limitations, and united all in one brotherhood. The word is used only three times in the New Testament; once in Antioch as a falicitous nickname, once by Aggrippa in supercilious scorn, and once, when Saint Peter wrote “If a man suffer as a Christian, let him glorify God.” Originally the word was a bit of pagan slang. Unfriendly hands took the letters and wove thorns into a crown of thorns, and lo! time has taken noble revenge, and changed them into a chaplet of honour. The jibe has become a joy. The insult has become an inspiration. Beesting has become a blessing. The label of a sect has expanded to a world religion. There are other names, such as “Disciple,” which means learner; there is “Believer,” which implies emancipation of mind and heart; there is “Saint,” which suggests inward purity; there is “Brethren,” which points to filial and fraternal relations. But “Christian” mean.? the open mind, the trusting soul, the cleansed heart, and the obedient life.

I know the meaning of the word has been made ambiguous and doubtful by the divisions and strifes of some who bear it. Thus we have Christians, Greek, and Roman, and Anglican; Christians, Protestant and Catholic; Christians, Monastic, sectarian and political, with results that are shameful and sad, for the outsiders say, “A plague on your house,” and since you are so divided and divided, for causes so petty, we are not Christians at all. Well, that is our blame, but not the fault of the name. “Christian” is a great, wide, •hospitable term. INCLUSIVE, NOT EXCLUSIVE. Its meaning is inclusive and not exclusive. All types are necessary to express the rounded and fullrobed Christian character. Christianity is greater than church, or all the churches. Neither John Bunyan’s “Christian” nor Thomas A. Kemysis’ “Mystic,” nor Hall Caine’s “Manuel,” nor Marie Corellie’s “John Storm,” express the whole truth. Christian is neither individualistic nor socialistic. Such labels are not big enough. We mistake a part for the whole, a feature for a face, a tremor of the artists pencil for the finished picture. “Christian” is a great expansive, expressive word, and it describes a religion greater than the sects of any land or age. Any man who lives the life is a Christian, and no man who does not live the life is a Christian, no matter what his sect or party. “Christian” means any one who accepts Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord of his life, and if you can make that statement wider and still preserve the essential truth, I am prepared to gratefully accept your enlargement. The emphasis lies on conduct. ‘‘For modes of faith, Let graceless zealots fight, He can’t be wrong "Who’s life is in the right.” Jay of Bath used’ to say that “Christ’s sheeny are marked jn the ear and the feet. They hear His voice and they follow Him.” In kindliness of heart, in sweetness of temper, in broad-mindedness, and charity and courtesy, non-Christian people sometimes excel the Christian professor, and the man of the world says, “Your religious man is no belter than other men, nay, he is sometimes worse-.” A missionary to the Red Indians urged one of their chiefs to become a Christian. The plumed and painted savage, with quivering lips and flashing eye, answered: “Christians lie! Christians cheat! Christians steal, drink, murder! Christians have robbed me of my land and slain my tribe!” and turning haughtily away cried: “The Devil Christian, I will be no Christian!” All of which means that if we have made the profession, then by the grace of God let us live the life, cost what it may. Better not vow than default in paying the vow. , . A PERSONAL NOTE. And now will you excuse it if 1 give this sermon a personal note, and tell you as simply and plainly as I know how why I am a Christian. Y’ou may put the case differently, and your way may be better than mine, but this is my way. I am Christian because in Jesus Christ I find the fairest and fullest revelation of God. The cry of the human heart for God is universal, and every religion in the wide world is an attempt to answer that cry. The mistaken and inadequate religions of the pagan world are man’s blundering quest for God, and Christianity denies nothing good and true these religions. No man learns to be a bigot in the school of Christ. The sovereignty of God in Mohammedanism, the imminence of God in Hindooism, the submission to God in Buddhism, rhe filial piety in Confucism, are all included in Jesus Christ’s teaching for He satisfies the religious instinct of the race. The non-Christian religions of the Eakst clothe the gods in human forms, and attribute to them the vices and weaknesses of human creations. A NEAR POM'ER. But Christ reveals a God who, whilst He is pure and good and high, is nevertheless near, approachable, friendly. He is our Father, aye, and our Mother, too. All men are His children, an'’, all men are brothers, and heaven is where God dwells. God iff not only..holy, as the Hebrews eaid, or intelligence as the Greeks taught, or

power as the Romans believed. God is all this, plus goodness and grace. In Jesue Christ God becomes intensely real, essentially human, adorably divine, pitiful, getat:able, redeeming. I. can conceive of no being worthier of homage, service, and love than the Father of Jesus, and He brings God within the circle of my life. Therefore I bow in His presence and cry “My Lord and my God.” REVELATION OF MAN. I am Christian because in Jesus Christ I find the truest, worthiest, holiest revelation of man. His character has captured the imagination of the world. “I find no fault in Him,” said His Roman judge, and that is the verdict re-echoed round the globe. Those who deny His divinity confess His perfect humanity. Here is one sharing our lot, with all the limitations of a man, “tempted in all points like as we are, growing “in wisdom and stature,” “made perfect through suffering,”, yet never a slip, never a flaw, never a word that needed to be recalled, never a thought which called for revision, and never a deed that called for repentance! Always master of Himself, and always master of circumstances. Growing in all-round completeness and receiving this witness, “This is My I je’oved Son in whom I am well pleased.” Is not that ideal manhood? Is. not that what conscience says we ought to be? Given a world of men such as the man Christ Jesus, would not our social problems be solved? Y’et that is the ideal for you anti me, an ideal that shames ui?, and that is not only what we ought to be, that is what Christ wants to help us to become. “If Jesus Christ is a man, and only a man, I say to all mankind, I cleave to Him. and “to Him I will cleave always. If Jesus Christ is God, and the only God, I swear I will follow Him, through Heaven and Hell, the earth, the sea, the air.” RIGHT RELATIONS WITH GOD. Once more. I am Christian because Jesus Christ restores me to right relations to God, and in the sphere of religion right relations are everything. I mean that Jesus Christ deals with my sin. lam a rational being, however my friends may doubt it, and I know that what Jesus was on earth I ought to be. But I am not that. I am not what I ought to be, and what in my better moments I want to be. My nature is disordered. I am not only unfortunate; I am sinful. I not only ignorant; I am guilty. I need not only to be told how i to live; but how to get. the power to live. A minister I knew very well visited an old man I knew very well. The old man was near his mortal change. Conversation turned on the deep things of the soul. The Minister rose to leave, and the whitehaired old man looked at him, oh! so seriously, and said: “Then you think the blood, stain o-n Lady Macbeth’s hand can be cleansed ?” Ah! there lies the whole problem of each sinful soul; and Jesus has solved that problem. “The Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sin.” Not only forgive the past, but empower for the future and “break the power of cancelled sin.” A HAPPY SLAVERY. A few months ago I baptised one of omr returned soldiers, a man who was at the landing of Gallipoli. He told me how he had been the victim of swearing’. It seemed second nature to him. On the eve of the landing he was alone with no padre near. He thought of his home and his mother. He lifted up his heart in prayer and from that moment the habit of foul language was broken, and he was free. I have plenty of problems for which I have found no solution. But I can conceive of no God better than the God whom Jesue reveals; no idea of manhood better than Jesus supplies; no remedy for sin better than Jesus supplies; therefore I am His happy slave.