SUNDAY READING.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 14245, 25 June 1910, Page 6

SUNDAY READING.

NOTES OF SERMON preached by tho Rev. J. G. Chapman in tho Wesleyan Church, jNovv Hlymoutb. “How to be saved.” Ephesians 2, 8-9. There are three great outstanding truths in our text which 1 want to translate into modern English—Grace, Salvation, Faith. Raul says that the source ot man’s salvation is the grace of God. The dictionary definition of grace is favour, goodwill. When wo speak of being in the “good graces” ofa person, we mean that wc are m his favour, we have his goodwill. Ho is our friend and not our enemy. Tho “grace ot God,” then, is God’s goodwill, He is favourably disposed toward us. Is that tho idea you have of God? Many regard Him as a severe, austere, implacable Being, "Whom they dread ana fear with a slavish cringing- A kind of Infinitive Detective, Who spies out their moral delinquencies and records them in a book; and that religion is a method of escaping tho punishment of their sins and averting the anger of an offended God. He needs to bo placated, appeased, mollified. And we have to perform certain religious ceremonies to turn His anger away and win His favour and goodwill. What a mistaken conception of God and religion that is. What would you think of a parent who acted towards his children as some think God acio towards His erbatures? A father who got angry and revengeful every time his child did a naughty thing, and who needed to bo cringed to and appeased so that his anger might bo removed? Why, to live with such a person would he . PURGATORY. No. God is not like that. He is not swayed by the passions and angry feelings of man, He is compassionate, long-suffering and kind. Tho gift of His Bon is an evidence and an expression of His great loye to the world. “God co loved tho world that Ho gave His only begotten Bon.” His love is the source and cause of man’s salvation. Man can bo saved because God loves him. Fpf the love of God is broader Thau the measures ot man’s mind, Ami tho heart of the Eternal Is most wonderfully kind. When will men 'understand and believe that? The second great truth of our text is Salvation. “For by grace are ye saved." What is commonly understood by n man being saved; It is somothliig like this-. Man-lias a soul, an' immortal something hidden m mis nature which will (survive death. ihe groat thing is to save that soul from Kell arid get it into heaven. In, other words, it is escaping hell and getting to heaven. That is a very, mean, paltry, and partial notion of salvation. oalvatipn is more than that. It Takes in tho whole, not part of man. , It moans saving him from going tp pieces, the saving of his manhood, his powers apd Infinities from being put to wrong uses, and using them for. good and 'noble purposes. IhP of the _ drunkard from his snare, tho thief from his dishonesties, the lustful from , his impurities, the liar from prevarication, the miser from his gold, THE LITTLE MAN from his meannesses. Christ saved Matthew from hie fraudulent at the Custom house. W hen sail atiou came to Zaccliacus it estopped hIS cheating. Christ saved Rotor from the spearing life of a Galilean fisherman, and Mary Magdalene from a life of Bhainc. The man who thinks he can let himself go into all manner of sinful indulgenoos, and when death B * ar ? s , 1 ln “V T n the face, he can bring to God the fagends of a wasted life, the scrapings of the barrel, and ask God <to save him and make him into an angel is—wcl , he is a wretched specimen of humanitj. I don’t say that God cannot do it and won’t do it, but the' man who expects God to do it, who spends his life m the devil’s service and then asks God to <rive him the n ,and reward of a saint, is not worthy the name of man. Salvation means the saying of a man from his meanness and fraud, his passions and lusts, his lying and selfishness from all that emasculates ins maniioocf saving him into a strong, robust, vigorous champion of righteousness. _ The next great word of our text is Faith. “Bv grace are ye,saved through faith.” What is faith? The linking or colliding your life with God. Hero arc a'number of railway carnages alongside a railway station; they are full of passenger?'waiting to be taken to their destination. The time for the dispatch of that train has arrived, the bell has rung for its departure,;. the guard’s whistle has sounded, but the TRAIN DOESN’T MOVE. The engine is shunted on to tho front of t{m train,' and if it could speak.would say, “That tram is powerless to move, apart from mo it can do nothing. Conliect it to mo by means of those coupling irons and I will take it to its dcstination.” Man unaided is unequal to the right performance of life’s duties and task? ;• unable successfully to master tho nassions of his nature; powerloss in the contest with evil. His aspirations are better than his achievements. With ’Paul he cries, “0 wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me ; from this death-bound body?’” God,sees man’s helpless state and says, “What you cannot do un T aided, t will enable you to do. Couple your life with mine, connect your weakness with my strength, attach yourself to Me.” And that attachment is faith. It is nothing more than the acceptance of the proffered help of Gor ip living your life. But someone says, “Yes, that may be nil right and true, hut ,my trouble is this. I am a sinner, a great sinner, I have a long catalogue of sins to account for. How can t get the burden of gllilt removed, and peace and Test to mysoul?” Listen, for there is no human need that God cannot meet. “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto God, and He will have mercy upon him, and to our God for He will abundantly pardon.” Doesn’t that meet your case? Do you come under that category ? Put Gocl to the test then. Suppose a man got into financial difficulties. Ho is

A RUINED MAN, miserable and wretched. A friend of his, knowing of his financial condition, is desirous of helping him. Ho goes and sympathises with him, and in a most delicate manner offers to help him. How much, ho asks, will tide you over ydnr difficulties and give you a fresh start F £ISOO replies the dejected man. Pulling his cheque book out of his pocket, his friend writes a cheque for the amount, hands if to the man, and says, I am (dad to bo able to help you. That is a gift, I don’t expect repayment. Now suppose that man with the cheque in his pocket walks about in a hopeless state of mind, and his creditors came down upon him and forced him into bankruptcy. What would you think of him ? Why, that

ho did not trust his friend. All he has to do is to have faith in his friend, cash the cheque and all will bo well. Now, hero is a sinner with all his past sins, carrying them about like a great .load upon his conscience, while God has been proclaiming unwcariedly through the ages'that He waits to bo gracious and will forgive all who come unto Him. The man who continues to carry his load of sin, after that is simply refusing to have faith in God. How simple it is, and yet men won’t believe it. They want to do some great thing to win God’s favour. You haven’t to win God’s favour; you have that already. God asks you to trust Him and take what Ho’is so willing to bestow. Your salvation is a gift from God. A Sunday school teacher wished to impress his scholars with the simple meaning of faith. He bought a cheap WATERBURY WATCH, and took it with him to his class. After explaining what faith was, ho took from his pocket the watch, and handed it to the boys, saying, here is a watch for you. Tile lads looked surprised, sniggered and gazed at one anotner, as much as to say, Teacher is trying to have us. At length a little fellow stepped up to the took the watch from his hand, and thanked him. Then the boys got serious, and began to feel uncomfortable, just as you do when you let slip a bargain and someone else gets it. “Oh,” they said, “is it ■ his to keep ?” “Yes,” replied tho teacher. “Oh, if we had only known that you meant it we would have taken it.” “You hadn’t faith im mo,” said tho teacher. Faith is talcing God at His word, and appropriating what He offers. You may believe it or not, but you have no right, to disbelieve the truth of , what I am stating until you have tried and tested it for yourselves. Now I have known people who mot the requirements of our text, repeated of their sins, and trusted God for salvation, and who said, “You know I don't feel any different,” and I asked them what they expected to feel. “Oh,” they said, “we have known people who were so happy after their conversion.” And because they had no such ecstatic feeling (hey doubted God’s acceptance of them. Now salvation is not founded bn feelings but bn trust in God. Feelings vary , with our moods, they rise arid fall LIKE BAROMETERS;

You arc asked to believe a fact, feelings or no feelings—tho fact that God will receive aiid Forgive you if you'come to Him. Suppose a woman a few days after her marriage said to her husband, “My dear, arc, wo really married. ' I don’t feel that wc are married.” He .would Turn to her and say, “What has feeling to do with it? Didn’t you Take mo as your husband when we stood before the minister, and didn’t you sign the . register?”. ■ “Yes,” she replied. “Well, then, what more do you require?, It was that transaction that took place which made us husband and wife. Your feelings have nothing to do with it.” And when a man comes to God, repents of his sins and trusts God to save him, he' can then say, ”Tis done, the great transaction’s done, I am my Lord’s and Ho is mine. That is a bond between him and God. Man may snap that bond, but God, never. To save, man istho great yearning of God’s heart,. He sent His son on a mission of recovery, to seek and to save that which was lost. Man’s salvation is the meaning of the Cross. More God could not do than Ho has done.- Infinite resources have been expended in the salvation of man. It is God’s great gift, offered to man “without money and without price.” You cannot buy it, you cannot merit it, you can but accept or reject it. To accept it moans life, to reject it is ■'death. / • ■■■ Could my tears for ever flow, Could my zeal no languor know, These for sin could not atone, Thou must save and Thou alone. In my hnnd.no price-1 bring, Simply to Thy Cross I cling..