SUNDAY READING.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 143550, 15 July 1911, Page 6

SUNDAY READING.

Notes of a sermon preached by the Rev. J. W. BURTON m the Whiteley Memorial Church. LIFE’S ATTITUDE. Text: ’‘Abhor that which is evil: cleave to that which is good.”— Romans xii., 9. We judge a man to a large extent by the words he uses. This choice of words and phrases in literature is called “style,” and style is always more or less an expression of the personality of the writer. Take, for example, the vocabulary of Carlyle and compare it with that of Macaulay—you have a measure of difference between the two men. Or take the strong, rough and nigged words of Robert Browning and place them beside the polished, musical phrases of Alfred Tennyson—again you have a distinction in character. Strong men use strong words; and our everyday speech is a,constant unveiling of our personality and of our thought.. Here in our text are two of Paul’s strong terms, arresting us even through the medium of translation. Paul felt deeply about life and his expressions about it were no weak ones. 1 would that 1 had the power of a dramatist—of an actor—that I might throw into these two words the power that in them lies: “Abhor! Cleave!” ABHOR THAT WHICH IS EVIL. This word “abhor” comes from a strong Latin word “horrero”—to make the flesh to creep, to bristle with horror. We got the idea in our phrase, “to make the hair stand on end.” This, then, is the meaning' of the Apostle—our attitude towards evil is to be one of tho most intense loathing, hating, and of rigid detestation. This is the only safe attitude’towards evil. ance in this respect is crime. We may ho as liberal as we choose in our intellectual opinions, as broad-minded as jve may in matters of belief, but there is only the attitude of narrowness in regard to wrong. There must be an intense. healthy hatred of evil. Said Carlyle, “God Himself hates evil with a most authentic, celestial, and eternal hatred—a hatred, a hostility, inexorable, unappeasable.” So must wo bate. Anv other relation to things evil is dangerous. You remember the couplets : “Vice is a monster of such frightful mien, As to be hated needs but to be seen; Yet—seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace.” The great da'nger in life is that through familiarity with evil and a careless toying with it, vve lose our horror of its appearance, and then downfall is easy. Have yon ever thought of the meaning of the Old Testament story of Samson? It is a parable of our text. Samson was not merely the strong man of his village, the Sandow of his district; hq was a great soda Pontertai nor, and one possessed of great humour. He loved a laugh—especially at others. The writer tells us in the story that the secret of his strength lay in the keeping of his Nazarite vow bjrwhich no razor should touch his head. / Had he not trifled with that vow and had he not coquetted with\emptation, his strength would have been intact. His enemies were bent on wresting his secret from him, and they approached him through a man’s weakest point—a woman. Delilah coaxed and*wheedled, and Samson, to tease her, pretended—only pretended, mind yon—to tell his secret. Three feints wore made and he was still conqueror; but in the last he had ollowed his looks to be touched—only touched, mind you.- Ho.had toyed with his precious secret, and, at length, under the cajoleries of Delilah, he fell. Is this just an ancient story, or is it a leaf out of your history and mine? How often have we thus toyed with evil. We never meant to give way; but we went so far and found it impossible to stop. We young follows know how it comes about. We are in with a crowd of others —they are very decent fellows—and they ask us to have a glass. There is surely no. harm in a glass of light drink, we argue; nor is there, perhaps; but so many a Samson has fallen. It is only a quiet game of cards for sixpenny points, and it will not hurt us to lose a few sixpences. There are coarser vices still, about which I cannot ’speak, these are even more insidious in their allurements and’ stronger in their grip of us. They enmesh us 'at last, and all the while we never meant to go wrong. We ■ fell because we did not sufficiently abhor that which is evil. CLEAVE TO THAT WHICH IS GOOD. The word “cleave” is good AngloSaxon. It is from the same root as cling and climb. We have some good instances of the use of the word in our great treasure of literary expression —the Bible. Take one; “For this cause shall a man leave bis father and mother and shall ‘cleave’ unto his wife,” etc. Thus must we attach ourselves to goodness. No virtue is sate that is not passionate. It is not sufficient to bo languidly good; we must grip virtue. You remember the old-fashioned dumb-, bells we used at school. They had solid handles and our hold might bo of the slightest—so long as we got through the movements we passed the master’s eve. Now, we have the spring dumbbells which almost force us ,to grip and thus put tenseness into our exercise. No conventional movements build up the soul; we must put a positive grip into our bold of good. Goodness is an active, thing. Jesus bid us, Strive to enter, into the narrow gate. The best things of life, even life itself, can he held only by struggle. Travelling across the Indian Ocean, I heard a man in the smoking room of tho steamer tell a story of a shipwreck in which he had been one of tho few survivors. It was at night when the vessel struck and threw them out into a broken, seething sea. He went down once, and rising clutched first at this and then at that until he caught hold of a piece of broken spar heavy enough partially to sustain his weight. This he gripped through the long, long night until he was rescued in tho morning. He told us how he clave to that spar. Sometimes one hand would lose its hold and then more intensely he gripped with the other, and in tile morning the fingers wore bent with tho strain; but he was saved. To lose hold, was to lose life. So it is with us in the struggle. , , , Let us not forget, though, that the soul of man is made' for goodness—that is its native air. Men may talk about original sin and hereditary depravity as they may; there is another fact—original goodness and hereditary virtue. We come to our own when we come into, the kingdom of goodness. Charles Lamb in one of his essays tells of a little chimpoy sweep who was thought to be lost in ono of the many chimneys of a great castle, but they found him quietly asleep in one of the

ducal beds, bis sooty face lying innocently upon the immaculate pillow. Lamb’s interpretation of the fact is that tho boy was a stolen prince, and memory, that had been asleep, awoke as he saw again some of his early surroundings. He was to the' manner born. So with us, we are dissatisfied apart from God and goodness. “I want, am made for, and must have a God, Ere I can be aught, do aught; no mere name Want, but the true thing, with what proves its truth, ' To wit, a relation from that thing to mo, Touching from head to foot: which touch I feel, . And with it take the rest, this life . , of ours.” These, then, are the healthy attitudes of the soul—a strong, virile loathing of evil and a passionate cleaving to goodness. Thus we touch tho highest in life. This was the characteristic attitude of Jesus Christ. He hated all falseness and hypocrisy. He had the tenderest words for the sinner wishing to be free from his sin; but only biting, stinging words for those who had come to say in effect “evil be thou my good.” It is in the presence of Christ, somehow, that we define evil and good with a greater distinction. He unmasks badness; but Ho’also reveals goodness. As we company with Him wo feel our sin and are ashamed of it; but we are also given to see what we may be; and a great faith in our powers of goodness takes possession of us. To become His disciples is to learn more truly the secret of , strength and with a new' enthusiasm to ,£ Abhor that which is evil and cleave to that which is good.”