SUNDAY READING.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 144197, 13 September 1913, Page 6

SUNDAY READING.

Notes -of a sermon proachcd T>y the Rev. J. W.. BURTON in the. Whiteley Memorial Church. DRIFTING PROM GOD. Text: “All wo like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own; and the Cord hath laid on him the iniquity of us MX. Isaiah liii., G. Scholars, for many years now, have boon investigating the problem of the book of Isaiah; and the “Servant Poems,” as they are called, have been the object of special consideration. The conception of the Suffering Servant of Jehovah is a very noble one, and it is perhaps impossible to determine how the thought originated._ _So exalted and.spiritual is the description of vicarious suffering that it is little wonder that Christian people of all ages have seen therein a picture of the Suffering Christ. The old view was that Isaiah, five hundred years before, saw Christ afar off, and depicted the manner of His life and the fashion of His death. The various difficulties or differences between the prophecy and tho fulfilment, wero ingeniously smoothed out, or explained away, by the commentators of a century ago; but we have come to a view which is both truer in fact and more spiritual in application. The prophets of that age came to the realisation that not only was suffering disciplinary, but it was also redemptive. They saw that oiily by sacrifice on the. part of tho best could tho worst bo saved. There wero noble elements lelt in the Jewish nation in spite of all its decadence, and these wero personified by tho poet-preachers of that day. Perhaps some rich and sacrificial character like that of Jeremiah was 'the centre round which the ideas gathered, until at length the “Suffering Servant” became a dominant conception, Jesus, throughout the days of His youth, read widely from tho Jewish scriptures, and we can readily bclievo that those inspiring thoughts of tho latter prophets awoko response in His spirit. This became His conception of tlio Messiah — the Deliverer of Israel—not tho King invested with political power, but the Sufferer who boro tho weight and pain of other men's sins, and thus revealed the d'vino life and power. In this sense, Jesus fulfilled the prophetic vision of tbo old preachers. Ho made real in human life that which had been merely a poetic thought. llnskin, in one of bis essays, states tho same solemn truth which our Lord and Master mads central in His life: “You cannot save men from death but by facing it for them, nor from sin but by resisting it for them. All the true good and glory even of this world, not to speak of any that is to come, myst bo bought with our toil and with our teara.”

Though onr text, then, had a special application to Israel, there is behind it an eternal principle; and there is here described the manner in which men through all ages drift from God and goodness. Notice, first of all, the prophet’s TENDERNESS TOWARDS THE SINNER. Tlio prophets wore fierce in their denunciation of sin and made lurid its awful consequences; but there was almost a mother’s tenderness in dealing with the sinner. They wore the heretics of their age, for they described God as ready to pardon abundantly the erring ono who returned. The priests, with whom they were in continual conflict, told men that God oould bo appeased and would pardon only on the condition of sacrifice as set forth in the Lovitical law. Their theology had no place in.it for the free pardon of God; but the prophets told men that though sin were scarlet or deep crimson, God could cleanse to snow-white purity. ‘‘Like Sheep!” Is not this n true metaphor? Is not this the way in which men through all ages drift from God? Tho sheep just nibbles it astray. The sheep with its head on tho ground loses the landmarks, and the next tempting tuft of grass is its only objective. And this is a parable of many lives. The man of business puts his head down, and the greed of material gain tempts him on. Ho says, this is only a little further than another has gone, until at length ho is astray. Tho chief dangers of life are to bo found in the thoughtless attitude. Better to go headlong and perversely to the devil than ho carried there as a feather by the wind, or as a straw on a stream. One method implies a certain amount of character, tho other marks the absence of it; and there is more hope of changing a bad man than there is of converting a loose man.

How easy it is to go astray! Have you noticed how easy it is to lose a golf ball unless you ‘‘mark it down”? If you take a line between two spots, you have somo ehanco of finding yonr ball; but if you just trust to a vague sense that it is ‘‘somewhere about,” you will find golf an expensive game. , And life is an expensive game when it is lived carelessly. It is only when wo take our bearings and sec just whore we are moving that wo havo any hope of winning success in it. The drifting is often imperceptible. In tho islands I used to travel a good deal by boat, and sometimes wo were becalmed inside the roof. The tide would move past us and give us tho impression that wo were moving in a certain direction, but when wo looked at two landmarks on shore, wo saw that we were being borne in quite a contrary direction. There are so many currents and cross-currents in onr life that we need constantly to take our bearings. A business man takes, stock usually once a,year that ho: may know just where ho stands. He might allow tho years to drift by carelessly, but such an one usually pulls up in tho bankruptcy court. It is well for us to take stock of our faith and morals occasionally. Often when we take a period—say five or ton years ago—and compare hfo and its, ideals then with those of now, we receive a shock. The thing that five years ago we should have recoiled from, we do almost easily now. We have drifted. Pope experienced this—

Vico is a monster of so frightful mien, As, to be hater), needs but to be seen; Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace.

We need to watch tho beginnings of evil, or of the careless spirit which makes evil so possible. The divergence of two lines may make an angle so minute that we count it negligible; but, if tho lines are extended, tho distance between them will become infinite. Little things becomes symptomatic of greater. It may be, in the eyes of many, a small thing to disregard tho Sunday, or to absent oneself occasionally from worship for the sake of personal pleasure; but these are symptoms. The falling of tho mercury in a thermometer is of small concern

to us In itself, but it is an indication of temperature conditions. That a man wanders only a littlo from tho path of rectitude may not soom of sufficient importance to speak about, but ho has made an. angle, and time usually extends the containing lines. Thus we go astray, and life becomes a failure. The good that was in us is lost, and wo drop down tho ladder, rot at one fall, but rung by rung. THE DANGER TO OTHERS. Sheep follow sheep, and men follow men. Wo both influence and are influenced far, more than wo are usually aware. No matter how seemingly unimportant our life is, it is alfooting some other life. We cannot grow careless and casual in life without making it harder for somo other. When a man drifts from God, lie parries others with him. I spoke to a youth somo time ago about his personal life, and tried to induce him to follow Christ and to join tho Christian church. I mentioned his father, who is a member of the church, and a smile ugly to sco came over his face. “Oh, Dad I—-his religion doesn’t mean much to mo. Ho dodges church on the faintest excuse. You needn’t quote Dad’s religion to me.” That father was making it harder, through his carelessness and indifference, tor his son to bo a Christian. And ho is by no moans a rare case.

Tho captain droads tho derelict vessel—it is one of his greatest dangers at sea, and tho deroliot Christian is a menace to society. In tho North .of Auckland they used to float logs down the rivers to be loaded on scows for tho timber mills. Sometimes, •it happened that a log got adrift and wont out to sea, I oneo saw a coastal boat with a great hole stove through her bows by crashing into a log at night, and it was only with difficulty that she was beached and the lives on hoard saved. You and I cannot sin without pulling someone else down with us; and though we may repent and bo par doned for tho guilt of our sin, wo cannot be sure that tho consequences in other lives will be altered by our good Jiving in tho future. Life is an altogether serious business, and whatever else we do wo must not drift. If you have lost your touch with God, you are a danger to some other soul The most awful thing is not to lose one’s own soul, but to cause tho loss of tho souls of others. , Let mo close on a note of hope. Jesus told us that sheep went astray—just as tho writer of our text did; but He told us that God sought tho lost. Ho told us too tho story of the bereaved parent whoso heart was broken because tho bey had gone astray, and Ho bid us believe that when tho prodigal canto home, tho heart of the father was satisfied and poured out the riches of his love upon the oncewastrol. Ho said God was Ijko that.