SUNDAY READING

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 144860, 11 December 1915, Page 4

SUNDAY READING

Notes of a sermon preached by the REV. A. 13. CHATTELD, M.A., in the V.Tiiieiey ilemoiial Church THE DEADLIEST HERESY. Text: “Sound in faith, in love, in patience.”—ln.u* in, Writing to Titus, a young preacher whom lie had Ht in Crete to organise tho Christian Church there. St. .Vanl

gives much solemn counsel as to the young man's ow n bearing and his work amongst the converts to the Christian faith. Concerning his teaching in the Cospel, lei urges—“ Speak thou the things which h-elit the sound doctrine; that aged men lie temperate, grave, sober-minded, sound in faith, in iovo, in patience.” in that charge “soundness” is applied to two very cliiicruil, although related, things. First in order of statement is sound doctrine—the true,-wise, healthy teaching that Titus himself is to impart; next appears tho soundness in lieari-tp.ialities that the older men are to be exhorted to preserve and cultivate. These two are representative of the two meanings that soundness in faith may have. There i‘> “the form of sound words” which the Apostle urged Timothy to hold fast; there is also the healthiness ol a believing spirit, which is to be specially urged by Titus upon the men growing old. 'i he first i* essentially a matter of ex? >siou; the second is a limiter of experience. One dwells on the lips, the other in the heart. A glance at tho Crock of this'charge leaves not a .shadow of doubt chat being “sound in faith” here means the latter: it is subjective nulie’’ chan objective; it is not so much concerned with the content of belief as w::h its spirit; it denotes worth, not words.

The Apostle's statement, recalls Ids great passage in the thirteenth of First Corinthians: “Now abide faith, hope, love, these throe.” Hero again we have the same three notes, making up life’s sweetest chord." The believing spirit, the loving heart, and tho hopeful outlook combine to give* us deepest, noblest life. Their opposite* enfeeble and sour us: moral scepticism, the negation of a vigorous heart-trust, and pessimism, the negation of immortal dope, and cynicism, tliu negation ol frank love, rob us of < iiieicncy and happiness. Iho man who has faith and hope and love, ihtso three, can work and wait and sing.

Now, faith will haw n hope a dream, and love an object; hut the faith is mow than the creed, as- the hope is mote than its vision and the love is more than its recipient. The believing spirit is

WORTH WORK THAN ALL THE CREEDS;

and the deadliest heresy is of the heart. Of course wi sally lermal statsinents of belief have, a great v due. They aid thought, they preserve conclusions, they fill a need in the declaring of convictions. But all crcdal statements, however beautiful or profound, have their limits of usefulness. They cannot feed, the son). They cannot iill the life. Thev are Hie husk, not the'grain that makes the bread of life; they are tho earthen pi tellers giving shape and locatioii to life's treasured water, helping us to pass it trout hand to hand and prober it to other lips, hut the, soariding, sky-1 awaiten truth is, even a" drop of it,"of more value than them all. While we may not, put our faith to some uses without these verbal vessels, it can accomplish much apart from them, and they without it are mere sounding emptiness. Look at a grain of wheal or a nut or an acorn. Note the hard, protecting skin. ! r, conserves the* treasured lile ; hut that life must break it to grow. Plant your acorn, clad in its satir.hrown coat oi mail ; soon that shielding enswathemenr will bo .hurst and gone, and the voting oak. with promise of a myriad acorns', will emerge from its'decay. It was not uselessblit its work is done. So "sound doctrine” has often preserved the product of the believing spirit for a" while; hut the life the creeds have held and hid has been the chief means of their criticism and nc^ioct. Watch any one of the countless blobs of jelly-like ereatnres that lead their simple microscopic life in our ponds and puddles. Unfurnished with any hard coating, they stretch out.and roam and fed and multiply; till one day a drought comes. Then. the. shapeless sped; of activity grows a coat of symmetrical. rigid, resisting skin. Within j that protection it abides sate, though tossed about in tempest and dust, till •another day firings rain and. a homo again beneath , tho waters. Immediately the covering cyst yields and breaks, releasing the pcnl-up,. enterprising life that had been dormant within, and a new career of adventure, and achievement is begun. The CREEDS ARE THE CYSTS that faith has grown about itself In times of threatened spiritual drought. They have preserved the lilo of laith iii days of dusty, dangerous cbnflict; hut in turn they have bail to give way before the life they held when a later growing-time arose. I hey have been wonderfully useful; but they are not comparable in power or worth to the believing spirit that Ims, now and then, found a need to fashion them. I hey are no more to lie confused with that spirit than tho acorn’s satin shell is the life of the oak-treo or tho cyst is the life of the, amokha. But we behave as if dogma and truth wore one and the same thing. They are related, as cyst and life, but that is all. We talk of a preacher or-a teacher as being "sound.” That is a fraudulently intellectual test ; we have often allowed it to mislead ns as to a man’s regard for truth ahd .goodness.and Cod. V.Tiv, a creed, no mo tier how profound, nine he hut a hypocritical profession of faith! ileal, active, heartfelt faith may he absent. A statement of dogmatic opinion, after all, is got fr.om the greymattor of the brain, not from the fountain of the spirit. A, man may utter precisely the tamo formula as his .neighhour and vet he alien to him, utterly alien, in tho tilings that mark and make the life of the spirit. What wo should care about is not whether a man b<> abb* to nclio our “sni bhulcth,” | but whether ho shares our enterprise. -Do you recollect that day in the store of Second King.-, when Jehu, driving furiously on an enterprise of vengeance, pulled hack his panting ( hcw'crs on their haunches as .he found Jehoaadab ujfau tho road. Jm hard-

breathed tones lie challenged—“ls, thy heart as my heart?” That was all. Receiving a frank assurance of a purpose in common, he asked no more. “(Jive me thy hand!” he cried: “Come up into the i-hariot.” Together they rode on in the zeal of a liaming purpose dear to both. So we should art upon life’s hurrying duty to Cod and our follows; our leagues of service should lie less marked by the narrowing .suspicions of each other’s beliefs in detail, and evermore concerned about that “soundness” in faith ami love and patience that belongs to the soul. The Church's shame is that too olten : it has been concerned about its dis- . criminating ••shibboleth*” of denominational creed while work for the world, . ••the day of vengeance for our Cod, has passed by unheeded. The individual Christian has multiplied the «yil. refusing often to join lojves with his fellows because they did not use the crcdal formulas dear to him. Surely, “ye have not so learned Christ.” it is high time we discriminated between faith and the faiths, between the believing spirit and the convenience of a vehicle of statement.

This distinction between “the form of sound words” and being “sound in faith” will help ns to understand wont Christ said about what has been styled “THE UNPARDONABLE SIN.” That sin without hope of iorgivgncss is “against the Holy Ghost,” against the Spirit uf God that searches ant our spirits and would lead us into truth and through holy enterprise. Against jdm Sou of -Man—against the historical Christ—we may with promise ot easier pardon speak words of disbeliel : that belong* to tiie region ol the* forms of expression usable about a set of earthly facts. About them there may be much diliercnce of opinion. Hut to he spiritually hostile to God, to refuse blasphcmonslv ilie gentle, pleading overtures of llis loving’ Spirit. to shut our hearts resolutely to llis approach, that Is to place ourselves outside the possibilities of KG pardon, clearly. 'l'his terrible sin against God is the lack ol wholesome (.the “sound” ol Paul's charge literally mean* “healthy”) faith and love and patience. That mutters much more than intellectual doubt or idiosyncnicy of religion* opinion. That the Apostle who did so ipuch for his own day to state in clear terms,ids thought about Christ makes so much of till* spiritual lack speaks volumes for the New Testament exaltation of heart-trust over head-opinion. Are we heart-whole? Is the believing spirit ours? Arc* our souls joyously fresh ? Have wo kept our enthusiasms about life as well as our convictions about God? Then are wo “sound'in faith.” But does cold disdain visit us often? Docs chill despair rule us? Have wo lost our optimism, or our belief in our fellows? Then are wo MORAL SCEPTICS.

Wo are committing a sin worse than the crime the Kaieer has exalted above others in his laud—lcse majesto. Oms is high treason against our hunmnitc, which ibe (h-rman Kmpcror lias himself cominiuod. Indeed, it is sin of the deepest dye against Ood, for ihis is His world and our companions aic His creatures, with the hope of His purpose shed upon them. And it will manor little. it we arc so faithless, wha t <>ur chosen statement of opinion about the articles of religion may be. The man trim h» “sound in faith, in love, in patience” will he like tho woman of Watts' picture ‘•Hope.” Though all hut one of the strings of her harp are snapped, she will strike its last string and listen with assurance for its vibrating sweetness. So wc, whatever may have befallen ns, no matter how the clouds of war and sorrow and loss arc all about' us, will still cry “All things work together fur good to them that love God.” Clod’s in His heaven, Aids right with the world. Napoleon declared often that the British never know when they were beaten; by every accepted theory of campaigning they should have given up uio hti ugglo against him. So the man with the believing spirit,, who is “sound in faith.” struggles daimilcssly on. marching breast forward, never doubling clouds will break!. Before His death, within the very shadow of the cioss. Christ's cry rang clear, “He of good cheer: I have overcome.” So He ever calls to us. That cry of His nngs still in our believing hearts. He knew life, and II; behoved it worth while. AVo may/Sc*" l all, nor be afraid.” The poor are rarely pessimists. Tho most hopeful folk of to-day are the city missionaries who are at work in the slums, and see earth’s &ordidncss in its naked horror. Their faith and hope and patiquee keep them there. Let us go on undaunted, over possessed by a wholesome belief that wo and others shall through faith and patience Inherit the nromiscs. Especially, as we grow old. and face the special temptation of age that comes in promptings to despair and disbelief and loss of enthusiasm, may wo enjoy this full assurance : There is a sea—a quiet sea, Bcvond the farthest line, Whore all mv ships that wont astray, Whore all mv dreams of yesterday, And all the things that were to be— Are mine! There is a land—a quiet land, Beyond the sotting sun. Whore every task in which I quailed, And all wherein my courage lulled, Where all the good my spirit planned Is tlonc! There is a hope—a (|.iiel hope, . Within my heart, instilled That if. Hildaiiuten. on I sail, This euiding star shall never pale. Bat shine within my labour s scope, Fulfilled. And there's a tide—n quiet tide, Flowing toward a goal— ■ Thai swept l>y every 'humble shore \nd at it> fullest ohhs no more:; And on that iinal swell shall ride—.Mv soul!