SUNDAY READING.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 16822, 21 August 1920, Page 10

SUNDAY READING.

| A Sermon preached in the Whiteley Memorial Church hy the Rev. J. Napier Milne. THE CALL OF THE CROSS. John 14, 31: “That the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave mo commandment, oven so 1 do. Arise, let us go hence.” Our Lord and His disciples were gathered together in the Upppr Boom celebrating the least of tho Passover. The supper ended, Ho poured out His soul in comforting words and kind to those Ho was about to leave Distilling inlinito sweetness and breathing unutterable tenderness, the discourse might havo been spoken on summer leas. It is tinged, it is true, with tho sadness of farewell, but its gracious promises, and its all-pervading peace have been a stay and a strength to troubled souls in every sore strait of life and in the awful hour of death. The words were uttered, not in the high noon of fame and success, but in tho face of the fast-gathering storm; in tho hour of apparent bafflement and defeat. Drawing over Higher was tho end. He Who had never breathed an unkind word or harboured an ungenerous thought would soon be in the grasp of His malignant foes. The terrible tragedy of the passion would presently be enacted. Before Him with all it meant of sin and shamo and ■ akering was tho Cross. But at H dread crisis Ho did not blench u lalter. Where the world saw only fanurc and disaster Ho saw triumph and accomplishment and when Ho spoke there was a ring of exultation in His tone. The Father would bo glorified because of His sacrifice and obedience. The fruit of 1 all His pains would be a redeemed humanity. His cross would become a throne of sovereign love under whoso dominion all met? would at last be united in a Kingdom of righteousness. Shaipng their Master’s conflict, the disciples would become partakers of His victory. They could not go to the cross as He did, but they could' belt) to carry out tho purposes of the cross in the world. Our Lord says to them in effect; “In order that the Prince of evil and all his works may be overthrown, that men may be delivered from sin, that in Mo they may sec the greater power of love, that they may know that I love the Father and keep His commandments even unto death, lot us arise and give ourselves for the redemption of the world.” More than place and time are meant by this command to go hence. It was not simply a request that tho Apostles should leave tho room where they had been eating the Paschal supper. Thev probably remained in that sacred place until after tho intercessory prayer. For their Master, tho conflict was at hand and He must go forth to meet it, entering for their sakes and for tho sake of all mankind into “tho agonies of a consuming loneliness.”- The' cros.% that was calling Him to a sacrificial death was calling them to a sacrificial life. How much of labours more abundant and of sufferings most intense was involved in that summons to go hence, they could not then be made to understand. What they must do and endure was gradually revealed to them, and, their response, at first faltering, was ultimately perfect and complete. Now this calling of the cross forever stands, summoning all men to a life of self-denying service for Christ and Humanity. There is not one condition of discipleship for the first century and another for . the twentieth century. In a very real sense, to follow our Lord means as much now as it did in the days of Paul and James and John. We are never really saved by the cross until we are saved to the cross. We are chosen for service no less than for salvation. Tho best way to keep religion is to share it. It is a light to diffuse, a life to communicate. “The greatest felicity that felicity hath,” says Hooker, “is to spread and enlarge itself.” Our Lord would have us understand by such parables as the Good Samaritan and tho Ricli Man and Lazarus that there aye human beings other than ourselves who havo a claim upon our regard. We havo not done handsomely by our neighbour because we have not killed him or robbed him of his property or of his good name. , There is a wickedness in this world that seldom passes for wickedness. It is tho wickedness of the man who does little positive harm but who lives inordinately for self, who stands with arms outspread to receive tho wealth of Heaven into his bosom, and grudges every benefaction which policy suggests or conscience impels. The immensity and the imperativeness of tho work to be done can hardly be exaggerated. By many evils are we besot behind and before. The social woo is articulated by multitudes who are broken in 'heart and hope. Darker and more inveterate still is the moral woe, the root of nearly all the ills that afflict the race. Think of the nations exhausted by fierce wars and groaning under a weight of armaments too grievous to be borne. Think of the countless shames and uncleanuesses that invade our public highways and destroy the sanctity of a myriad homes. Think of the miseries of intemperance, the desecration of the Lord’s Day, the callousness of prosperity, the dishonesty of trade. As we look at the weltering sea of worldliness and human misery, we are sometimes tempted to groan aloud and say, “Christ has come, but when cometh salvation.”

We must not groan but work. Not only true but profoundly pious was the famous rejoinder which Sir David Ramsay made to the somewhat vapid wish breathed by Lord Reay, “Well, God mend all.” “Nay,” answered Sir David, “but we must help Him to mend it.” Tho cause of God rests in our hands. Why it should bo so wo cannot tell, but so it is, and history is but one long proclamation of the truth that “God can never make man’s best without best man to help Him.” The best way is to begin with our own hearts. “If each before his own door swept, the village would be clean.” The life that is a response to the call of tho cross is the life that is going to promote tho highest interests of Christ’s Kingdom on earth. Men® are best reached and drawn to the platform of a diviner existence from tho altitude of some Calvary. It was because our Lord was a living example of litter unselfishness and absolute disinterestedness that His life possesses to-day an appeal which is all but irresistible. Men who cheer the name of Jesus sometimes hiss at the mention

of the Church, and we know why. It is because, deop in their hearts, they recognise that Christ and His cross stand for brotherhood, helpfulness, humanity, while they believo that many of those who bear the name of Jesus fail to follow, or follow falteringly, in His footprints. Christianity is never going to nrevail through eloquence or logic or literature alone. _ These are great and worthy auxiliaries to the advancement of tho faith, but people as a rule believe only when they sec the power of Christianity manifested in the conduct and character of those who profess to have come under its sway. This is a sceptical age, but to-day we all Jjclieve in- astronomy. And why? Not because wo have, everyone of us, read Sir Isaac Newton or Sir Robert Ball. Not because we havo been at pains to verify all the calculations and investigations and conclusions of astronomical science. No, but we sco in the Almanac or in tho newspaper that there is going to ho an eclipse of the moon or of the sun on a certain day and at a certain hour. Wo lift our eyes on high at the time appointed, and behold, to the very minute .a shadow begins to creep across tho white or golden disc. Wo go back to our beds or to our businesses having swallowed astronomy. We have seen, therefore have we believed. And people' will believe Christianity when they see it. There are few , who fail to feel the spell of an unselfish life. One has told how one night he happened to be a member of a small company standing before a crayon sketch of the late Father Damien, tho apostle of the lepers at Molokai. Their host had visited, him in tho scene of his labours and drawn him just as he was, when ministering in tho midst of tho sufferers and smitten himself with tho loathsome, deadly disease which finally cut short his noble life. There was no beauty, in the picture to the outward eye, any more than in the shambles of Calvary when Jesus was bleeding to death. But they all listened, solemn and subdued, while the artist described to them tho elfect of Father Damien’s personality and work upon him. To that artist, that devoted priest was a rovcaier of tho Eternal just because ho had broken through, and risen above the limitations and hindrances of earthlife by magnifying the love of God in sacrifice. That was tho secret at once of ins moral 1 dignity and of his spiritual power. Our Master taught us that the only truly blessed life is tho life that is thrown away, the life that has lost its self-interest in tho gladness and glory of self-sacrifice. Self-protection on narrow lines is self-destruction.

“We lose what on ourselves wo spend, We have as treasure without end, Whatever to our Lord wo lend.”

The response to the call of 4ho cross is the true secret of moral greatness. The men who have wrought tho mightiest deeds for tho Kingdom of Christ in this world and most deeply impressed their fellows have over been men who have said, “Come and lot our lives bo crucified in this cause; let us surrender ourselves to tho realisation of God’s purposes on the earth.” Tho difference between men, even men who are Christians, is just tho difference between passion. We sometimes glorify tho unimpassioned man, and think that wo are safe in trusting ourselves wholly to his guidance and judgment. God has never attained to that man’s height. God is infinitely passionate, and has always worked His mightiest works through impassioned men. One man is simply small because lie believes pleasantly in religion; another man is great because he -believes passionately in religion. Wo are to be as our Master on Whoso Spirit the edge of earnestness grew keener with every passing day. Christianity is just the over-increasing passion of Jesus for thg redemption and perfection of tho world.

is to be our response to Timst’s call to the Cross? From life to life Ho moves, saying, "Arise, let us go hence”; hence to the cross to share my sacrifice and travail of soul and to accomplish My triumph over hell and sin. Shall wo go? Be sure of this. That way lies manhood, that way lies womanhood, that way lies eternal blessedness.