ON THE THRESHOLD OF SUNDAY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19864, 11 June 1927, Page 16 (Supplement)

ON THE THRESHOLD OF SUNDAY

(Contributed by tho Wanganui Ministers’ Association.) PRAYER. ———. I Our Father, wc thank Thee for all [ Thy past blessings to us. Wc would I remember all those that love Thee and I arc seeking to do Thy will. Wc pray j that Thy Church throughout all the I world may be quickened, made more faithful, and more like the Lord that dwells in it. And we beseech Thee that the witness of Thy people, and the work of all who are trying in any way to bless their fellows, may have Thy smile and Thy help. The Lord hear us, tho Lord forgive, the Lord answer and pity and bestow, through Jesus I Christ our Lord and Saviour. Amen. OBEDIENCE ' Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice.—l Sam. 1:22. | Obey, 1 beseech thee, lhe voice of j the Lord, which I speak unto thee so 1 it shall be well unto thee, and thy soul shall live.—J er. 38:20. . If ye love Me, keep My Commandments. — John 14:15. Seeing ye have purified your souls in ' obeying the truth through lhe Spirit ; unto unfeigned love of the brethren, i see that ye love one another with a 1 pure heart fervently. —I Pet. 1:22. Elect. . . unto obedience and sprink ling of the blood of Jesus Christ. —I Pet. 1:2. Blessed are they that do His Commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into Uie city. —Rev. 22:14. Be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiviug your own selves. —James 1:22. SINCERITY THE SUPREME TEST. Sometimes the writer thinks that sincerity has a greater depth and a loftier meaning than we often give it credit. A sincere try is the supreme test of a man. How often it happens that a man fails in some effort simply because he is not through and through sincere. He only half tried because of so many reasons. The insincere writer cannot hold his reader. The insincere preacher or teacher eventually fails. The sincere usually succeed. The improvement of our opportunities according to our abilities largely depends on our sincerity. Sincerity means loyalty, honesty, service. Service that is sincere has all the chief factors that go to make real cooperation, and my point is this: If you are not sincere in your heart, your insincerity -will show as plainly as a birthmark on your brow. No man is smart enough, clever enough to cover up insincerity. It will shine through his skin and show in his work. Even the atmosphere about the insincere man resembles a mist, can see the clouds even though you cannot feel the rain. The moment a man shows he is not sincere, that moment he is a menace to any organisa ion. The joy unshared loses half its sweetness, and the grief borne alone doubles its bitterness. We were not meant for solitude but for sharing, and when we are enjoined to love our neighbour, it i. for self-preservation as well as fir helpfulness. It was a wise man who contended that theje is no such thing as bad weather —there are only different kinds of good weather. The hot days and the stormy days, the rains, the winds, tho snows, all have their purpose; and it is always a good purpose. THE VALUE OF CONVICTION IN OUR LIVES. The man who is sure has an invariable advantage over the man palsied by uncertainty. Certitude is strength. Doubt, whether in the form of shiftiness or hesitation, means weakness. Men withhold their trust from the waverer both in the world of politics and of religion. But when we deplore the lack of conviction as a feature peculiar to our day we are not always at pains to observe that this is not so much a disease as the symptom of one. We have overstrained the critical faculty. Wc have proved that it is not always easy to be at once analytic and reverent. Seldom do the botanist and the poet dwell in the same skin. And it is near the truth to say that the modern attitude to religion has mostly been that of the botanist; analysis, dissection, and classification have elbowed out ihe art of appreciation. Or, take prayer. With all the preciseness of a chemist have we resolved prayer into its component parts. But analysis is not the thing by which men live. They

strike to the heart of things who rather say, “We believe, and are sure, that Thou are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Opinions we have in plenty; it is conviction we need. Between them is a great gulf fixed. We form our opinions; conviction is born from above. Opinion skims the surface of the conventional;, conviction will plough its way through the beating waves of opposition. Opinion is a calculating trimmer; conviction in loyalty to the truth scorns consequences. Opinion will stand talking; conviction strangely silent will move on to high ends. . For ihese reasons, we are unmoved by opinion; we listen, and pass. But conviction is always authoritative; it bends us to obedience. The “sure” man is he who in lhe end arrives. Possibly we began life with a fair number of convictions. To our surprise these tend to grow fewer, but those that remain go deeper. Wc hold them with a great tenacity—nay, they hold us. Experience has taught us how to distinguish, for example, between arrogance, tradition, prejudice, and conviction. We cpmo to know pride in its various disguises, and if we be learners in Christ’s school, wo discover tho futility of setting self-interest first. It is truth alone that holds the right of way of life. Some men are “impossible” for uo other reason than that they have never outgrown early tradition or their childish prejudice; they arc not enough in earnest to follow fresh light, or to stretch forth their soul towards fresh light, or to submit their ways of thinking and living to the tests of the Master. Conviction comes, therefore, by the magnifying of our certainties. Built into the very structure of life arc some supreme facts—the redeeming purpose of God, the difference which Christ has made, the beauty of holiness, tho inward light, and the final triumph of good. We must make much of these, build upon these, rest the whole weight o£ L'fe upon these. When certainties such as these grip a man, his is a kingdom that cannot be moved. These abide the stress of life as no quicksand of sentiment or quagmire of feeling ever can. The value of conviction reveals itself in the unity, the purpose, and the power of the man. If conviction is to grow, we must, however, yield unquestioningly obedience to the demands whien the assurrance of these certainties may make. Nothing so loosens the constraints of conviction as hesitation or disloyalty within the soul. He who keeps anything ba« k gt tries for some compromise has already made sacrifices he cannot afford; the bands of truth are weakened. We have to seek out with patience the implications of our dedication, and t<» fail them not, if we would daily become more sure of God and realise the full significance of life. —The