WESLEYAN CHURCH.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 7606, 2 November 1903, Page 3

WESLEYAN CHURCH.

The Eev. D. J. Murray preached- last evening at the Wesleyan Church. He selected his text from St. Luke's Gospel, XXII. chap., 31 and 82 verses: " And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not, and when thou art converted strengthen thy brethren." The preacher said sooner or later every man has to undergo a sifting process. There is for every one of us a process of temptation and trial, and for many of us failure and fall. You know tho story of Peter's humiliation and shame. We may have been with him there again and again, and I want you to-uight to look through the failure and fall, and see how the Saviour's nature unfolds itself to Peter, and also to those who fall like Peter. " I have prayed for thee." Why for Peter rather than for the others? Because he was steady and grave and above suspicion ? No; but because he was unsteady and fickle and notoriously reckless. What a comfort it is to sonic of us, said Mr Murray, that tho mercy of Christ abounds in the quality of discrimination, adapting itself to man's needs, and floys according to the measuro of those needs. There is a law of Nature, I believe, by which a broken branch or bruised flower draws tho necessary healing from the atmosphere. The sun, and wind, und dew, and rain, become physicians to it, and perform their free and unwearied ministries of lovo and healing. So of Jesus Christ in the moral world. Whenever you find a man wretched and broken in his hopes, or a woman fallen and crushed, or a soul struggling and wrestling with temptation and threatened failure, there Christ jis. In thought, not a few reverse this law, and act as if they believed that the consistent Christians monopolised that attention and favour of Christ to the exclusion of the delinquents. But, said the preacher, I want you to feel that the Mercy of God is full of discrimination in tho time and measuro of its outgoing. God never leaves those who are in alliance with Him to fight their battles alone. The Saviour sees, as He saw in Peter's case, how you are tried, and He remembers you in His prayer, and the prayer of Christ is worth more to as man than weapons of steel, or an armour of brass. The living and dying, the weak and the strong, share equally in the discrimina- j tion of His Mercy. To the weakest shall come the most strength, to tbe rashest the most control, to the neediest the most provision, and to the guiltiest the most abundant pardon. Ido not, said Mr Murray, know how often or how far you may have fallen. Ido not even want to know. I only know that Christ singles out from all His disciples you who are most tempted and liable to fall, and coming down to you, He fixes His eye of love upon you, and says " I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not," and all I ask of you to-night is that you shall remember this, and go from this Church girded and braced with the thought that Christ has not cast you off because of your sin ; but that He sees all your weakness and liability to fall, and singles you out from us all, that he may put His arms of loving restraint around you, and will continue to do so till the last temptation shall be overcome. Continuing his very helpful sermon, the preacher said, let me call your attention to the last clause of the text, "When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren." Now, if there is a class of men from whom the Church* does not expect strength, it is from that class known as back-slidera. And if the mercy of God was like the charity of men, who of us would find forgiveness ? If Peter had been a modern Church member, very slight chance would have been his, after that exhibition of himself in the court-yard. And yet there was a great deal of noble selfdenying, soul-saving work in Peter after his terrible lapse from his Master, as you all know. And. this Christ saw, for He laid a solemn charge upon him in these words: " When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." And in saying this Christ set forth one of the greatest principles known to tho student o f moral forces —viz., that all instruction and warning in spiritual matters must be based on knowledge and experience. And this law holds good through all grades of experience, and none might be so useful to society and the Church as those who havo fallen, and by their falling gained the right to speak intelligent words of counsel and warning to others. This thought was finely and forcefully illustrated, and Mr Murray concluded his sermon by saying: God lays a mission, therefore, on all of you who, by sad experience, know tho weakness of your nature and His readiness to forgive. Forget your past; your repentance and God's mercy has covered and changed it. Go, then, in God's name, and teach transgressors God's ways, and sinners shall still be converted, and your brethren strengthened and saved.