SUNDAY READING.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3988, 3 May 1884, Page 5 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING.

SERMON BY THE REV. J. J. LEWIS Daniel, 4 eh., 37 ver.—"Now I, Nebuehad

nezzar, praise und extol and honor the King of Heaven, and whose works are truth, and his ways judgment:. and those that walk in pride he is able to abase."

Ancient history has hardly a name to surpass that of Nebuchadnezzar, in the prowess of his arms, the extent of' his conquests, and the glory of his kingdom. The son of him who, by throwing off the Assyrian yoke, established the Babylonian kingdom. From his early manhood he knew the brunt of battle. The whole of the Kast trembled before his power. Military success abroad was followed by lavish expenditure at heme. The royal city was rebuilt, with massive walls and stronger fortifications, the palace with its hanging garden, with the aqueducts, the crowded quays of the river, and the temple with its towering structure, "Babylon became the wonder of the world. In tracing this remarkable career we havo no difficulty in pointing out the leading features of tho King — ambition was the ruling passion, That thirst for power that has cost mankind FO many millions of lives, that has blotted the fairest scenes of nature, and has wrecked so many peaceful lives, hero reigned supreme. What richer soil could earth afford ? What throne more venerable than the realm bequeathed by his father? Luxuriousness is there seen in the splendor of his capital city, and in the costly pleasures of his home.': All that art and industry could afford were at the command' of the monarch, and, added tp a warm climate and a fruitful soil, these gave scope for the vices which soon gained the upper hand. When the New Testament pointed to some doomed city, it points to a second Babylon. Sensuous excess, pomp, and pompousness were all fostered by the regal example. In the heyday of his prosperity Nebuchadnezzar is troubled with a strango dream. He beholds a tree growing till it reaches the clouds, its branches afford shelter to the cattle and are homes to the birds. - Now it is that holy watcher descending from heaven commands that tho tree shall be "cut down, that it shall be despoiled of its living branches and fruit, but that the stump shall be left enclosed in a ring of iron and brass. The angel now passes to a directly personal application that well might, have terrified tho lung- Let his portion be with the beasts, and let tho beast hard by give unto him, and let seven times pass over him. In vain are the magicians and tho astrologers of Chaldea appealed to for an interpretation. But at last Daniel makes the matter clear. Soon, however, the dreamer's own crushed spirit experiences what is meant more fully than any langaage could unfold. Yet, see, before we pass on to that terrible visitation, how long suffering God is in dealing with the sinner, and bow many ways He tries in

order to win him from hie transgression, Themanwhowastobeconspieubusasanobject of Divine chaetisement at first was specially favored by revelations of G6d's goodness and His power. When the three: Hebrews refused to bow down to the image, and were cast into tho burning fiery furnace/Nebuchadnezzar saw them delivered by the God of Israel without bo much as the etnell of fire on their persons; and now, when this strange dream- has been expounded, tho fearless prophet goes on to'say, " Therefore, O King, let my counsel "be acceptable to thee, break off thy sins by righteousness, by showing mercy to the poor; if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity"."'., But arrogance has struck too . deep a root* to bo cast out by such gentle remedies! The man who despises the word of God will have.to writhe beneath the providence of God. If we will not kiss the sceptre we must feel the rod. It is a fearful thing' to fall into tho hands of the living God, for our God is a consuming fire. About twelve months after this remarkable . warning" tho king is seen walking on the wall of his palace, and says, "Is not this great Babylon this I have built, for the house of the king, for the might of tny power, and the honor of my majesty."; The judgment was swift and sharp. Wb'e the word was in the king's mouth,.there, fell -a voice from Heaven,' .-saying, ~".0,; king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is;; spoken, the kingdom is departed from thee,. and they shall drive thee from men, and. thy dwelling shall be witli the beasts of the field ; they shall make thee eat grass as oxen, ..and seven times :shall pass over,; until thou knowest that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and gireth it to whomsoever he will." In like manner, when: on a certain public occasion the cry was raised by tho courtiers of Herod, it is the voice of a God and not of a man, the angel of the Lord sinoto him that lie died. .'. The peculiar form of madness was known in the South of France as lately as the sixteenth century. When this widespread epidemic occurred they thought themselves wolves, they forsook their homes, and prowled through the forests, making hideous noises, and in their cannibal thirst taking the lives of children, and feasted on their flesh. Well, now, this was a sad deplorable plight for tho greatest of ancient kings to be found in—to go from the throne to the cattle, to have his nails grow long like the birds' claws, and his. matted and neglected hair like the birds' feathers. .And yet Nebuchadnezzar, an outcast from man, was a more enviable man Nebuchadnezzar £ on his throne. In the latter case ho was the eporb of a fancied prosperity, but in the other ho was a chastened soul under the searching discipline of the mosti High.., ; . A man is never nearer to eternal blessedness than when, wearied of earth, he lifts up his hand to God. "-At. the end. of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar,.'-lifted :i my., eyes to Heaven, and mine understanding returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored Him that liveth for ever and ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom is from generation to generation." What a contrast. Instead of pointing to the great Babylon that I have built, and to tho glery that I have achieved, and to my personal and remarkable qualities, there -is-now reverent submission to God as the great disposer' of'events, to whom all praise is dre, and with the return of reason there comes the restoration of the kingdom with .-'ll former power, and far greater happiness.and peace. Now, every unconverted person is the victim of a soul destructive pride, if you come to search into their experience. There are men favored 'siich a measure of' physical"health and strength, the tone of whose nervous system is so good, whoso appetite is so keen, whose capacity for work is so marked, that they .fear no danger. There are others who, weak in body, are so richly endowed in mind, so ready in resource, so far-seoing in their calculation, and so well balanced in their judgment, that they feel equal to any deetroyer that tliey^niay . have to encounter. And there are others who pride themselves neither in body nor in mind, but who have all liinda of good resolves and are looking forward to a fool's paradise in the future. There are others who pride themselves lose on any thing personal than what they have acquired. A man may be as proud of his quarter acre section as Nebuchadnezzar was of his kingdom. A man may even .be.proud of liis poverty. There are those who.-have not succeeded in bringing together material possessions, and seem to think it a virtue that they have not attained to such. There are those who have their thousands at the bunk, who have their well-furnished dwellings, and their scrupulously laded tables, and their well spread social influences, who point to all these as the result of their unaided exertion." It is ' their Babylon they have built. There is no recognition of a higher, power than theirs in the work that has been done, the liberty gained, the many great reforms that have been effected. When a man gets into that state of mind, when his bodily strength or mental resources, his possessions or his poverty, his deeds or his self-sacrifice become the ground of his confidence, he is nigh to his ruin, for pride eoelh before a full. It is a mercy that so often the favored of God is brought suddenly low. It may be that in bodily disease, when the brain is racked by pain, when the lung wastes, when the feverish hue is seen upon the cheelc, when the breath becomes labored, that the strong man learns his weakness and cries to God for succour. Sometimes, it is the saddest of all personal afflictions — a failure of the mind—that leads the great thinker and proud scholar to know that ho too must call to God for aid ; he learns that God has not been in all his thoughts, and he sees that God is waiting to receive him. The king had only to bow before the sceptre and be restored, f-o lie has only to make a humble and heartfelt acknowledgment of sin, and to lay hold of tho hope sot before him, in order to rise into the favor of hia God, When the prodigal in the far country came to himself he found that lie had been a vagabond. He thought his happiness la} , in worldly pleasure, that his manhood could be proved by forsaking his father's house, and running to riot amid his dissipated companions. When he came to bimself ho found he was far from former blessedness, and ho reflected how many hired servants of his father had bread enough and to spaio while hero was lie perishing from want, and then, with the New Testament adaptation of the sentiments of the restored king, he said, " I will return and go to my father. . Coming back to God means not merely his knDwledge with the consciousness of former madness, but it means the turning from every evil way and the laying of body, soul, and spirit on tho altar that sanctifieth the gift.' When we ijthus come back, we have the encouragement of knowing as tho king declares, that all the works of the King of Heaven are true. But, as the king reminds us, He is not only a God whose works are true, but One whose ways, are judgment. He will not tolerate insincerity. It is not enough to have a good feeling in' the Sabbath morning service, there must be a manliness in tho store or cricket field on tho Monday morning or tho Saturday evening. There must not only be a willingness to join in tho hymns of praise, but there must be a willingness to confess ourselves on the Lord's side. There must bo a readiness to say Christ is our Saviour. Thcro must be that self-sacrifice which will enable us, according to the means God has given, to help foward hia cause on_earth, and when there is this, thorough yielding up of ourselves to God, we shall find that He is not only true in all his works, that Ho is not only just in ways, but that His nature, like His is love. Ho sympathises with the sufferers, ne draws near to you now that you are bowed down and anxious and woary, in order, to give you rest, He helps the fevered, He will confirm every good desire, He will give you"the victory over every temptation, you will be more than a conqueror through Him who hath. lbVed you.