"APPEAL OF THE WORLDLING"

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 118, 22 May 1939, Page 4

"APPEAL OF THE WORLDLING"

"The Appeal of the Worldling" was the subject on which the vicar (the Rev. G. M. McKenzie) preached at St. Michael and All Angels' Church, Kelburn, yesterday.

When Sennacherib, King of Assyria, halted his armies before the walls of Jerusalem, said Mr. McKenzie, he sent his Prime Minister forward to parley with the inhabitants concerning the surrender of the city. The story as told in Isaiah 36 revealed the Assyrian Prime Minister as a master of diplomacy. His speech was most clever in its attractive appeal. But the beleaguered garrison refused his terms.

The modern Rabshakehs, the Biblical title of the Assyrian Prime Minister, were the charming worldlings and the polished pagans of today. They were often more attractive than some religious people. Their appeal was just as attractive as the Rabshakeh's. It was generally to the effect that Christianity was old fashioned and out of date, note the kind of thing a wise man of the world would dream of associating himself with. Their appeal was for the Christian to free himself from the bonds of Christ and come out into the world of freedom.

The Christian, hearing this plea, would be wise to consider two truths: First, that, by answering the appeal, he would lose more than he would gain; and, secondly, that, charming as these modern Rabshakehs might be in fair weather, they were of no value whatever in times of stress and strain.

The modern Rabshakeh pictured the religious life as restricted, and the service of Christ as slavery. But the real truth was that the man who had no master w.as in bondage to himself, to his own passions and desires. The freedom of the Christless man was an illusion, as the modern sense of frustration so clearly revealed.

And in the day of trouble the modern Rabshakehs had no way of helping other than by practical kindnesses. They had no word for a broken heart or a sick mind. The pleasures of paganism might entice and dazzle, but the reality was disappointing.