"BEHOLD, I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW"

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 119, 5 June 1937, Page 15

"BEHOLD, I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW"

(By J. A. Patten, in "The Bible in the World.") Many years ago in my undergraduate days in Edinburgh I went to hear Dr. George Matheson, the blind poetpreaeher. I had read most of his books with pleasure and prolit, and the opportunity of seeing him in the flesh and listening to a sermon from his lips was too good to be inissed. Most of the sermons we hear are soon forgotten, but that need not discourage eitker preacher or hearer. We forget what we have eaten, yet our meals maintain bodilv health and strengfch— so We forget most Of the sermons we heat Sunday by Sunday, but for all that they may nouriah our spiritual life. However that may "be, I remember the text and the mam idea of George Matheson 's sermon. Preaching from the passages: "There is no new thing under the sun," and "Behold, I make all things new," he drew in h'is own vivid and poetic way the contrast between them, and declared that it is love which makes all things new. When we learn to love Jesus Christ all things become new, and with a wealth of illustration the poet-preacher drove home the fact that love transfigures everything. A short time afterward George Matheson died, and I learned later from his biography that this was the last sermon he preaehed. All afresh! That is how we shall see life and everything in it when we look out upon it througk eyes of love. All afresh! The love of Christ will make all things new in the Ame. When all is said and done it is our home life that matters most. lf we iail there we fail everywhere. The home us the primary battleground of the soul. IJnless we learn to show the spirit oi love, which is the spirit of Christ, among those who are nearest to us, no amount of religious work or public ser vice will be of any avail. Truly charity begins at home. Moreover, it is at home that we gather inspiration and strengtk for all other service. Principai Rainey, on being asked how he ruanaged to get through so much work, replied, "I am happy at home." It may be that we have failed somewhat in this matter. We may not have shown ourselves as considerate as we might have done, or perkaps we have sometimes been lacking in helpfulness and kindness. We may not always have contributed to the home our fuil share of cheerfulness and good humour. Be that as it may, we may see our homes and the possi bilities of home life all afresh through the eyes of love. Have we not the Divine promise: "Behold, I make all things new"f "All afresh! Love will make all tkings new in the service we seek to do for God and our fellow-men. In the tlwrteenth chapter of first Corinthians at. Paul utters a grave warniug against trying to work for God with a cold heart. Eloquent speeck, religious knowledge, generosity to the poor, unwavering faith, self-seeralice — all these .excellent qualities will avail nothing unless they have behind them a loving heart. ,Lt may be eometlung of a shocit to us to d'iscover that many of our religious obligations are performed out o4 a 'sense of duty, or merely in conformity with habits forined in earlier years; yet is it not so! We go to chureh Sunday by Sunday — but why? We may go because we tkink we ought to do so; or as ari example to our families and neighbours; or because we get good from the services; or because we like the niusic; or because we have noth'lug better to do. But how many of us go beca-use the love of God burns so warmly iu our liearts that we cannot but go to His House to worship and to adore His holv Name? How many of us can repeat the Psalmist's cry with the PsalmistJs passionate sincerity: "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go unto the house of the Lord"! If those of us who do go to churck go tliitker with hearts aglow with the love of Christ many of our services would be transformed. The same ds true of much of our religious and social work. We have good intentions; we bring to it our best gifts; and we are conscientious in all that we do. But we have lost our flrst love, and we carry on as a matter of routine. How active we all are! How many organisations there are connected with ouf churches How many faithful vvorkers there are! But we become perfunetory and do our work for God joylessly, Let us see our work all afresh, and may at be baptised in the love wherewith Christ hath loved usl All afresh! Love will make all things new m the Bible. We read it, of course; we accept it as the Word of God; we delight in the beauty of its language. its reach bf thought and imagination, its dramatic development, dts wide appeal, its tenderness and its comfort, but for all that our Bible reading may be a matter of habit and little more. There is no greater anomaly than this, that we who pray and work that the Word of God may be handed on to otbers do not always iind in if for ourselves the deepest satisfaction and joy. If we have lost our joy in the Bible. liovv may we recover it? To put dt iu a word, we shall rediscover tho preciousness of ihe Bible as our love for Christ flumes up agaiu in our hearte. We shall bend over tho pages of the Gospel witb a new eagerness when our love for the Christ of the Gospols is reborn witlrin us, for we shall scan every lino of il to see more clearly in the sacred page the face and form of our Master, Friend and Saviour. Would we see the B'ible all afresh? We may do so as we claim the Divine promise; "Behold. 1 make all things new." i _____