FOR THE SABBATH.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 540, 8 February 1913, Page 3

FOR THE SABBATH.

I THE BISHOP OP LONDON ON j "SERVICE." In December the Bishop of London delivered the last of his three midday addresses in the Guildhall, Lon don, taking as his subject "Service."' His lordship's address was listened to with the deepest reverence through out. Before the Bishop began, the Bishop of Kensington, who again presided, announced that letters containing questions that had arisen during the addresses could be sent to the Bishop at London House. The Bishop then preceded with his address. There was nothing, he said, that we cherished and desired mure for ourselves and our children, than a sense of honour. That, he went on to show, had been proved all through history, and if Christians failed in a sense of honour they failed in the worst place. He found, for instance, whn he came across agnostics or unbelievers that they had turned away from the Church under the impression that she bad failed in some sense of honour. They had read history, or they had met the Christian in daily life who was less charitable and less honest than his neighbours. And were they not right to demand from the Christian Church a great sense of honour? There ought to be a glory about a Christian; there ought to be a generosity about his thought, and a loftiness about his motives. There were two reasons for that —first, because the Founder of our religion was, as an old Elizabethan writer said. "The best of men that ere wore earth about Him .... the first true

gentleman that ever breathed." The incarnation was produced by a senss of honour in the God head. Here was poor-formed man, but the Godhead had made him. What was to be done? He had fallen away, and, in obedience to the greatest sense of honour down'came the Eternal Son. The glory of perfect chivalry was as great as the glory of the Resurrection. "If that is the great example, if that is the start of the Christian Church, am I not right in saying that, in spite of all its faults, the Church of Jeeus uhrist has been the greatest school of honour the world has ever seen?" THE SENSE OF HONOUR. What were we going to do about it in our generation? Where did the sense of honour touch them most? First and most obviously in the City itself. All their splendid trade had | been built up on the sense of honour in the City. An Englishman's word was looked upon aB his bond in all quarters of the world. Thank God, he believed it was still the same today, yet the honour of England would only stand so long as the sense of hon our existed in the City. Passing on, the Bishop spoke of the duty of business men towards the boys; if they bad a sense of honour they had got to shield those boys. It was not enough for them to get up on a platform and denounce the White Slave trafficker. He was an unclean villain if they liked, and rightly flogged. But what about the men whose demand had brought about the traffic? What about the absolutely false teaching that certain sins of human nature must of necessity go on? "It is tha low moral tone of men which has produced the White Slave traffic, and the sense of honour compels us to take a totally different line from that which we have taken in the pa;t." And what about our country? "Whether or not Lord Roberts may be right in detail, I believe he is preaching as a true prophet to us about our duty to our country, and I should like to see men have a sense of honour to their country and at any rate do something." Then there was the responsibility for wealth—a man was not only responsible for the way he made his money, but also for the way in which he spent it. "I am not a Socialist in the ordinary sense, but we have never yet learned the thorough going nature of the doctrine of stewardship." The motto he would leave with them was "Christ in you, the hope of glory." That was the Christian religion—not "Christ died for you." That was only the start. Not Christ as an example that would make them despair. But "Christ in you"—that was hope. THE POWER OF GOD. The whole of the Acts is the story of God's power in the Church. Think of the belief of those early Christians in the Power of God. If we desire to see something done, there is first the ■ilence of those who feared God and after that there is first the silence of those who feared God and after that there is the Voice. Be silent before God, then go out to break up the silence that there is about God. Like the apostles at the beginning, we often think that if we have heard about him, and run out and tell it, the Kingdom will be restored at once, but God bids us wait to receive power, and then promises we shall become witnesses. The apostles were effectual witnesses; what they said came to pass, and the Power of God was seen. This was a mighty work, done by a mighty Power. The Kingdom of God came in power. They waited for the I Power, and the Power made them wit- I nesees and brought about that to which they bore witness. It is the same thing in every vain thing to keep up the rumour of Christ if God is not working with us in power and mighty works of conversion, making those live that were dead, making those spiritual that were carnal. This is what we mean by the Powsr of God unto salvation. We must be membera of a church which is always being recreated, coming down from heaven continually. It is for the sake of a real work that we must continually wait upon God in Bilence and patience. Only thus can the work of God be done." After tracing the power of the Spirit over the different functions of Christ's Body, the Church, the speaker closed with a few words about the order of things. "We are not to wait for the

vision of God till we are pure; the vision of God will make us clean. 'Whatsoever doth make manifest is light.' While the heart is darkened it is impure. If I see my spitefulness and sloth it i 3 because the light of Christ is in my heart shining in the darkness. The light of the sun actually builds; it makes actual what would not be there without it. So the Light of God's presence builds in us that which the Will of God desires. To end as we began. Let us make a new resolution to d«vote some time every day to God in silent prayer. If we can get no thoughts and make no meditation we must realise that then w« are coming into the silence. Try and bring to God prepared minds and hearts, not minds stuffed with trifling books, not brutalissd minds. God can make no music in such minds. Remember we cannot have two minds. True religion is but one life, and that lifn must be kept by God unto salvation. Rev. P. N. Waggett in St. Paul's Cathedral.