CENSUS SUNDAY.

Shannon News, 26 August 1924, Page 4

CENSUS SUNDAY.

A TIMELY SERMON. (By Rev. W. Talbpt Hindley, M.A.) Text: “The Lord shall count when He writeth up the peoples. This one', was born there.”— Psalm lxxxvii, 6. R.V. „ . Every one who is among the living at mid-night in England and Scotland and Wales, must be written down and registered. So the decree has gone forth. A small official paper has been lying for the last .few days in oui houses, containing questions more or 'less pleasing, and which will be called for in due course. The whole nation is to be reckoned in one day. Swift messengers will pass from door to door, will penetrate amongst the dens e maisses of our manufacturing centres, and within twenty-four hours will obtain a record of every living soul,,namo, age, birthplace!, relationship, and employmdSt. In one day there will be taken, as by instantaneous photography, a picture of our nation. What a mass of information will be piled up on this Census Sunday! What a variety of facts will be laid open to view! If it were possible only for anyone just at a glance to read all those records, and not only to read them, but read between the lines,' and to know the experiences of those who had filled them up,—what evidences of joy and sorrow, of wealth and poverty, of honour and shame would bo disclosed; The First Such Census, in any country was taken just over a century ago, and every ten years Since, lan ©numeration ,'of our population has been effected. Why such a census is taken is not a difficult question to answer. It is not, of course, being" taken out of mere idle curiosity. All the facts made known by it are to be treated as confidential. It has no connection with rates and taxes, it is not to lead to conscription, as in some other countries; nobody has anything to dread from th e inquiries. Yet a correct census is of great importance to all classes. It is one of the means a nation employs to acquire a knowledge of itself. It is a sort of national stocktaking. We shall krVrvv by it whether our villages and towns are decreasing, in numbers or not; what is the relative strength of the ’agricultural, the manufacturing, the mercantile, the maritime, and mining interests of the country. We shall learn from it whether pauperism and crime have increased or otherwise during th e last decade, what are the educational needs of the country, and what the food requirements still are. But, brethren, I want to turn your thoughts from the earthly census to the heavenly, to the. Great Census Paper of Eternity, to tjie time when the Lord shall write up the people. There is another, kingdom and another census, and I want you to think how you stand related to that. I want you, as you look at your census paper, to let it preach to you. Our first thought shall be how many changes have taken place since the last census ten years ago. There are few families in which these ten years have not made a change. Some names are missing that'were written down then. What changes, too, in yourselves. You are ten years older than you were at the last census, ten years nearer eternity. Have you got in that decade nearer to God? What does the All-seeing Eye see in your house? Is it a house where He is honoured, a house of prayer? What does God see in your own conduct? This may be the last census paper in which your name will appear, is it not well to stay and ask yourself whether your ways are right before God, or whether you are still careless and trifling Remember God’s all-seeing ey e goes. Where No Census Officer Can Go It pierces into the very secrets of the heart. What changes there have been in these ten years! This fact has been touchingly alluded to in some lines written by an author whose writings are familiar to many:

“My wife and I together sit, The pen beside me lies; .Upon the census sheet are fixed Th e children’s curious eyes. And o’er my heart and brain there v rolls A flood of memories.

“Ten years since last I filled it up. What changes they have wrought! Small, wonder that I pause awhile And lose myself in thought Of all the mingling joy and pain Those circling years have brought,

“But as I lay the pen aside The mother looks at me, And points her trembling finger whero Our loved boy’s name should be; . While in her sorrow-laden eyes The blinding tears I see.

“Charlie, my dearest and my best! Beneath the sun-scorched sod Of that far-distant battlefield That once you bravely trod, You lie and slumber, and your soul Is with your country’s God.”

So it is, there will be some missing from the list we shall send in, whose names were written down when that vast register, the nation’s book of life, was last made up. We are spared to take part in another decennial census- The duties of the living, therefore, devolve upon us. “The living, he shall praise Thee.”

Yes, we have passed through many trials, many dangers, and with some of us there has often been but a step between us and death; but through God’s goodness we are to-day among the living; so let us pay our tribute of praise and thanksgiving.

Amongst the Jews of old, ■ when their census was taken (see Exod. xxx.), every male of twenty-years old and upwards was called to pay a half shekel (about 1/3 i in English money) as a reminder that he owned his life and its preservation to God’s mercy. God’s people of old did not offer words only, these are very cheap; they marked their census by giving of their substance. In this we may wol! copy them.

But, may we no't- ■with advantage turn our thoughts from the earthly

to the heavenly census? We may well find some points of comparison. The Readings of the different columns, for example, how suggestive they are! What Age Last Birthday?

Where born? What rank, profession or occupation? But I will restrict myself to one question, What, relation to the head of the family? The Head of the family, spiritually, is the Lord Jesus Christ. God gave Him to be Head over all things to the Church. None on earth can claim to be the Head of the spiritual family; but you may be related to Him. You may, every one of you, claim to be either brother or sister to the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to these words which fell from His own gracious lips. “Whosoever shall do the will of My Father which is in heaven, the same is My brother, My sister.” Yes, my young brother, my sister, you may be lin such relationship to the Lord Jesus. I speak to some young man who is ' battling with some fierce temptation. To-day you feel strong, but to-morrow your Sunday resolutions will desert you. What will your companions say if you don’t join them? How are you to face them and yet play the Christian? The fact that you will find a Brother in Christ, if you but seek to do God’s will, will strengthen and enable you. 1 speak to some young woman whose life is a quiet and even round, of common homely things. You sigh sometimes for a wider sphere, for a ‘ great life like some woman whose name you know; but if this life, with its little homely duties, be God’s purpose for you, then be assured that in your small corner, your unobserved, simple woman’s lot is very near to - Him who said, “Whosoever doeth the will of My Father, the same is ‘My sister.” Are you a brother or a sister of Jesus Christ? Then, as Romans viii. teaches, you are also a child of God, a son or daughter of the Most High God. What lofty rank! Yes; but read some of the other lines under that column. __ “State whether son, daughter, boarder, or visitor.” There will be a g'reat manywritten down on the paper as no relation to the head of the family, but simply a visitor. The friend who is staying with you to-day, although she may be loved by all the family, and

is never happier than when staying

at your house, is. only a visitor, and must he certified as such. Men and brethren, is it likely that some of you when you fill up the census paper for eternity, when the King of kings calls for it, will have to’ answer, “Only a Visitor,”

a sojourner amongst them, a boarder constantly with God’s people, friendly with them, but having no vital union with the great Head of the house? “Except a man b e born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God t ” My brethren, whose names will be

found written when the Lord writeth up the people? The name of every true' believer, of every man who has fied to the Cross for refuge, who has_ stretched out his finger to touch the hem of Christ’s garment, shall be found there, as much as the mightiest of the prophets, or the greatest of the japostles. The name of the poorest, if only he be. rich in faith, will be found there.

The census pa,per has been sent to

the poor in the slums, as well as to the rich in his mansion; to the beggar as to the peer. The weakest as well as the poorest shall be found thei'e. The name of that man’s daughter will not be omitted because on account of some spinal complaint she can scarcely sit upright. Her name will be put down as well as that of the stalwart son. The Infant Child Finds a Place .

there, as well as the full-krown man. So you, whose faith is as but a grain of mustard seed, you who are so often cast down and wretched because of your unworthiness; yet, if Christ be thine, if thou canst stretch thine hand out now and say:

“My soul would lay her hand On. that dear head of Thine; Whilst like a penitent I stand And there confess my sin.”

you need not fear but that among the blood-bought you shall find a place. But, ah, my soul! wilt thou be there? Pass the question round, and let each one of you put yourself into the balances, with this as the test: What thinkest thou of Christ? Is He thine only hope? Dost thou find cleansing in the blood, healing in His wounds, life in His death? If so, it shall he said. “This man was born there.” “This man.” Dear friends, in the great census of God nothing signifies but that which is personal. “This man,” It is not plural. Not this nation, or this church, or this family, but one by' one each man’s name, either written there or left out. The Vital Question, in the great day will be, “Did that man ever pass from darkness to light? Was that heart ever turned from stone to flesh? Were those ears ever opened to hear the Divine call? Did those eyes ever look in faith upon the crucified One? Was there ever a real and unmistakable change in that man’s life, so that old things passed away?” If not in the golden roll of the redeemed our names can have no I place. “The Lord shall count, when He writeth up the peoples, This one was born there.” Will you and I be among those registered in the census paper of eternity? May God grant us all grace to make sure that our names are written in tho Lamb’s Book of Life, for then our position as citizens of His heavenly kingdom is assured, through the blood of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us.—Amen.