Sunday at Home.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 5, 29 April 1893, Page 5

Sunday at Home.

Following the example of Lloyd’s Newspaper, London, we purpose giving each week a sermon, not exceeding 500 words in length, specially written for readers of The Southeen Ceoss. This, we believe, will prove a welcome feature, particularly in outlying districts, where religious services can only be held at considerable intervals, :and we shall be glad, to receive the co-operation of ministers throughout the colony in carrying out the experiment. Sermons will be published in he order in which they are received. CHRIST IN THE WORLD. (By the Rev. F. W. Martin, Curate of All Saints’, Gladstone.)

“ And, 10l I am with you always, even unto the end of the. world.”—St. Matthew, XXVIII, 20.

As at that time, during the forty days before His Ascension, our Lord spoke to His Apostles “ things concerning the Kingdom of Cod,” or, in other words, the Christian church, one thing* among others he impressed upon them—though he was to ascend to the Father, yet His presence should abide with them. There would be a hidden, yet very real and abiding, presence of Himself. Certain tokens of that presence are indicated. There is the Church. The Gospels pourtray our Lord as sowing the seed of truth which was to germinate and grow into the most powerful regenerative influence which the world has ever seen. But while the seed was sown broadcast among the crowds which flocked to hear Him, another line of work was going on side by side with the sowing. A small band of picked disciples was chosen. Them He organised into a church. To that church He committed the Faith to be kept, guarded, and carried to every SOU.I upon earth. That church, consisting of ministers and faithful people, is, we are told by one of the Epistles, the visible manifestation of Christ’s presence amongst men. As His material body, while on earth, was the vehicle of His mind and spirit, so the church is now the vehicle through which His bidden life operates on the souls of men for their salvation —so much so that no man can properly be called a Christian until he become a member of that body of the Lord, and no man can be a good Christian without making a constant use of the sacraments and aids which the Church, as a good mother, has provided to nourish and sustain the souls of men on their way to eternal life.

Again, lie has promised a special and very real presence of Himself in the Eucharist. The elements of bread and wine are tokens' and instruments of the presence of His body and blood. One of the homilies assures us that “ the Sacrament is no vain ceremony, no bare sign, no untrue figure of a thing absent, but the Lord is verily present in it.” Further, the presence of our Lord is consciously realised by those whose lives are ruled by love of Him, and faith in His power to aid. Men do not do what is right because they know what right is. The man who tries to practice what he knows, finds in time that this is not possible if he forgets the presence of His Saviour. That presence becomes to Him the breath of life—he lives in a state of perpetual prayer and dependence upon God; and he finds that he leans on no broken reed.

This sense of the Divine presence in devotions, in sacraments, and in daily life gives man energy to cultivate practical goodness. The lie is stifled in the birth, low desires wither and drop off, and warm affections, tender charity, and buoyant confidence are diffused through his being.