Sunday at Home.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 11, 10 June 1893, Page 10

Sunday at Home.

GOD’S SEARCH FOR MEN. (By the Bev. Rutherford Waddell, Dunedin.) “ Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him and he with me.” .—Bev. iii. '2O. We know this old picture. It is the picture of a patient waiter at the door of our life —at all its doors—asking to be allowed to come in. We know who it is. It is Christ —it is God. The opportunities of life present themselves to us under two aspects. They are either a search or am offer. In the former aspect we go out to look for them. In the latter they come out to look for us. The lower things belong to the former—money, position, power, etc. Thdse must be run after and wrestled with. But the best things are not got in this way. Love, peace, pardon, beauty, joy—these things are waiting for us. They have come out to seek us. They are knocking for admission at the door of our life. How many things have thus been knocking ? Steam, electricity, etc. —nobody created these. They were waiting in Nature to be discovered. Century after century they had knocked and nobody heard or heeded. At last a Franklin or an Edison did—they opened the door and went through into a wonderland. So it is with other truths in the mental, social, political world. Here and there a man or woman hears and heeds. They open the door and step out into the front rank of merchants, statesmen, patriots, and reformers. So it is also in the religious sphere. What, indeed, are all these the or truths but revelations of the mind and. will of God ? They are the movements of thought —the habits of His action. And God Himself, this great, majestic, all-loving Eternal But the great, plunging, inexorable forces of Father —He comes to man’s heart and knocks. Nature frightened man. Sin had dulled his sensibilities. He was afraid of this terrible incomprehensible Power that manifested itselfin Nature only. And then God gathered himself into a human form. The Word was made Flesh. He comes in winsome, wellknown guise. In Chi’ist He lifts Himself before us, and says—“ Behold I stand at the door and knock.” So you see we do not discover God. God discovers us. We do not find Him out. He finds us out. That is the difference between our Scriptures and all other Scriptures. The latter are the infinitely pathetic record of man’s search for God ; ours are the equally pathetic record of God’s search for men. But the difference is immense. That is the point, then. Jus t as Nature, which is only another word for God in certain aspects of His character, has stood with all her forces waiting for discovery and admission into man’s thoughts and life, so God comes in Christ and waits with all the blessings He brings. “ Behold,” etc. Yes, he waits. He will not —shall we say cannot? —force an entrance. That would be to do dishonour to the free-will which makes man what he is. He waits. Oh i lovely attitude ! He stands With melting heart and laden hands. Oh matchless kindness! and he shows Such matchless kindness to his foes.” “With laden hands.” What does He bring? “If any man opens,’’etc. There it is. It is the union and communion of man and God. That is what the world has always been seeking for. That is the inner meaning of all its rites and ritual, of all its strange religions, of all its sacrifices and altars, It is the effort of the lost child trying to find its way home to its Father, If that be so, how natural it makes Jesus Christ. How reasonable the Incarnation. God and man belong to each other, as Father aud child. It is the separation, and not the union, that is monstrous, miraculous, unnatural. And | Jesus is this consummated union in Himself. He promises it also to whoever will open to Him. He and His Father will come unto him and make their abode with him. And what are the contents of this union ? Open your concordance, and run your eye down i the words “receive” and “received.”) “ Zaccheus received Him,” “ many received 1 Him,” “they willingly received Him,” “ as 1 many as received him.” See what follows } to these, or turn to the great classic instance j of this. It is His last night with His dis- j ciples. He is in the upper room. They have j got it ready for His reception. See what , follows. “Jesus makes His will.” Bead it J in John’s gospel—those three wonderful chapters. He comes. What docs he bring with him there ? He brings the expulsion of Judas Judas, typo of the low, vulgar, worldly, self-seeking spirit. He brings the j Cross, but on it now the Crown. He brings peace. He brings forgiveness—the Father- j hood of God. Home the eternal Home, j The promise of the spirit—Victory. “Bo Of i good cheer. I have overcome the world,” j etc. I

This is the hint of what is theirs who open the door to Christ- But it must be opened wide. There are some people we do not admit beyond the threshold of our homes ; some only into the kitchen; some only into the drawing-room, and some—a select few—have the run of the whole house and our hearts as well. Christ wants that —He deserves that. We cannot know all His blessings unless we give that. It is because we do not, it is because we have reserves from Him that we have doubts of his riches, suspicion of His power to do what He promises. “Behold!” etc. “ Sovereign of souls, thou Prince of Peace! Oh may thy gentle reign increase. Throw wide the door, each willing mind, And be thine empire all mankind.”