SUNDAY COLUMN.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 19, 14 September 1912, Page 8

SUNDAY COLUMN.

ONE-SIDEDNESS. "Ephraim is a cake not turned" Hosea , 7:8. (Meditation by the Rev. W. Unsworth.) How many people ftre like that, merely baked on one side, broad only half-baked, not thorough, not complete, not perfect, simply half-and-half in all their methods and measures in life. One-sided in thought, speech, and action. Defective in all their works and ways among men. Unsatisfactory and badly baked, doing all by halves, and spoiling every enterprise they undertake for God and man. You never feel quite confident in their judgment and workmanship, and wonder whether they will bless or blight what they have in hand.

.'. Character incomplete. They hav< their favourite virtues, their own selected portions of Christianity. The religion of the Lord Jesus Christ is carefully cut up into small portions, and they take the part that most pleases them, and reject the rest. They <!o not take Christianity as a whole'; do not take all the graces and virtue:; as indicated in the New Testament. Consequently, a mutilated Christianity produces a defective Christian character. Their religion is essentially onesided and incomplete. They are lik< a tree wanting air space and sunlight, and so only growing on one side. There is a want of symmetry and beauty in their character, and these unshapely Christians hinder the work of Cod. Whatsoever things are true, honest, lovely, and of good report must be carefully copied: they must in ; very practical fashion think on these principles in their daily life, and not '•est content with half-measures.

2. Mind not fully cultivated. The logical faculty cultivated and the imagination neglected. Or imagination cultivated and the logical faculty neglected. The receptive faculties cultivated and the reflective faculties neglected. Or just the reverse. Science and philosophy cultivated and theology and ethics neglected, or theology and ethics cultivated and science and philosophy neglected. The mental cake is not thoroughly baked or properly turnPd, the mind is lop-sided and there i; mo sense of proportion, and-so the man is more or less unfitted for the service of life. In art, ornamentation does not make up for the lack of good form. The drawing itself must he good, or the picture will be bad. Xot a pari but the whole man must be cultivated, and the worst of it is in so many case;-; the intellect is cultivated and the heat 11 is lleglected. v '3. Work imperfectly done. Only a bit of work done here and there. JusL a chip or two cut off a few trees, but 1:0 one in the bush felled. No piece of work fully finished. The picture is only half finished and set aside. The book is only half prepared for publication, and abandoned. The fine project is only sketched ml forgotten. The magnificent plan of life they meant faithfully to follow is never carried out. Their cake is not turned. The possibilities of life art never converted into realities, their gifts are never more than half used, their splendid opportunities are largely" lost ,and their time, health, wealth and strength are largely wasted. The cake might have been'the best, but it turned out unwholesome and sodden for want of proper baking. t. Life a failure nt many points. They are not fitted to make the most of life, that is to say, they were not self-prepared. Their five talents by diligence might have become ten, but they never did. The one pound of grace by personal fidelity might have gained them ten pounds, but did not. Openings of usefulness presented themselves, but the unfaithful and unprofitable servant wis unqualified for the distinguished professorship open to him, or to become minister of a cultivated and intelligent church, or to do a certain piece of literary work offered him, or to take a lucrative and responsible situation in a commercial establishment, or to do a hundred things that ought to have been easy of accomplishment had the man only been properly baked. Ordinary abilities and extraordinary diligence will do more than extraordinary abilities and ordinary diligence. Almost everything in life depends upon the cake being duly turned. Voltaire's house is now used by the Geneva Bible Society as a repository for Bibles. The old premises of the British and Foreign Bible Society in Earl St. Blackfriars, stood where, in 1378 the Council forbade Wicldiffe circulating portions of the Holy Scriptures and where he uttered the words: "The truth shall prevail; and the Religious Tract Society's premises are where Bibles were publicly burnt.

There is no man's soul comes into heaven, but his mind is there first. Does anyone go to a place without his mind preceding him to it? Does a boy | learn a trade without his mind being i lirst on it? Does a mail build a house ! without first thinking of it? Thus he ! who goes to heaven has his thoughts [ of heaven, his treasure and citizenship 1 in heaven, his affection set on heaven. I His mind in desires, in hope, in antii cipat'on, in love, goes before Ins soul; ! so that when his soul goes, it enters | upon a state previously looked for and expected. Heaven to him is a home, ! his father's house. Virtue hinders not temptation but surmounts it. The purest garment shows the dirt marks the soonest. The sweetest apple is the one the worm is found in. The richest jewel is sought

jby the thief. The best soldier is lirst 1 aimed at by the enemy. Thus the higher you reach in holiness, and the j whiter you become in purity, you must not think the further you are removed from temptation. The contrary is the fact. While this is so, let your higher purity be the stronger barrier against the enemy's victory. "His strength is as the strength of ten because his heart is pure." i

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