SUNDAY COLUMN.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 62, 15 March 1913, Page 7

SUNDAY COLUMN.

They were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush.— The Bible. Blushing is the colour of virtue.—Matthew Henry.

Of all people in the world the most | to be pitied are those who have no sense of shame, who cannot blush. One naturally feels much pity for the poor creatures we see in the street wiio are blind, or deaf, or dumb, such make immediate appeal to our sympathy and charity. But those who have lost their sense of shame have suffered far greater deprivation than mere loss of sight or paralysis of limb. Perhaps the most pressing need of our time is a keener sensibility of sin. A leading scientist was tolling us not long go not to worry about our sins—and his advice is repeated in many directions, it only shows how mistaken and misleading even wise men may be—for die'simple truth is that the man who Joes not worry about his sins is in a sure state of moral degeneracy. There s trouble enough in the world we say; but we could do with, very little, a dttle more—in fact, we could do with a great deal more trouble about the •vil within and around us. We have .ill become very tender-hearted now-a-.lays—far more merciful, more charitable, more ready .to make instant response to almost any appeal of suffering and distress. We are of softer ibre than our fathers, and one cah.ot hut be devoutly thankful for the jeautiful results. But the great danger is-that with our growing tendertess towards the wrongdoer we come ;o think lightly of wrong. We are j ill grown so charitable that wo are Imost apologising for sin. A boy rom one of our Sunday Schools was :ot long since arrested for stealing hiycle fittings, and the superintendent •ailed to testify to the boy’s good ■haracter described it as a case of ‘moral eccentricity.” Of course! But eally a shorter and harder word would >ave been nearer the mark. Are we to eel shame when we hurt a fellow-crea-ure by an act of unkindness, and not a be moved when the wrong is done to ur Father in heaven? Are we.to be .isily and soon offended when wo are flighted or insulted, and shall we not hush with shame and flush with paslion when the grand laws of God are udely trampled on by reckless feet? Oh, that we might be acutely sen;itive, like all the saints of God—both n the Bible and out of it! You annot read the biography of the holy iieu and women of the past without ■eeing that they all have one thing a common—a deep sense of sin, a ,reat tenderness of heart. ..How full he Psalms are of this spirit of pomcnee! If Ruskin was right when he lid that the difference bewcen one man ;yrd another is a difcrcnce of feeling, then tlic.se psalmists must have 1 been the noblest men hat ever lived! How deeply they clt! How they blushed with burning name for their misdoings! How they toured out their •■complaint with hearttreaking re'pentohcel How they' prayd to he searched for their wicked

.ays, and yearned to be whiter than now! The Penetential Psalms, with heir sweetly-solekm refrain—how biased conld we but enter into their gracious contrition, their unspeakable '.read of sin, their supreme horror of ransgression of the law of God. An old dictionary, dating back a bunrod years, defined Methodism as “the eligion of feeling”—and said not more .bout it. On the spur of the moment re read it as a sneer, a gibe at eiitliuiasra and emotion, more in evidence hen perhaps than now. And yet, liter all, is it not the right kind of rcigion the religion of feeling? Is here not too much of the religion of 'orm and letter and lifelessness? And diould we not seek with all our soul, 'or the religion which Charles Weslej grayed for?

0 for that tenderness of heart 7 which hows before the Lord—--0 for those humble contrite tears Which from repentence flow— Saviour, to me in pity give The sensible distress—‘They were not at all ashamed, neither ;ould they blush.” There is always hope cr the man who can blush. Whatever; lea he maji have lost, ‘lie lias kept one T the most precious possessions of lis nature, and however low he falls, here is always hope so long as he loos not get past feeling. God grant us to feel the sharp pricking of con-cience-—that a pain like a great stab ■uiy go through us when we give ourelves to what is wrong. When the intrue word loaves our lips, the un■,oly thought dwells in our soul, the unjust deed escapes our hand—ah! ;hese things, ought to hurt us far core .than they do. Let us beware if the coarsening of moral fibre, the lardening of spiritual texture. “Jesus onked round upon them, being grieved or the hardness of their hearts.” Hint is the thing to he grieved about. 3a hard in muscle if you can ; he iron in nerve if you may; he adamant in ourposo when you are right: hut harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. It is not the weakness of our

nature, nor the frailty of our endeavnirs, not the fault all to marked in our life— it is not suck tilings as chose that grieve the good God, but the gradual hardening of the moral sense; tiie film stealing over the eyes; the drugged sense that feels no pain: tliis is the all-pitiful tragedy. That no such fate may ever be ours let us cultivate the sensitive soul, quick to respond to every sweet appeal and swift to shun the approach of evil. Lot us tread the path of holiness with reverent feet and put away the forward spirit, which is abomination to the Lord. Lot us learn of that great Gentleman of Nazareth, who was so meek and lowly, so loving and tender towards all. The time comes when we are called to plant our feet like the immovable rock,but even then the Lord give us grace to walk warily and hum-

hly. The followers of one oi the holy Rabbis were taught so to watch their steps as not even to tread upon a piece of paper lying in the road, in case the Divine Name might be written upon it. So may we walk life’s I dusty road—with all modest and reverI ent grace, while ever and again soli | tears of penitence Hit our eyes and divine blushes of shame cross our face. ■ —Rev. W. A. L. Taylor, 13. A.