CALL TO SERVICE

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 941, 7 April 1930, Page 14

CALL TO SERVICE

INSPIRATION FOUND IN WORDS OF ST. PAUL PERSONALITY OF CHRIST The Rev. W. Walker commenced the second year of his ministry in ihe Pitt Street Methodist Church yesterday by preaching in the morning on “The Call to Service,” and in the evening on “The life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the taith which is in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me,” taken from Galatians. Mr. Walker said that while the language of th;s scripture was mystical, yet the thought contained in it was deep and profound. Paul was trying to utter a truth which could not be reduced to writing. His experience was fuller than his creed, and his religion was nobler than his theology. The foundation truth of the Christian religion was the love Jesus expressed in the fathomless sufferings of the Cross. It was the realisation of this which set Paul on tire with holy zeal, and which enabled him to endure with God-like patience all manner of hardship and persecution. He never grew weary of preaching Jesus Christ crucified for the redemption of mankind. Jesus was not a myth, nor an idealised character, but an historic person. He blended in Himself the Divine and the Human. Nor was Jesus merely historical. In a very real sense He was in the life of today. He lived in the heart of the believer, so that, like Paul, he was able to say: “Yet not I but Christ liveth in me.” So much was this the case personality was reconstructed by His indwelling. This was the method by which Jesus transforms life and character. Through His disciples he was striving to raise society and social conditions, and thus establish a kingdom of righteousness in the earth. The solo, “Hold Thou My Hand, Dear Lord,” was sung by Mrs. L. Collier.