THE DAY OF REST. What Men Say of Christ.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 191, 12 February 1887, Page 8

THE DAY OF REST. What Men Say of Christ.

(By the Rkv. C. H. Spubgeok.)

41 And to«y nrriv<>d at the country of the Oadawnos, which is over against Galilee. And when Hrt went foi t\x to land, there mot him out <if the city a certain man, whfoh had devils a long time, ami ware no clothes, neither abode in any house, but. in 'he tombs. When he naw Jesus, ho ciiort out, m^d fell down before Him and with n. loud voleo snia, ' What have I to do with I hua J»" us, Thou Son ot God Most High ? I tieee^ch Thee, torment me not.' "—Luke viii. 'S, 27. 28.

Many people bavo a notion that if Christ Jesus should come into their hearts, they would have to yivc vp their pleasures. Now what pleasures ? The pleapures of the hearth and family fireside ? The pleasures of seeing their children growing up around them to call them bleeeed ? The pleasures of doing good ? The pleasures of discharging their duties as in the sight of God ? The pleasures of a quiet conscience? The pleasures of knowing that they can look both their fellow-men and their God in the face? None of these pleasures will Christ take away ; nor can I conceive of any pleasure that is worth calliug a plea&ure which a man will lose bty becoming a Christian. ( Ah yes ! I know wl|at you mean. You mean that you will not be able to go after your si>is. Now I understand you. Why did you not say so before ?

Call a Spade a Spade. Call you sins sins, but do not call them pleasures ; and learn that the pleasures of sin, which ara but for a season, are but Satan's baits by which he takes souls upon his hook to their destruction. You shall use no pleasure butt hut which in unhealthy, unfit for your soul, unsatisfactory in itpelf, and unworthy of your nature. If you come to the cross of Christ you shall find of a truth that '• Jlcligion never was designed to make out' pleasure less." It multiplies our truest pleasures a thousandfold. " Oh." you say, " but I shall have to give vp my liberty /" Your liberty ? In what respect ? Your liberty to be honest and to be upright ! Your liberty to love your neighbour ? Your liberty to be kind to the unthankful and the ungenerous? Your liberty to pro about doing good ? Your liberty to search, and judge, and know for jourselves? You will have to give up none of this in becoming a Christian. In fact, 1 affirm that you will have

A Liberty Conferred Upon You far more wonderful than any liberty which you as yet have known . " He is tho freeman whom the truth makijs free, and all aye slaves besides." Jesus Christ gives a man such an independence of spirit that he feura no one, but doe* what is right, actuated by the spirit of right within him ; ani then he goes through the world fearless of op pres3ors, dauntless and courageous under all circumstances, the Lord's freeman. Y>u will not have, then, to give up your liberty. Yes, I know what you mean— you mean liberty to sin, that is to say. liberty to ruin yourselce* Thank God, that liberty will be taken from you, tor you never had any right to pop&e&s so terrible an engine of destruction ; but it ehall be ao taken from you th>it you yourself will be glad to miss it. Why. look at that awine yonder wallowiug in the mire : a miracle of omnipotence

Transforms It into an Angel: has not that angel liberty to go and wallow ia the same filth aa before? Certainly he has, but does he ever use it ? No, it ia contrary to his peraphic nature to be found revelling in mire. So will it be wicb you. You will not care for those things which are now your deliyht, but, being made free from em, you wi!l count it foul scorn to serve it any longer. Oh ! it will be no loss of liberty, but the unloosing of ah your bonds. Still you Bay, "//"/ were a Christian it would make me melancholy!" What for? Why should it make me melancholy ? Make you melancholy to think that, if you live, God will be your Shepherd, and you ahall not want ? Make you melancholy to think that if you die~ "Jeaupcau make your dyicg bud feel scfc as ao^ny pillows are. Make you melancholy to believe that you are on the way to heavon, and that when the trials of thia poor life are over, you shall be with Jecu* for ever? I cannot imagine it. Let not Satan's lie deceive you. If Jesus Christ cornea into your soul

It will Drive Your Melancholy Away, Now, I will put a few things* to you, with the deepest earnestness, for 1 iong to see you turned from your evil ways, arid saved by the sovereign grace of God. 0 that the Holy Snirit may press home upon you tho arguments which I try to use. You know The story of the Saviour who came from heaven to earth to die for Ilia enemies. Do you believe that He came on earth to make ?w miserable*. Can yiu look into the face of that Man who bled for pinners that they might live, and believe thiit He came here with the malevolent design of making men wretched ? You know better ; in your heart you know better There must bo joy in that which such a Man works out j ao gracious a Redeemer muo.t intend our best happi ness . Listen to his teachings, and I will ask you then whether they tend to make, any one >nhe/'<,ibl<' ? Point me to a precept whete the Saviour bids us cea«B to rejoice I invite you to find in thd Biblo a commandment against s-ober, solid, pure, holy joy. / will find you words like these, '• Rejoico in the Lord alway : and again 1 say, Rtjoice. Rejoice ya in that day, and leap for joy." VVlmt day ? A bright day ? No. " When they phall s>ay all manner of evil against you falsely, for My cake."

Christ Begun His First Sermon with the word "Blessed," and He repeated the word many times ; and as He was at first, feO He was at the last, for He was blessing Hi 3 di-ciples when He ascendad into heaven. He cimo into the world that Hi 5*5 * teaching might make men blessed, both here and hereafter. I will ask you a^ain, ivlieMer you notice hi Jii* followers any 'partio.'idnr misery? Some of them, through sickne3B, may be sad, and there may be some who profess to be Christiana who have not enough religion jet to make them happy, but the most of us are a happy people. I will bear my witness, and speak for myself. I believe I have a spirit which delights in happiness, and that I am not naturally one of the dullest of mankind. I am not conscious now of being anything but simply honest in what I soy, and I can assure you that Nothing has Ever Give Me such Joy as the knowledge that Jesus Christ is mine. I have had to suffer a great deal of pain, and nothing has assisted me to bear itB sharpost twinges— and they have been sharp indeed — like the thought that " His way was much rougher and darker than mine."

I tell you, young men, you who want to see ' life, you must see Christ). You who want to have true happiness, a happiness to rise up and to sleep with, a happinesß to live with and to die with —not the happiness of those silly butterflies that fly from flower to flower, and are never content except they are in the theatre or the ball room, but the happiness of

A Man That Is Woith Calling a ManI tell you such solid happiness is to be found only in vital godlineps. God is my witness, I lie not, there is a joy to be found in knowing Christ which in all this round world beaide cannot be found— search it through and through. " 0 thatthou hadst hearkened to My commandments ! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea."

A Querulous Question. " What have I to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God Most High?" So asked the possessed man, "What have Ito do with thee ?" This is a question which we have heard many times. Poor people 'often ask it. I heard a workman say, " Well, / have nothing to do with religion ; I know it is all very well for my master, for parsons, and fine ladies, and aristocrats, and old women, but it ia of no use to me ; I have to work hard, and I have a family to bring up, and it b»B nothing to do with me." JSow, give me your hand, my good fellow, and be lieve me, you are quite mistaken. Why, there ia in the world ivhom it has more to do with than it has with you, for "the poor have the Gospel preached to them." Jeaus Christ Bends His Gospel specially to those who labour and are heavy-laden. Moreover, I do not know any one who could want it more than you do, for you have not very much in this life to cheer or comfort, you. It is a hard fight to get through this world at all in times like these ; but if you have

A Good Hope for the Next World to help you in the battles of thin life, then you will bear your trials, and you will cheerfully endure the hardships which heavenly wisdom appoints for you. How many working men and their wives each one of whom would tell you that the best inheritance they have ever had has been au interaat in Christ, and th.it they never found themselves so truly blessed as wheu they laid hold on eternal life and trusted in Jesus. It has everything to do with woilcing people ; and I long that you may believe and prove this great truth. " What have I to do with Thee ?" say this and that individual. There may be many who are saying religion has nothing to do with me. But, young woman t in your beauty religion will add a new charm to your attractions, an anfading lustre, such as nought betides can yield. The knowlodge of Christ Jesus shall give you a beauty of mind that shall last when

The Worm has Furrowed That Fair Brow, and your well-faahioned form has dissolved into the old brown duet, which ia the residuum of all living. Young man, with all your manhood about you, full of lift) and apirit, Jeaus Christ has much to do with you. He can make you more manly than yon otherwise would have been. He can bring out the noble points of your character, and educate you to be something more than school or university can make you. And you who are in business, this will help you in your carea. You who have to toil, and moil, and bear the troubles of life, Jesus Christ will comfort and sustain you And ye grey heads, who can need Je?us Christ more than you ? Here is your staff, your dying pillow, your immortal rest. What has He to do with you 1 Why, I trust that you have much to do with Him, and if you have not, yet at least He has something to do with you, which I will now show you. What have you to do with Chriet ' There are matters in which

All of you have to do with Christ, whelhor you will or not, and the tirstis tibia : it is because of His intercession that you are yet alive. Your tree brought forth no fruit", and th • Master said, ''Cut it down." Why, then, does it stand ? Why, because the jdusbandman said. " Spare it vet another year.'' Shall that tree ungratefully cay, " What have I to do with the Husbandman ?" when it owes itself to him. Ah ! friend, the Jesus whom you deepiaed has interposed, and lifted Hie pierced hand between you and the sword of justice, or your body would at this hour have been in the grave, and your aoul would have been tormented in the pit ! You have something to do with Him, then. Feel you no penitence at the thought ? Doea not the Spirit of God lead you to honour the Author of

Your Continued Existence? Again, you have this to do with Chiiat: that it is entxielu owing to Rim that you are now in a place where the Gospel can be proclaimed to you. 0, sinner, there could have been no hope, no Gospel-hope for you, it Jeeus had not dieii. Whnt balm would thoie have been in Gilead, what physician theie, if Jgbus bad not come from heaven lo save? The fact that you are able to hear me cay, and that I am able ro say it, " Bolieve in the Lord Jesus Chriot and thou shalt be saved," lhao faefcyou o*B to Christ. Otherwise, it' we had m«t together ie would only have been to remind oach other that we wore under God's curse, and that when this life was over, we should go to a world of misery, Now

We Hear the Silver Trumpet Sounding. with the love-notes of the heavenly invitation, "Come to the banquet of mercy, ye lame, and halt, and blind I" The chief of sinners may came, and if they trust in Jesua, they shall be saved : but were it not tor Christ, the crucified Son of the Highest, no note of hope could reach the ears of the guilty. I remind you, iurther, that if you ask, " What have I to do with Christ ?" the time ia hastening when that question will receive a most conclusive aaswer. At the last great day, if you have nothing to do with hitii wi a Saviour, you ivill hctve to a2'>peat' hej'ore JUvn. as a Judge. The days of grace v/ill then be over. The great white throne will be sot in the heavens, and a congregation infinitely greater than any we have ever seen will be gathered around that dreadful tribunal. All man r..uBt put in

A Personal Appearance at the Last Assize, and each one will hear his final sentencu. Ah, ye cannot now escape ! Yo cannot hide yourselves from the eye and hand of the Judge! The mountains refuse to bow their heads to covor you, and the rocks will not open their flinty bowels to receive you. The eyes of fire find you out, and the voioo of thunder saifch, " I was an hungered, and ye cave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink;" "Because I have called, and ye refused ; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;"' "Depart from ms, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared "tor the devil and his angels." We must have to do with Christ. You may go away from this service, and go into the haunt 9 of sin, and say, " I will not be followed by the arrows of the Gospel." You may escape from the Saviour, but you must face the Judge. Shall I tell you, before I closo,' what Jesua Christ may have to do with you, and what He has to do with many now

present who have trusted Him ? It would be a thousand mercieß, and a thing to sing of in heaven, it come who came in hera utterly careless should go away impressed' And saved.

Oh Happy Day When We Did So We saw Him, by faith, hanging on the tree, and we believed that He had suffered there for us. We rested our eouls upon what He had done, and ever since that day, instead of saying, " What have I to do with Thee ?" we buve folt that we have everylhiny to do with Him. He washed us irom our sins: our eiu could never have been taken away from us by aoy other means. He clothed us with His righteousness: we have no other righteousness to wear than that which He has wrought out and brought in. Since we have been brought into fellowship with Him, we have found it to be our pltasure to bo obedient to His commands, our privilege to believe His promisey, our joy to plead His name at the mercy-eeat, our transport to have converse with Him, aud our delight to expuct the time when we shall be

Like Him, and Shall tee Him as He Is. This very day, eternal Father, give Thy Son to see of His soul's travail. Even now, we beseech Thee, grant tbafc some may no longer rejoct Thy Son, but may the Eternal Spirit, who can plead as we cannot, work effectually with the wills and consciences of men, and compel those to come in who hitherto have ntood without, that Thy house of mercy may be filled ! The Lord answer the desire of our hearts, for Jesus' sake. Amen.