GOOD FRIDAY. A Sermon Preached by the Rev. W. Beatty M.A.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 254, 11 April 1888, Page 6

GOOD FRIDAY. A Sermon Preached by the Rev. W. Beatty M.A.

llcb. x., 19.--Uavinif therefore, brethren, boldness Lo enter into tfio holiest by the blood of Jesus.

The truths which Good Friday brings before uk aro ho many, ho deep, and so wonderful, that silence beems the best .sermon. Compared with the words ot e\angeli.-ts and apostles, which the Church bids us read during this week, all our best utterances seem miserably poor and shallow, \ calculated rather to dull the divine lustre ot the truth than to display its brightness. Every earnest man U his own best thoo lonian ; help and direction and instruction he may by God's giaoe receive trom others, but he must see with his own spiritual eye Christ crucified, he must hear with his own spiritual ear the voice of the Holy (Spirit phed fotth to lead him into all truth. As, however, St. Paul said, that, God in His mystciious wisdom chooses the weak things of the earth to confound the .strong ; an, to quote the same apostle, the precious treasmes of the Gospel aie contained in earl hen \e&sels, so the weak and ftammermgwoide. ol short-lighted men may seive in sonic measure to open the Scuptuies to those who, with an honest and good heart, hcek to know the will of God and to do it. The wnter of tins epistle says that the <-aciilico ot Christ on tho eioB-> is a sure \\u) rant that we may have boldness to enU'i into the holiest. The woid which i-* tianslated " boldness" is- a faxouriteone wjth him. It nnjiini litei.illy free-spokenne-^, light ol speech, and then, generally, frankness, continence. J\]y h K'nd.s, believe me that the \ei y coic and marrow ot tiic Gospel i 1i 1 - heie. An almo-t unlading test ot the 01 tiuth laKu hood of a creed or icligious system will bo Jound in the question — Uoes it «-et toith fully and umesoneuly the fact that e\ei> man on earth ha», whether ho knows it and claims it or not, a continual and indesti uctible right to enter into the \cry presence ot God, to .speak to Him, plead hi^ eaiihc behne Him, hohi communion with Him, heai His voice and an-u ci' it ' ; W hether it be the [>riesL wlio .-.ijs to hilellow Mnneis, " uuare far trom (iod, L am neat Him, you can only diaw nigh b> mean-, of m,\ 1 ilo^ .ind cenMnonies/'or the pieacher, l.su t)i ( lencal, w ho sa^ s to hi-- fellow " You have no light to stand bctoie (ioil unions 3 cm accept m\ .-y^tein ot doctiinc,"' bothaie lunoiantly, no doubt, but tiuly, teaching the doctiineot Anti-C^luist, piaetically den\ing tliat .le^u- Clni'-t has come in the tie-li, and, to u-e the noble woids of the Athauasian Creed, taken the manhood into (iod, emptying (I ood Fi iday .md Ka^tei -I).iy of their d( pe-t/ and plainest meaning, mnking the e\ei la -4 in u Cospel. the 'food new s ot Uod, a bitlci and u r hastly ni(icki-i\ to t lie portion (jt mankind.

Boldness Theio is <i false confidence, the enem) and the eaneatuie oi the true. With no deep com iction of the utter horror and loathe-somene-s of mii, with a flippant lewtv born oi empt} hcai t and biains, with thy sclfsatisf.iction which is the suiest sign of .1 petty and gro\elliug spiut, wo may feel no touch of wholesome awe at the thought ot Uim whose ctein.i! ci- pine and unstained li 14.11 1, In foie w ho-e d<i//ling purity eleaiei than (he sihei daw n t lie angels, nc-\ ci soiled with e\il, \ eil then faces and bow low their heads. Because He it,\eals Himself no longer with eai Ihqunke, stoi m and tempest, amid thick cloud and darkness and vapour ot smoke, we may forget that He i<-(o all mii andwicked1 nc-- a con-iini'tig lire, t'nat to dwell with Him is to dwell with e\ ol lasting burnings, that, as an ancient tradition make- oui Loid say, "He th.it is near Me is near the I inc.' 1 Oi , in pi esiimptuou.- reliance oi> some eon \eis-ion or election, we may claim to be on lauuluir toiins- with the Alo&t lli<j;h, to be hencefoith scenic ot His fax our, in nodiead ot Hi- judgments. Let us -tand in thought beside the cio&s of Cahaiv, not to hanow our feelings with a scene ot agony which is long p<»st. not to oflei on; pieMimptuous. pity to the Kmic of cai th and hea\en, but to learn .some lesson^ i)t Clod ana onr.-d\c\ Let u- stand beside tiie cio-. 1 - and mark the darkti3-s of the .sky, the trembling of the eaith, the awlul, mWenoiih conlhct wh eh wrun^ horn trie Son of ( iod the cry, "My God, my Clod, why hast Thou foi.-akcn me?' 1 anddifcem something of the value, the infinite solemnity ot human lite, the unfathomable puuty ot God, the utter honor, foulness, loath-omened of .sin. Better, far better, go through the wOl Id with down cast head and bioken spint, like the publican, not daiing to hit up our eyes- unto heaven, but without the publican's? of ji^tityinti giace — better this than to -kirn over the tea 01 glass mingled with tire ot this- immortal mortal, Uih heaxenly earthly life with unheeding, careless feet, or to pace proudly with unabated mien befoie the face ot tho Eternal, raying to our fellow binneis, " Stand aside, tor 1 am holiei than thou. ' But, my friends, there i^ a true assurance a* w ell as a false. Well I know that many a .son and many a daughter of the Loid (iod Alimghty on the earth this blessed day are afraid to enter into the holiest, dare not b Hove that God's favour is resting upon them, dare not look at Him, .speak to Him as their Father and Friend. Partly, no doubt, this is due to the craft of the devil, who, being unable to persuade them to presumption, tempt* them to despair. But partly, too, I believe, it is owing to wrong \ie\vs of God and the Gospel which have been, and arc still, put forth. If theie is one truth moie than anothei which the Bible teaches, which is to be found, not 7 merely in particular texts, but is interwoven with tho whole ot the Old and New Testaments, it i<* that God is the lAithei and Friend of every man. that C'hiist i» the Saviour, Redeemer, and Intercessor ot every man. J do not, therefore, .say that there is no diflerence between the yood and the bad, the godly and the ungodly, the children of God and the children of the de\il. There i* this gi out difference, that the good man knows and lo\es God and seeks (odo His will, while the bad man lo\es himself and follows hit, own will ; that the godly man eani.es God into all his life, the ungodly thrusts God away from him : that the children of God are seeking to be made like their Father, the children of the de\ il are renouncing their true Father and following the author of evil. But God is true and x'emains true, though all men be liaivs ; we may deny Him, He cannot deny Himself : .Jesus Christ ib the same yesterday, to-day, and for evei — the Lamb slain betoic the foundation of the world, the Sacrifice whose infinite merits avail tor mankind through all eternity. To say that God does not love all men is to deny perfection to Him, to make Him lower than our&ehcs, who are commanded to love and honour all men as brethren : to say that He can ever change is to deny His unity, His self-existence, and bring down the Infinite Charity to a lower level than the fathet who descends to the grave mourning over a prodigal son ; the mother, whose heart breaks in silence foi an erring daughter. If we clergy cannot say to any who enter the Church-whoever and whatever they be —you are God's child, redeemed by Christ's

blood, believe it, turn to God through Christ, live in and by that faith ; if we cannot carrj the same message of an All-Father, our universal Saviour, to tho careless, the sinful, the depraved, the hopeless, then our holy office is a mockery, life a delusion, this world a hideous nightman, the next world a charnel house reeking with the foulness of corruption. My friends, this truth needs h be plainly spoken in our day. On the eootua nd there are people coming to our nhcrches and chapels, taking the lead in religiuus movements, making loud profession, imposing on thom&eives and other people a be iet in their sanctity, and at tho same time living in habitual ,sin, deliberately breaking most of the commandments, coveting, cheating, lying, slandering, hating. And there are others with a high purpose in life, with a tender con-cicnce, with a keen sense of right and wrong, with an earnest deshe to do their duty, who perhaps keep away from church, do not come to the Holy Communion because they imagine that to be religious, as it is called, a man must cease to be a man, become some kind of unearthly being, and piofes? hat he is dillcrent from his neighbours, and stands on another plattorm before God from them. This is .sad, sad, my fiiends, and would be heart-breaking but for the message of Good Friday that we and they belong to the family of God, for which His Son Jesus Chi Ist was content — c ntcnt to be crucified that the Eternal, All-Knowing Spirit, and not weak, ignorant man, is governing and sanctifying the whole body of tho Church ; that Almighty God, who has made all men and luitet.ii nothing that He has made, is seeking after the .lew in his b'indness of he.ul, the Tm k in hi*- sensual stupour, the infidel in his prido of understanding, the heictic in his nanuw, self-righteous, exclusive notion-, alter all His wandering childien, after all His lost sheep ; that Infinite Love will yet ear-y out to the full the work w Inch Infinite Wisdom has devised of Ininging the sheep to the fuld of the Beautitul Shepherd, the children to the bosom ol their Father and theii God.