TRYING TO TRUST. An After-meeting Address. By Rev. W. H. Aitken.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 287, 4 August 1888, Page 6

TRYING TO TRUST. An After-meeting Address. By Rev. W. H. Aitk en.

I im'OSE it is the desire of those of you who have stayed to this mooting to get the important question connected with tho&o two objects — our sins, and the Lord Jesus Christ — the question of your own personal safety — settled. Is it not so ? Beginning then with the first of these two objects, let me say a word, for fear any should bo hindered and kept back. Possibly you do not feel that amount of distress at the lecollcction of your sin that you would fain feel. You cannot shed so many tears as you would like to shed, nor have you as lively a sense of sonow as you would like to have. Well, would it were otheiwise ; but it is no use stayintr until you feel more sorrow. lam sine of this ; if my child came to me and said, " Oh, father, I have done wrong. I feel sorry that I have done wrong ; or at least I wi.sh co feel sorry. I know I should be a great deal more distressed than I am, but 1 leally am distressed, and I wish 1 were more so." If I saw my child, not, of course, making a speech, but really saying what he felt, in this way, do you think 1 should say, " My boy, I cannot forgive you now ; go away, and think the matter well over, and when you ha\e shed real tears, and felt real sorrow, I may forgive you ?" Is that the way a father would treat a child ? if the child is honest, would he bo ' kept waiting for forgiveness ? Would not the father say, ''If you really wish to feel sorry, in my estimation that is the same a.s if you did feel sorry. Indeed, you would not wish to feel soiry if you did not leally feel sorry. All I want is that you take your right position. Dear peeking soul, there is nothing meritorious in your tears ; there is nothing intrinsically valuable in your sorrow. If you are sufficiently soiry to wish to have done with your sins, ami long to obtain (iod's forgiveness, then you are sufficiently sorry for your sins to leceive that forgiveness. One word on another point. The Apostle speaks of " believing in vain.'' There area great many persons who get just to the point I have spoken of. They say they cannot be sure that they ha"vc believed the right way. Some think they have not believed enough. Now, faith is not a question of dcyrce. It is not, If thou belicA c strongly thou shalt be saved, and if thou believe feebly thou shalt be condemned. Well, you say, it is a question of kind. It is not, and it is. There is a complete kind of taith, and an incomplete kind of faith. Very often people have an idea thattheie is some mysterious spiritual experience, altogether different from ordinary trust, to be lealised miraculously, and unless this realisation is obtained there is no salvation. Does the Lovd tell us to sit down and wait for some extraordinary supernatmal faith, or does He not use ,i word that aie perfectly familiar with? He only asks us so do what we have to do in our daily relations m ith other people. Faith may be complete or incomplete. It may simply amount to the intel'ectual credence of a fact ; that will save nobody. Or i^ may be a kind of moral repose of confidence in a Person ; and that Trill save anybody. When my mind is satisfied with what Christ has done, then I will put my case into hi-* hands. Putting the matter as simply as I can, I may say that I trust Christ just a-> 1 trust my banker. He is responsible for what I ha\e entrusted to him. I put my £100 on the counter of the bank, and so satisfied am I of its safety that 1 go an ay and think no moic about it. If it were a time of commercial crisis in the banking world, there would be some ieas n to think that I had done a rash thing : but if 1 nm persuaded that the bank is sound, I just lea\e the money there wibhou any fui ther anxiety. So when I lea\c my soul with Jesus I do i not need to think any more about, it. It is I much moie safe with him than my money i- in the banker's hands. Theie is no safety on eaibh like it. Theie i.% nothing too weighty to be held by Ifi<« hand ; and do you think, dear soul, that lie is going to ! diop jou by accident? J3e content to take (Jhii.si and rest upon Him. Some few yeais ago ] was endea'-ouring to lead a «oul to this point, trying to get j her bo see that in Chiist she had a firm t-t.uidmg-grourid. I used this little figure to lllustra'e the point: J said, " Were you ever at ?" mentioning a ceitain seaside place. " Ye->. " " Did you ever go on the soft sand on the beach ?" " Yes." " Well, supposing yc u were there and you ielt yourself gradually sinking over your ankles in the soft sand fchab is sometime.* mixed with mud. You sec a little plot of .sand that look'; firmer than the rest. You think it only you could get there you would be all light. After a great effort >ou get alongside, but tho thought occur* to you, ' Peradventure this firm-looking piece of sand is more troacberoup than bhab which surrounds me.' What would you do ? You would stretch out your foot caiefullyand bring it gently down as if you were making an ex penmen r. What would that be ?" " I suppose, 1 ' she .<-aid, " fihat would be Iryiwj to trust." "It would not be a veiy comfortable position, would it?" "No, it would not." '• But suppose you saw, a little way off, a big massive rock. You say to yourself, 'If I could only get theie, I should be all right.' You reach it, and jump down on it with a bound at once. Is that trying or /riahiigV "That is trusting." "What make-, the difference ? Is it in you or in the object of your trust?" "It is in the object." "Exactly, In the one ca&e you aie fully '■atisfied that < he object is, fcruofcworthy, and yovi do not try to trust- — you simply trust. In the other case you arc not satisfied, and you do not trust, but only try to tiu&t. Is Christ like the sand or the rock ?" Of course there was only one answer — " lie is the Rock of Ages." " Then are you going to try and trust him as if he were the quickstand ?" She said, " I see it ; I have been trying to trust the Rock !" "Then will you not go right down upon it with all your weight ? It will bear you. It has borne the whole Church in every age."

You never hear the bee complain Nor hear it weep and wail : But it! it wish it can unfold A very painful tail. The capital invested in tramways in Great Britain amounts to £12,573,000. Official Assignee to bankrupt : — ' Have you any offer to make ?' 'No ! I had ten shillings when I came in here, bub my lawyer has just collared it,'