SUNDAY READING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 213, 17 December 1910, Page 6

SUNDAY READING.

OUR DAILY CROSS. (Rev, James Stuart). "Jf any man willeth to come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."—Luke !)-2;3. The words were addressed to ''them all" —i.e., to the promiscuous multitude who thronged about Christ, listening to his teaching and witnessing his works, all who "willed" to go after him, and become his disciples. The self-renunciation and cross-bearing for which Christ asked were voluntary—something to which we are not compelled by a power which never consults our wishes and which we cannot resist. We niaj r accept or reject it as we please. Further, this cross-bearing is specifically Christian, called out by the presence and claims of Jesus Christ. It is. the direct result of his influence on the soul. i There lies behind this high and strenuous demand the vision of a suffering, self-denying Lord (verse 22). Christ is himself a cross-bearer, and is so for our sakes. The Lord of glory, on whose brow there rested the starlit crown of empire, and whose will all nature obeys, entered the region of pain and sacrifice, submitted to humiliation and hardship and loss, becoming obedient even unto death, and it is as he does so that he calls on us to follow him. He points us to the royal road of tne cross. The disciple must be as his 'Master —"We are the members of his body, of his flesh, and of Jiis bones." And, as St. Bernard says, •"It will not do for the body to be tended 1 delicately while the head is crowned with thorns." Our Lord meets us, gives us his commands, and equips us i'or service under the shadow of his cross. We are all of us alive to the beauty of self-denial in itself, and as a general principle of action. We admire the mother who sacrifices herself in giving her thought and affection, her time and energy for the life of her child, or the father who denies himself rest and ease, and what might fairly be regarded as necessaries of life, that his son may secure a good education, go to the best and most efficient school, to college or university, and be better equipped for the conflicts of life. We have nothing but praise for the daughter who bears patiently the limitations of a poor and obscure home, and rejects a position of ease that she may support and comfort her aged parents, or secure her brothers and sisters worthier chances of success. We revere the doctor who comes in contact with foul contagion, and risks his life for the sake of his patient, or to acquire a more minute knowledge of a "disease which 'has hitherto baffled the skill of all tlie physicians. But Christ calls us" to more than admiration. We must "all" exercise the spirit which leads to the deeds we admire. "Let him take up his cross." This is a hard saying; who can bear it? Why is it hard? ,Not because the intellect resents it, for the intellect approves and endorses it. The life fashioned for us by divine wisdom, guided. by divine love, must be good. 'Urged on us by the highest and most sacred authority, it must be the worthiest and the best. But the heart rebels against it and its exactions. The will refuses to bow to its sway. We do not wish to fulfil so,high and strenuous a demand. It is too much for our languor and self-indulgence. We cannot breathe in that fine air That pure severity of perfect light. The lower levels are more to our mind. Ah! it is there that the real difficulty lies. . > ' ' ■ It is sometimes said that in times like ours there is neither the need nor the opportunity for cross-bearing. We do not live in an age of persecution, when fidelity means martyrdom. We run no risk, we encounter no peril by following Christ now. Deeds of heroic courage, of high daring of endurance unto death, are no longer possible. Life moves on a lower plane, and is pitched' to an easier key. Christianity has become fashionable. The State pays homage to it. Literature and art. music and song, are enlisted in its service. It need no longer hides its head or worship in a corner. The offence oE the cross is obscured, even if it has not ceased. So we are often told. But is it so? There never was a more fatal mistake. Our commoii life when Christianised demands the same high quality as MAKES MEN MARTYRS. 'The flashing rays of the sun are reflected as truly as the myriad dewdrops which glitter oh the trees and shrubs in our gardens as they are on the vast stretches of ocean. The power that shaped the once void and formless earth determines the roundness of the globule. The law which keeps the stars and planets in their courses regulates the sparrow's flight and the fall of the trembling tear. And so it is the principle on which we act, our sincerity, our purity and honor, our faith and fidelity to God which give to our conduct its real value, and these high qualities may be displayed in the lowliest sphere and relationship. The motive makes our actions great or small, grand or trivial, godlike or base. To live for God every day may be even harder than to die for ihim. There are heroisms, noble, Christlike heroisms,' in many an obscure and apparently commonplace life. I It is not without significance that Christ said: "Let him take up his cross daily"—day by day. He desires no momentary excitement, no passing enthusiasm, no aspiring after great things, but a calm, constant temper, a settled principle which controls oilr actions in every sphere and direction. Self-renunciation is not simply for state occasions and brilliant ceremonial displays—a religious feast or festival, a wedding or a funeral. In some time of disaster, when everybody is in a chastened mood, the cross seems congenial. On the battlefield, amid the clash of war, when tremendous odds are at stake, and every patriot's 'heart has been stirred, the appeal of Christ would evoke a response, but he says: ''Let him take up his cross daily," daily—in the ordinary walks and places of concourse; in the everyday routine, in secret and out of sight occupations, not less than when you are in the public eye. What Christ speaks of is the cross in common life. Let us look at it first in the home. THE CROSS IN THE HOME. ' Christ claims supremacy over it. He is its true Lord, and all things in it are •to be done in his Spirit and according to his will. When people start a home of their own, even as they enter it, Jesus Christ stands at its- door, and virtually

says: "This is my house, and here I will abide. As you enter remember me, my presence, my authority, my grace, and let all that you do be done for my sake." Every home shpuld be sanctuary of God, with its altar of sacrifice and the incense of prayer and praise, with its oracles i of wisdom read clay by day in the sacred ' Scriptures, and with manifold charities and sanctities which give charm to the life of all who are within. This is a high ideal, which cannot easily be attained — we reach it by way of the cross. Home is to ordinary men the sphere of commonplace, 'humdrum duties, which form a "trivial round," devoid of excitement and ,glow. The husband and wife have each to work for the prosperity and happiness of home, to provide food and clothing, to train the children and fit them for their duties as men and women, whether in business or society, in citizenship or religion. Home should call out the best which is in us. We should make it more attractive than ■ the club or the music 'hall. It should be a place in which all its inmates find their chief delight. Such duties are bound up in the very constitution of the home, and rest on purely natural grounds. But the cross comes in when we seek to f-ulfil them in a high and chivalrous spirit, and make them radiant with the beauty of the Lord. Christ lias transfigured and ennobled the very "idea" of home, and given to it grander possibilities and higher sanctions. Married life 'has its ideal in the love and sacrifice of Christ for the Church, in his tenderness and grace, in the fatherhood of 'God, whose children we are, and in the spirit of brotherhood which links together our hearts as one. Christian men and women are to fulfil" their home duties, in Christ's Spirit, accepting without a murmur its routine and drudgery. This is not easy, but our Master says to us, "Take up thy cross da%." THE CROSS IN BUSINESS. In the every-day work of life, wherein we labor for our sustenance and support; over all the operations of commerce and merchandise, over the workshop and the office, over the_ market and the exchange, Christ claims undisputed authority. A Christian man will strive to -fulfil the apostolic precept, "Diligent in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." 'Whatsoever ye do, whether in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus." Our work here require? diligence, honesty, mutual consideration, subordination of self-will, and perseverance. It will often be hard and unpleasant. A round of commonplace duties among commonplace men, but we are to be Christ's men. His name must be written large before everything we are and do. Christian masters and Christian workmen, Christian buyers and Christian sellers. In business you feci at times the pressure of temptation, and I sincerely sympathise with you on this account. In some quarters dishonest practices are not unknown; there are tricks of trade; advantage is taken of the ignorance and weakness of men, getting out of them what no one is entitled to get. There are such things as "scamped work," exorbitant profits, breach of contract, supply of inferior materials, bribes and secret Happily those things are not universal. There are men who scorn them, whose hands are clean, whose hearts are pure, men who eome out of the trial with garments undented, and have not dishonored their Lord. But their task is high and difficult. Gazing along the path to which Christ leads them, they have to renounce themselves, and when they resolve to act as Christ's servants and to please their Master in Heaven, the cross comes plainly into view. On the avenues that lead to worldly prosperity, Jesus Christ stands and speaks to ns in pleading tones: "If any man will come after me, let him renounce himself." THE CROSS IN THE CHURCH. The Church is a place of spiritual fellowship, in which we meet for the worship of God, for instruction in the things which make for salvation and for the service of our fellow-men. It is a divine institution, which we enter in obedience to a divine call. It is the function of the Church to bear witness to the actual presence, the supreme authority, the saving grace of Jesus Christ. By our life and activities we are to win the world to Christ. There is, of course, much in the Church which is inspiring, consolatory, delightful. We spend in it the great moments of life. We gain in its fellowship a new and larger outlook, our horizons are widened, we descry "the land of far distances," through the open portals the light of the heavenly sanctuary streams upo.i our path, we see the shining ranks of the redeemed, and our ears catch the strains of the immortals. But here, too, we are confronted by the cross. We cannot become true disciples of Christ, we cannot conform to the divine ideal or be faithful to our vows without taking it up. \ METHODIST MINISTERS' SALARIES. AN INCREASE SUGGESTED. A discussion took place at the Methodist Synod meeting at Wellington on Wednesday regarding the salaries paid to ministers. It arose out of a recommendation from the General Conference of Australasia. Mr. B. Lynneberg (Johnsonville) said that God's work was often hampered by the minister having 25 per cent, of his time occupied by financial w T ork. It was the duty of the circuit stewards and quarterly meetings to take this burden off the ministers' shoulders. He deprecated the dependence of the Church upon bazaars and similar efforts. He favored direct and systematic giving to the work of God. He recalled from personal experience, before arriving in New Zealand, a case where bazaars were held by which to raise mission contributions. Sad circumstances one year led to a discontinuance of this method, and Christmas Day was set apart for a special contribution service. Two thousand five hundred people assembled, headed by the Mayor and councillors. The outcome was the direct contribution of five times the amount previously given. He moved: "That owing to the increased cost of living, the quarterly boards throughout New Zealand be 'urged to take into consideration a corresponding increase in the stipends of ministers and home missionaries, and, further., that when less than the minimum stipend is paid, the chairman of the district, together with one or two laymen, visit and confer with the church officials'. Mr. W. E. Redstone seconded the motion, which was carried.