SUNDAY READING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 248, 25 February 1911, Page 10

SUNDAY READING.

"THE NFYEU-I'AILINU LOVE OF GOD." (By Rev. Prof. David Smith, D.D.) "I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor power.*, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depjji, nor any other creation shall he ahle to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."—. .Rom. viii., 38-3!).

"I am persuaded," says the Apostle, and that is one of his great phrases. You will notice that whenever the apostle uses it, he is going to speak of something great: not merely of a grand conviction, a splendid assurance, a faith in .something which is not obvious or indisputable, and a conviction which he has readied after a hard finding, after long groping in the darkness, much battling with doubt and fear. He has been groping amid the tangle, and at last he has won his way out to the open. And .so whenever St. Paul prefaces any great declaration with this phrase of his, "I am persuaded," let us stop and listen, for he is about to tell us of something ■wonderful, something glorious, something which it is not easy to believe, but which is splendidly worth our while to believe. He is going to tell us of a treasure which he has found after long and painful searching—of a victory which he has won after hard, sore lighting. Look at the phrase in the passage before us and see how true this is that I have told you. St. Paul is going to tell us of a faith which has done great and wonderful things for him, a faith which has come to hi* rescue in many a sore strait, which has strengthened his heart and kept Ids weak feet from stumbling and falling on the hard roads of life—a splendid assuranoe. What is it? The consciousness of the unfailing love of God in Jesus Christ, and now just notice what Paul does with this discovery. He does the only sensible, reasonable thing a man could do. First of all, he builds an argument upon it, and then -he draws an inference. Because, he says—look at his argument and you will see it—God I never changes, and there is no caprice in God's heart, the love that has followed me all these days will follow me to the end. The love that loved me yesterday will bless me to-morrow, and every day of my life until I reach the splendid consummation. That is the argument, and then he draws an inference. Since the love of God will never fail me, since in all the unknown future that love will be with me, why should I fret? Why should I trouble? I will fear no evil. Just notice what he goes on to do. He conjures up; he marshals before him; he names over in all their great horror every conceivable trouble which afflicts the soul of man; he calls them up and he passes them in review before him, and he bids them do their worst, and sets them all at defiance—neither life nor death. "I am persuaded that"—vou see I made a mistake—neither death nor life. Death, we know what that is We know what life is. Death-that black cloud that is ever hovering up there, drawing nearer and nearer, and that will one day touch us with its cold sha<low. He bids it eome—aye, and life too. He rises, his defiance rises—from death to life. For if we reckon rightly, life is an infinitely worse enemy than death—more terrible, more appalling Life! What unknown chances it holds*! What possibilities of suffering, defeat, death—aye, suffering defeat and shame! ■Tis more solemn than death. What dread possibilities it holds—of disaster, of suffering, of shame. No one can forecast what may happen. Perhaps poverty—you rich man—perhaps disease; perhaps insanity; perhaps, worst of all disgrace. How many a man has been stricken with a sudden temptation, and : in a moment of passion has blasted the fair face of blameless years? Oh, if we be wise, it is nothing less than a triumph , —an achievement—when a man <r C ts home and is laid to rest without"reproach. Thank God for every honored ' death, every blameless grave-neither , life, nor death, nor angels, nor princi- , pahties, nor powers. That is Jewish language, and it just means, in Jewish phraseology the spiritual heirarchy, and, I suppose, the modern equivalent forces that are every playing upon a man's lite—that invade one's life so unexpectedly; that come into life and divert it into new issues; and we never know what they will be doing with us or making of us;, that mystery that is ever starine us m the face; that grim mysterious terror that made the old philosophers say in a moment of bitterness and defeaV Truly man is God's plaything." That is the chief terror of life, that grim uncertainty— angels, principalities, powers, things present, things to come, height depth, this world-the next, heaven' hel. And when St. Paul had said that had he not exhausted the whole cata- | logue of the terrors that distress men's hearts? Yes, so far as he goes; but, oh' he knows so little. So he goes on. and he sums up every possible alarm, every imagmable foe that will ever meet him in the one all-comprehensive paradox—not any different creation.

I am persuaded that neither doath nor life, nor angels, nor principalities' nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other fresh or different creation shall be able to .separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our tord. That wax St. Paul's assurance; that was the faith that made him strong m the face of life, of death, and of eter?h y f •n T ! I , i V' !,S his faith " ls it'not the faith that you and I need ? I s it 110 t the-faith that you and T need in our troubled lives amid all its failure, all its uncertainties? Yes; «„d it j, the faith t that we may have. Yes; believe me, I know. ,T„ Bt ere I pas., on and ere cose notice■ one thing—what was it that did all this for St. Paul? ft was the love of find. Yes; he calls it, to be pn with, the love of Rod; but T suppose he bethmks lnmsclf that phrase is in everybody's mouth. Evervbodv-.lew and Ooiitile-spokc of the love of' God in those days and in the Stoic philosophy t was littlo better than a mere philosot£n nT / !Ut St Paul moant "ore than that And so he straightway defines the love of God-the love of God , lliat is m Christ Jesus our Lord. The oVnnitioi, makes a world of difference' Un.your day of trouble, look back at G yary--lhmk of the cross; think of li.it the cross means; think of the F,v me-llml infinite .sacrifice which tells us what (he unseen Father thinks of his 11 man children; what a length of suffermg and sacnfiec he has gone through to hj, i '"'TV l\ V' al "' to ~rin * »" " rar to '"it d ivercd I,m „,, for UI a „ h bal le not with Him also freely »ive 1 .« n human life „„,] tIIO ]n J (]ost U,e best; the love that died for I>'<«■";'« ■"mors; that died of « broken ™.'t on he (; ~.s S of cavalry. That is " Y lllat '* "> Paul 1 * every line. Is I i love worth trusting? That is my 1 bwl word to yo„. and 1 say it out of „ I own heart. •' f love to tell the story, It has done so much fo'r me I And that is just the reason ' T tell it to thee.