SUNDAY READING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 43, 12 August 1911, Page 10 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING.

(Extracts from Sermon preached by Rev. H. Sharp in tlie Fitzroy Primitive Methodist Church).

"God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by which the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world.."—Gal vi., It.

It would not have seemed so strange a thing if Peter or John or any of the other disciples of Jesus had said this. But is is a most wonderful thing for Paul to have said it. llemember what he was —the scholar of Tarsus; a man brought up in the most rigorous principles of the Pharisees. Ernest Revan describes him as a man of the purest Jewish blood. His family claimed to belong to the tribe of Benjamin. The same writer says, "His courtesy when he liked was extreme; his manners exquisite." His character is that of a polished, assiduous, warm-hearted man. And when we remember what the cross was our amazement is deepened that these words should ever have come from his lips. Paul understood the shame and disgrace that were associated with the cross. He knew that it was the implement upon which the accursed of the nation was put to death. Ignominy, contempt, scorn, all gathered round the head of the crucified, and yet this man of whom we have, been speaking says, "God forbid that I should glory save in the cross." And lie didn't say it half apologisingly. He didn't say it under his breath. There is a stress upon the pronoun li l" which in the Greek stands in emphatic contrast to the party who had been the subjects of the last verse. They maKe their boast in a mere external; but for me—far be it from me to make my boast in anything but the cross of Jesus. It means lie exulted in it. Though Paul recognised that the cross was a stumbling block to many and the preaching of it a reason why Christians were persecuted, yet he never obscured it, but set it in the most prominent place in his teaching. JJow, there must have been some reasons why Paul may have gloried in it. the cross. What is the explanation ? 1 will try and suggest three or four reasons why Paul may haveg loried in it. Would not one reason be because of the name and nature of Him who died? "Jesus"—that name had become a great name to Paul. He heard it from the midst of the dazzling glory in the heavens the day he journeyed to Damascus. "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest." It meant a Saviour, as he well knew. "His name shall be called Jesus because He shall save His people from their sins. And this was the cross of Jesus. There were plenty of crosses, and they were not the objects about which men usually boast. But then some things are transformed by contact with a person. A bit of wood, a bone, a coat, all acquire a new value if some person of note has owned them. Relics generally have no intrinsic value. They are prized because such and sucli a person used it or owned it. That is how the cross grew to be an object of glory—because Jesus died on it. -, SHEPHERD AND THE SHEEP. Another reason is because of the nature of Jesus. What various figures He is represented under in order to show His wonderful love for us all! How beautiful is the title of Shepherd, and how significant! "I am the good Shepherd; the good shepherd giveth his lifefor the sheep. That is more than the hireling will do. What does he care if the sheep arc smitten and torn by the wolf? It is his own life and safety he thinks of. But the Shepherd, when danger is near, throws His strong arm around the weak and defenceless.

Dr. George Adam Smith has told how when in Syria lie came in the course of journeying off the beaten track to a fold in which sheep were gathered, and over which a shepherd watched. This fold consisted of a wall through which an opening served as an entrance. In conversation with the shepherd he drew attention to the fact that there was no door, and received the reply, ; 'I am the door," the shepherd going on to explain that at night he lay in the entrance so that no sheep passed out and no wolf could find entrance save over his body. And so Christ's love is so great that not until every drop of blood has been spilt and every ounce of strength has been exhausted can the sheep of his fold be harmed.

Another thing we cannot help noticing in Jesus is

HIS ABSOLUTE SINLESSNESS, for the innocent died there for the guilty. Was our Lord without sin as He claimed, as His apostles testified, as His Church has believed? The record is before us. Where are the traces of sinfulness? "The attempt to impugn His character from the record," says Dr, Robertson Nicol. ''has so completely broken down that the endeavor is now to show that He himself acknowledged His sinfulness." One alleged instance \ is Christ's saying to the young ruler, "Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one—that is God." Dr. Bruce answers the objection admirably. He says: "To the seeker after eternal life who accosted Him as 'Good Master,' he addressed the sharp interrogation, 'Why callest thou Me good?' As if to say, 'Make not goodness a matter of compliment; call no man good until you know what goodness is, and whether the person to whom you apply the epithet deserves it.' Yet while virtually advising this enquirer to suspend his judgment as to the applicability of the epithet 'good' to Himself, Jesus, we note, invited him | to immediate discipleship: 'Go, sell all that thou hast and come follow me.' Had he complied with the invitation, he | would gradually have learned the nature j of true goodness, and that the Master ] he had chosen as his guide was indeed good." Xo, Christ was sinless, or He was the grand deceiver of the world. Hear what Dr. John Watson said: "No one has yet discovered the word Jesus ought not to have said No action of His has shocked our moral sense. You are never amazed one day by His greatness and another day by His littleness. . . . He is tender without being weak, strong without being coarse, lowly without being servile.

• . . . This man alone never made a false step, never struck a jarring note. His life alone moved on those high levels where local limitations are transcended and the absolute law of moral beauty prevails'." Can wc be surprised that Pan! should glory in the death of such ii Cue? There is another reason i want to suggest.

HE WAS THE PROPITIATION for our sins. When He was wounded it "'as for our transgressions. When He was bruised it was for our iniquities. That death meant the reconciliation of God and man. It meant the removal from upon us of the wrath of God. It meant that the demands of an accusing conscience were satisfied. Yes; that is why Paul gloried in the cross. It silenced that voice of guilt within, which unrelentingly claimed satisfaction for the past sins. Who amongst us does not know the scourgiug.s and lashings (if conscience? We know the greatest pain is not physical, but spiritual. The most awful desolation and despair; the mc/,t intolerable burden comes from the sense

of separation from God. "Biit a wounded spirit, who can bear?"

Stained with the sins which I have wrought In word and deed and secret thought, for pardon which Thy blood hath bought. Christ, crucified. 1 come. A GLORIOUS SEAL TO THE HOLINESS OF THE LAW. ' Perhaps one of the greatest reasons why the cross made Paul glory was because of the honor there put upon the law of God. lam going to quote Dr. Alexander Whyte: "And then what a glorious seal has been set to the holiness of the law of God. No wonder that the holy law of God was proclaimed to be magnified and made honorable for ever when the very blood of the Lawgiver Himself was shed in order to vindicate and redress the broken law. The Throne of God has been founded in righteousness from everlasting. But after a full satisfaction for sin had been made with His own blood Who sat on that Throne from everlasting, that glorious Throne was established in righteousness as never before. How surprisingly illustrious has the holiness of the law of God shone out on all earth and heaven since that day when He Whose holylaw it was shed His own blood in atonement to the holiness and inviolability of that law." Let this thought sink deep down into our minds. We are justified as if we had never committed a sin. And God has forgiven us not by the mere exercise of a prerogative, but He has forgiven us and justified us on the ground of Christ's finished work whereby our pardon was sealed and the Divine law honored.

The last, and a very important, reason I would suggest is because of the effect it had on his own life. By it he was crucified to the world. That is to say, it was the influence by means of which his old evil life was destroyed in order that he might live the iiew life in Christ. For Paul, the cross was a force daily exerting itself in his life, quickening in him a hatred of sin and,an overmastering desire to rise to even higher heights of Christian perfection. It kindled a fire in his heart which burned up the dross of selfishness and pride. It set in motion a power that swept over his life like a mighty gale bnding that proud, unyielding spirit into submission and obedience. It made him humble, loving, kind. And if the. cross means no more to us than an awe-inspiring scene; if it only excites wonder and amazement; if we think of it merely as the greatest tragedy this world has known, then it has not spoken its deepest meaning to us yet. We do not want a cold admiration of it that moves us to buy a cross and wear it hanging on our watchchains, but we want it to become a living vital force in our lives, touching our souls to finer issues and making our lives radiant and joyous with the consciousness of a new fife which has taken the place of the old sinful self. When I see your life is changed ai\d you begin to do new and strange things, then I know you arc glorying in the cross in the sense that Paul gloried in it. There are a lot of people who just need some stimulus, an incentive of some kind, and the possibilities of their lives would be realised. To-day they are stagnant* to-morrow they may be full of life, boisterous and overflowing. But it can only be by the energy generated by the cross that they will ever rise above their own dead selves. Many narrow, sordid lives have been ennobled because they have come beneath the sway of Jesus, and yours may lie blessed 'and used if you will let Christ bo your King. Come to Him with all your sin and you will find that He not only forgives but "breaks the power of cancelled sin and sets the prisoner free."

ALL IS GLORY ROUND THE CROSS. It was a glorious Saviour who died; it was a glorious love that led Him to die; it was a glorious object to redeem a world; and it is an unspeakable glory to which He will raise iost and ruined sinners by His death. Oh, who would not glory in such a Saviour? Compared to this, what trifles are all the objects in which men usually boast? God spoke to people through Jeremiah saying, "Thus, saith the Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom; neither let the mighty man glory in his might; let not the rich man glory in his riches. But let him that glorieth glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exerciseth loving kindness, judgment and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delimit, saith the Lord." The great and supreme object worthy of our glory is the cross of Christ, for there all those things which Jeremiah lias mentioned were clearly displayed. Drawn to the Cross which Thou hast blessed For healing gifts for souls distressed, To find in Thee my life, my rest, Christ, crucified, I come.