SUNDAY READING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 79, 23 September 1911, Page 1 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING.

OLD FRIENDS. Extract of Sermon preached liy It civ. 11. J. Liddell in the Queen St. Primitive Methodist Church. ''Thine own friend and ihy father's friend forsake not."—Prov. xxvii.-10. There is a picture in the Royal Academy entitled, "Old Friends." ' It represents a young girl, evidently in a deep decline, propped up -with pillows in an easy chair, and a (ine large dog with hi* paw on her knee looking up into her face with evident grief and sorrow. No more runs in the. garden, no more romps on the lawn; the,'happy companionship of the dog and his young mistress was well nigh at an end. So in many ways old friends and companions have to part company. It may lie a favorite dog or a sweet little songster that lias heeu daily fed and watched over, or it may lie the, golden clasp that has hound together two fond hearts for years is aliout to be broken.

Friend after friend departs, Who has not lost a friend? There is no union here of hearts', That finds not here an end. If you have an old and tried friend treat him well, and hold him to your heart with the firm grip of your love. Money can buy many things, good and evil; but all the wealth of the world could not buy you a friend, nor pay you for the loss of one. He is the worst of all spendthrifts who lets friend's drop off through inattention, or who holds aloof because of some petty jealousy, or supposed slight. The wise man in the Book of Proverbs says, "Thine own friend and thy father's friend forsake not." It is good advice. Acquaintances may.be many, real friends are rare, and precious as they are rare. We should be prepared to give up much rather than part with a true friend. If your friend has been your father's friend, too, lie has a double claim upon you. ITe is one of your most precious treasures, is a part of your family inheritance, and should be valued accordingly. To foresaid him for any reason less than proved unfaithfulness and treachery would be baseness indeed. I desire in this sermon to speak of four friends that have proved helpful, and that have been a tower of strength to our fathers. They still abide the same and have in them the power and the readiness to help and inspire this generation also if we forsake them not. There is first of all THE SANCTUARY.

We thank God for the friend of our father's—the Christian Church. By the Church I mean not any one section of Christian believers, but the universal society of Christ's saved people, with Jesus in the midst. The Church is larger than all the churches. RSman Catholicism, Anglicanism, Methodism does not embrace the whole Church by any means, for it embraces all. Tt has been often attacked for what it has done, and oftener perhaps for what it has not done. Its greatness is shown over by the great things its opponents expect it to do. There may be defects in the Church just as there are spots on the sun, but with all its acknowledged deficiencies it remains the noblest, the divinest society on God's earth. .inow me where you can find such a company of people, of all nations, tribes and people, bound together by such a (Splendid loyalty, holding the same fundimental principles and adoring the same Head as you will find' in the Church. Its detractors tell lis of its faults, and its deficiencies, but they are strangely blind to its excellencies', and silent as to its philanthropies and charities. We can challenge the world to show us any society that has done a thousandth part of the good the Church has done in the past. It needs no apology save the story of the lives of its saints, the self-sacrifice of its confessors, and the deaths of its martyrs. There are some people who point out the need of improvement in the Church. Well, if it does, you get inside and improve it from there.' The Church to some people is like the windows of a cathedral I went to see which were said to be very beautiful. To me, as I looked at them, they were the dullest and most uninviting tilings I ever saw. But. like most things, they had two sides. I got the other side by going into the building, then I saw them in their true beauty. Everything I had heard about them was true. From the inside all the lovely colors of the rainbow shone forth from those windows. Such is the Church. You must get inside, become one of her members, a follower of her Lord, then you will see her beauty. If the Church needs more light and life, yet inside and give her what light and life you have. Better be a model than a mere critic. Show what to do by doing it. Now, be loyal to the Church. She has been your father's friend, she is your friend, she has done you untold good already. In days of childhood, she has surrounded you with an atmosphere of prayer, worship and love, and created all that is best in the modern world for your benefit. Give her your sympathy, your cooperation, your love and your service. Here and now resolve to become a part of that Church Christ loved and died for, that it might become a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Another friend I would remind you of is

THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. To the weary toilers of earth, what a boon is the day of rest. God knew we could not work seven days a week without a break-down in our health, so He instituted the Sabbath. It is always welcome. Machinery stops, and tools are laid aside on this day. We throw off the apron and turn down our sleeves and bless God for this precious day. But some do not make a good use of this old friend. They treat him badly. I ask you to hold fast to this dear old friend. What life is with the Sabbath we know, but what it would be without the Sabbath we can only imagine. What a ceaseless grinding toil if we had no day of rest. It would be life with its last joy crushed out of it; life overrun with the sands of worldliness and presenting an unrelieved picture of barrenness and desolation. The tendency of the time's is certainly leaning towards abandonment of this friend. Hundreds are transforming it from a "holy-day" to a "holiday." and employ it as far as possible in amusement and self-indulg-ence. srNDAY TN NEW PLYMOUTH. What do we find in our own town on the Lord's Hay? At t>e golf links men playing golf as shameless as on a weekday, with as little regard for God and ihi' Sabbath as the heathen: lawn tennis parties; musical rehearsals, society functions and motoring are multiplying fast. When you see a man on the Lord's Day pleasuring, gardening, motoring, shooting, golfing, you may brand him as a man who is turning his back upon his father's friend, and his own friend. Just, as the Giiihirenes drove Christ from I heir coasts, so many have already banished the Christian Sabbath from their homes. As Judas sold his Master for thirty pieces of silver, so men are selling their best friend, the Sabbath Day, and the bargain is as bad as that of the traitor.

The Sabbath was' given for man's highest interests. It was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. It was intended to assert God's right and ownership in the whole of life, and to enforce his claim to human worship. When we ignore fioil and use the Sabbath for the trivialities of pleasure, we are guilty of conduct marked by base ingratitude and exceeding sinfulness. He who desecrates (iod's day is breaking a Divine law, abusing one of (lod's most precious gifts, and turning away from a friend. Listen to the voice of the text: "Thine, own friend and thy father's friend forsake not." The name of a third friend I would mention,

THE HOLY BIBLE. This is a most precious friend lo those, who know- how to use it. I know of no friend, apart from the Saviour Himself, who will give such comfort and consolation in times of sickness, sorrow and. old age. It will light up the room dark with the (roubles of life and pour balm into the wound of grief, and make a "dying bed feel soft as downy pillows are." To the psalmist of old, whether in the darkness of adversity or the brightness of prosperity, the Word of God was his comfort and guide. It was to him a lamp by night and a guide by day. That is precisely what it was to on'r fathers. In this Volume the Living Christ walks, and before llim men bend the knee. Take the best sixty-six books you know dealing with geoiogy or medicine, gathered out from the, greatest writers of the past, and what have you for your pains but a mass of contradictions? But here is a, Book growing up through centuries under every conceivable peculiarity of national character and life, yet bounded by a marvellous unity throughout. Science equips a man but does not guide him. It illuminates the universe for him even to the region of the most distant star, but it leaves night in his heart. Not so with this Volume; it meets the need of the human soul. It is the tree, the leaves of which are for the healing of the nations. "These things are written that ye might believe that'.Testis is the Christ and that believing ye might have life through His name: written that ye might know Him and the power of His resurrection. Our fathers may not have been able to give a very clear interpretation of many things contained in this Book, but here they found the Bread of Life, and with joy drew water out of the Wells of Salvation. Thev pinned their faith to it, and pillowed their heads upon the consolation it gives. The great Boston lecturer, Rev. Joseph Cook, when touring tfie Australian States some time ago was stricken down with a serious illness in Melbourne. He sent for Dr. Bevan and said "Give me my Bible." The sick man took it in his trembling hands, pressed it to his heart, and said, "I die in the faith of this Book and on it I rest niv whole eternity." I beseech you not to forsake this old friend. Cling to the Bible, and as you cling-say: Though all the. forms which men devise

Assault my path with treacherous art. I'll call them vanity and lies, And bind the Bible lo .my heart. There is another friend — THE SAVIOUR. There's not a Friend like the lowly Jesus, No, not one; no, not one; None else can heal all our soul's diseases, No, not one; no. not one. T trust you know and love Him, But T fear many of you have slighted Him. He is despised and rejected by men today as He was when upon earth. Jesus Christ is the one complete, full, allround friend of men. The poor, the sad. the sick, thp oppressed of His dnv found in Him a friend and a sympathiser. Tn Him the sinner found a Saviour. To as many as received Him to them He. gave the power to become the sons of God. When Charles Kingsley was asked for'the secret of ihs beautiful life, he replied, "I have . a Friend." It was that Friend that transformed his character. A multitude of illustrations may be quoted of the benefits conferred upon men who made Jesus their Friend. But let me bring before you two men who forsook Him. The rich young ruler came to Jesus asking "what he must do to inherit eternal life." When Jesus laid down the conditions the young man went away sorrowful. He turned his bock upon his Saviour and Friend, and is lost sight of for ever. Will ye also go away? Will you also forsake Him because of some possession, pleasure or companion? Think of Judas. He had been over three years in Christ's company, and at last beraved Him. When Christ partook of the Last Supper witli his disciples it is recorded that when Judas received the sop he went immediately out, "and it was night." Oh, tho tragedy, suggestiveness and significence' of those words, "And it was night"! Not only night in the natural world, but night in the soul of Judas. To the traitor there was no 'dawn, for in forsaking Christ he was leaving all light behind him, He went out into the night with a midnight darkness in his soul; into the night, friendless, with Ms tortured and tormented self. That is the fate of all who forsake the Saviour. Let us hold fast this dear Friend. His blood can cleanse the vilest; His grace can change the most wicked, and His love can make happy the most disconsolate. His sympathy is deeper and broader than the ocean; His resources for your comforr>and help are as vast as eternity, and when you make Him vour Friend He will never leave you nor fail you. Earthly Friends may fail or leave us, One day soothe the next day grieve us, But this Friend will ne'er deceive us; Oh. Low He loves!