SUNDAY READING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 156, 30 December 1911, Page 6

SUNDAY READING.

AN IDEAL CHURCH. Extract of Sermon contributed by the REV. R. J. LIDDELL, of the Queen St. Primitive Methodist Church. "Now they which were scattered abroad, upon the persecution that arose about Stephen, travelled as far as Phenice and Cyrus and Antioch. ." —Acts, xi., 19-24. The account which St. Luke gives of the Christian community at Antioch furnishes an interesting picture of an ideal Church. Originating through persecution it was made up of the best material and from the first gave evidence of possessing a vigorous and robust life. There were in it in active operation all the j human elements necessary to its success as an evangelising agency, such as sympathy, devotion and self-sacrifice, and it achieved a distinction, which gave to its history an interest and permanence which few churches can claim. To it i belongs the threefold honor or being—' The Mother Church of the Gentiles; the first to recognise and act on the worldwide mission of Christ; the first to give to His followers the name by which they are known to all the world to-day—"for the disciples were called Christians first at Antioch." Let me indicate, two or three features of this Church which lay at the root of its'success and entitle it to be regarded as an ideal Church. First— IT WAS COSMOPOLITAN IN CHARACTER. The speciality of this feature may not be very obvious to the churches of today. For are they not all of this character? And is it not the intention of the Founder of the Church that it shall in all its sections embrace the whole world in its mission? Although such is the purpose of Christ, up to ths time when this Church was founded in Antioch it had not been recognised. Somehow the first Church of Jerusalem, although in the most definite terms, charged with the sublimest and most benevolent mission, and with infinite resources for its execution at its command, failed to rise to such a conception of Christ's meaning, On the contrary, it rapidly sank into one of the narrowest and most exclusive of sections and addressed its gospel message to the Jew only. The first followers of our Lord were Jews, and though expecting a Messiah and acknowledging Christ to be that Messiah, they regarded Him as all their own, and His coming as exclusively in the interests of the Jew and such as might become Jews, as proselytes. This was the great mistake of the Mother Church of Jerusalem, and seriously impaired its power and usefulness. The opening of the doors of their Church to the Gentiles by the disciples at Antioch was, therefore, a new departure of infinite importance to the progress of Christianity. It is not unlikely, as the Church in Jerusalem was mad'e up of two distinct types of Jews—natives of Palestine and Jews foreign born—that there would be divided opinion and feeling in the Church t on the attitude it took on this matter. The Jews from Cyprus and Cyrene were men of broader minds and deeper knowledge, hence while they bowed to the prejudices of their brethren of Palestine they had longings after a greater liberty of action and a wider diffusion of the Gospel than had ever entered the minds of their Apostolic leaders. The outspokenness of Stephen on this matter precipitated a crisis and a persecution of the general body of believers, fierce and relentless, broke out. The bold and faithful Stephen was basely murdered, and the Church was scattered—its members thrown adrift as sheep without a shepherd. Here I a.m reminded of the well-known saying, "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church," a saying which is strikingly true, as the results of this persecution testify. The Church was "scattered," and its members went forth to Seek a fresh,settlement. They went forth not in despair, but as men w,ho rejoiced in a new-found liberty, some of them travelling as far as Antioch—"and the hand of the Lord was with them; and a great number believed and turned unto the Lord." Here was the Lord's appwal of this under diffusion of His word, and inferentially a rebuke of the attempt that was bein« made at the same time by certain Pales°tinian Jews to perpetuate the old limitations. To these fugitives of Cyprus and Cyrene we are indebted for a' liberated gospel. They lifted the cross out of the encumbering ritual of Judaism, and proclaimed to all men, irrespective of nationality or moral condition, salvation through a crucified, but living Christ, and their preaching was to them that believed, whether Jews or Greeks—"Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." Their action opened' a new era of religious privilege ana power to the world, under which we have the happiness living to-day. Second— j

IT WAS HEROICALLY AGGRESSIVE. To some minds there may seem to have been very little of the heroic in the conduct of these followers of Christ as they fled before their presecutors. But flight does not necessarily mean cowardiceit may be, and often is, the dictate of duty. Persecution may open the way to render usefulness, and to refuse to enter it, and under a false notion to choose death, may he very brave, but it may at the same time be quixotic and criminal. Jesus on one occasion said to Bis disciples, "When they persecute you m this city flee ye into another," and obedience of this injunction was manifestly their duty at this time. Antioch was the place that offered them the advantages they sought. To this place these wanderers made their way, and that they wero divinely led in this matter subsequent history fully demonstrates. The flight of these people was therefore no cowardly shrinking from duty, but a Divine movement of greatest moment. They left Jerusalem not as a iaitnless, panic-stricken crowd, but as pioneers of a holy cause, and the preaches of a faith that should ere long conquer the world. They carried witli them their love to Christ and did not fail to give voice to their conviction as to the ] scope and meaning of His mission, for they were found everywhere preaching the Lord Jesus. Antioch was the goal they aimed at. ihey were going to a strange city, where their cause would be as unpopular as If m J ", dea - Tt was a centre of idolatory and a cesspool of moral imP^.ofth e foulest kind ; and though not disposed to persecute by physical violence, it was scurrilous i/ite S cisms and fond of stigmatising, with reproachful epithets, those who excited ts mihtulties they were sure of the bittermiZl 0 - T ° f . theiT own countrymen resident m the city, of whom there was )er Their ™ ission briatled with difficult,* to face which and overstnl ™ V iT- The r did not ««e with fn t ? a f nd th \ S Wi " the ™tyr's crown nev! h , f ° rm ' but the y were marytrs X, CSS - T ' here are t™ ways in vrt , T? may be a mart y- A ™r ness for y ° U be a wit ' S • A B £ uth concCT Diig Christ by euffermg f or n, m a 9 Ste pi len fe flM , w J may bo a witness by proclaim ma nn propagating the mav Jff ' aWI in tWs lat tcr form y 0 „ may sutler as much-nay more-tlnn enoeV" hehn S suffering in obediThitw c ° nsc ' ence and «« call of God Th.3 wag the form fa which tfa»e desjs '

Ed Nazarenes exhibited tlie martyr spirit. The same heroism, thank God, still survives, and is exhibited by devoted men and women who, at the call of God, go to some regions of the foreign mission field—a heroism as true and self-sacrific-ing as ever displayed in the arena of Rome or in the fires of Smithfield. With a noble and heroic Christian devotion these persecuted ones hastened to Antioch, opened their commission in the very centre of the city's superstitions and sensualities. With a holy daring they began their work in this stronghold of heathen impurity, and such results followed as stirred the whole city as it had never been stirred before. Amighty work of God broke out, and a Church was founded, which took the world for its sphere of operation, and salvation for all men as its motto. A church full of life and power, the result of its aggressive energy and faith in God, and which became the focal point of Christian activity and direction, and for centuries influenced the progress and establishment of Christianity in many oarta of the world. * IT WAS EVANGELISTIC IN METHOD. An evangelist has been defined as one who publishes glad tidings—a messenger or promulgator of good news. It is supposed that in the early ©hurch there was an order of preachers called evangelists —men working under the direction of the Apostles as missionaries, and sent to open new places. That there must be a specially appointed ministry, an order of men set apart, as overseers, or guardians of the interests of religion, and leaders of religious thought and activity few will deny. But to affirm or assume that persons so set apart are the only persons who shall preach the Gospel, or impart religious instruction, is a grievous error. As in an army,' there are officers and men of the rank and file, and as no battle was ever won by the orders of the officers, apart from the co-operation of the private soldier, it follows that in his sphere the private soldier is as truly commissioned as are the officers under whom he fights. In Christ's conflict with i sin each saved individual is a soldier, and his activity or idleness will, to a greater or less extent, affect the tide of battle, and help on or delay the final victory. Churches of evangelists whose entire brotherhood is made up of those who having received the Lord Jesus themselves, will pass on the messages of His love to others, are the churches we need to-day, Only by such an agency can we cover the field of our operation—"The fields are white unto harvest, but the laborers are few." We must supplement, the ministry by the rank and file of the churches, liberate the mighty pent-up spirit il forces which there lie dormant . and direct them in a-holy crusade I agap ■•; sin, and to the diffusion of the Gosp I of the Son of God, and the progress .of Christianity will bo accelerated by a momentum of immeasurable strength which will speedily bring into view the day when the kingdoms of the world will become the kingdom of our lK)rd Jesus Christ.