SUNDAY READING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 255, 27 April 1912, Page 7

SUNDAY READING.

THE ROBES AND THE KING. j Notes of a Sermon preached in New Plymouth by REV. 11. J. LEWIS, j Psalms, chap. 11., v. 26 and 27: j "They shall perish, but thou slialt en- j dure: yea, all of them shall wax old . like a garment: as a vesture shalt I Thou change them, and they shall be j changed: but Thou art the same and Thy years shall have no end." This is one of the most majestic images ! in the Old Testament. It is, in fact, one of the sublimest passages in the poetry of the world. Tiie idea contained in it is that the heavens are God's robes and the stars the jewel with which those robes are bespangled. These robes are constantly changing and perishing in the process of change. That idea is corroborated by the most recent discoveries of science. Modern astronomy teaches us that the sky is continually passing away, that the stars are fires slowly burning out. But, says the Psalmist, the passing away of those skies, the burning out of those fires are J only the changing and casting aside of I the, royal robes worn by God. The rohes | change, are worn out, and cast aside.> But though the robes perish the King | remains ever the same, and, stripped of, its poetic sheath, the truth taught in the text is that though the forms of revelation change and perish the nature of God Himself remains ever the same. There are two aspects of the doctrine here taught which ultimately concern us all: (1) Theological change and pass away, but the truth underlying them remains ever the same. Every theological theory is at best but a human attempt to interpret some aspect of Divine truth. 'But the changes in the success we find assumed by those theories no more change the truth about them than the change in theories of astronomy alters the truth about the stars. The astronomy of to-day is a very different thing from that of the days of the ancient Egyptians. But the magnitude and movements of the solar system are just the same to-day as they were in the days of Abraham. The; bearing in mind of this fact will save us i from being disturbed and disquieted by the revolutionary changes in theological theories which form such a characteristic feature of the age in which we live. The theory, or the verbal inspiration, of the Scriptures and the substitutionary theory of the Atonement have been ruthlessly mutilated by the new light which is breaking over the mind of man today. But the modification, even the abandonment, of these theories do not touch the truths that in the Scriptures God speaks to man, than on the Cross we have the assurance that our sins are forgiven. Theories are ephemeral, but truths are eternal. Theological theories are only the robes worn by truth, but the eternal truth survives everv change in the robe it has worn in different ages. The old hard Calvinism is practically dead, hut the truth of the sovereignty of God enshrined in that theory is as immutable as ever. Every theory of theology lives only so long'as it is'able to interpret some truth in the language of a particular age. When it has served I that purpose it passes away- to be succeeded by a new theory which will interpret the old truth in the new language of another age. But there is nothing more to alarm us in this than there is in the fact that we no longer speak in tho phraseology of Chaucer or Spender. The robes pass, but the King lives on: Our little, systems have their day, Their little day, and cease to be, And these, 0 God, are part of Thee, But Thou, 0 God, are more than they. (2) The forms assumed by the dispensations of Providence change and pass away, but the love behind them all remains ever the same. Theology is the manifestation of God's truth to the intellect. Providence is the proclamation of His love to the heart. But while the changes in the forms of theological theories take place slowly and gradually, changes in the forms assumed by the dispensations of Providence often come upon us so suddenly as almost to take away our breath. Providence appears to us now in the bright garb of twenty years of unbroken health, now in the dark robe of six weeks of prostration and painful illness, now in a long scene of business successes, now in the sudden crash of a great failure, now in half a life-time of unbroken home happiness, now in the form of a great home sorrow so crushing that it threatens to bow our heads for the rest of our life. But the love which wears the dark robes is just as real as that which is arranged in the bright ones. Sometimes when we come home from a storm wrapped in a thick overcoat or shrouded in dark cloaks and close veils, the little ones may start from us in dread, because for the moment they, do not recognise us. But presently we lay aside the dark, forbidding wraps, take the little things in our arms, and kiss their tears away. Then their sobs pass into laughter as they say, "It's father; it's ma." The great secret of peace and rest in life is the cultivation of the habit of recognising the love of our Heavenly Father in its dark robes as well as in its bright ones. To help us to do that our Father sends us the immortal story of the life and death of that Jesus who is at once God's son and our brother. That story says a. thousand things to us. And one of the sweetest of them is this: No sorrow, no troubles, no blow, however .terrible, that can ever fall on any man or woman is any sign of God's anger, any sign, oven, of the abatement of God's love. For God had a son once in whom He was ever well pleased. And yet He let that son be persecuted, slandered, ostracised, betrayed, murdered. God loved that son as much when he hung on the cruel cross as when he was surrounded by all the glories of Heaven. That means once and for ever that nothing that happens to us can ever touch the fact of our Father's love to us or need: shake our faith in it. Ho who has seen God in Christ can sing with Paul, "I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor things present nor things to come, nor height, nor depths, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Chri&t Jesus our Lord." "Put on thy darkest robes, and I shall know Thee still, for He who has seen Thy love in Jesus can recognise it anywhere." This is the thought that can help us to bear up under such an awful tragedy as the wreck of the Titanic. It is not for us to try to pen any poor human words to explain how the commission of such an awful tragedy can be reconciled with the perfect love of God. But we are sure of one thing. God loved the men and women who went down in the Titanic as much as He loved those of our dear ones who came safe back to us by the last trip of the Tvaniwa. The way to be sure of that is to remember that everyone bereaved by that wreck is our brother and sister, and show our belief by contributing of our best to the fund for the relief of the widows and orphans. It will do someIhiug to help the woman who has lost her husband in that terrible calamity to know that it has given her a million brothers and sisters. Only love can see love. Let us love as God loves us all, and then we shall be sure that behind all the shadows of life stand "One God, Who ever lives and loves."