SUNDAY READING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 65, 3 August 1912, Page 6

SUNDAY READING.

TIIE EXPRESS IMAGE. An Address given by the Rev. James Charteris in the Fitzroy Primitive ■Methodist Church. . The brightness of His glory; the express image of his person. e A fault to which we are all prone and to which our very constitution, 'exposes * us is that of allowing God to be out of mind simply because He is out of sight. . In this life we allow ourselves to be too deeply affected by the visible, and things v invisible take a minor place. The grave f closes over the mighty dead, and new j events and' new persons, though they may be much inferior, engross tine public | mind, just as the interest of mien comes j to be centred more on the little boat tlvat floats its crew upon the placid waters. j than upon the gailaut ship that, with all j her guns and brave men, lies buried in ( the depths below. And so it is in ireligious things—in tbo.=.e matter which j affect our eternal well-being .But with ( all their glare and show, . things , seen are paltry, passing, the, very least ( I of things, while ami endurance I belong only to the unseen (Th® Soul) ( that precious piece of immortality which , lies concealed within its fragile fleshy i casket, U unseen. Man's conception of J Heaven and Hell is, for the most part, j the outcome of the imagination. A veil 1 nnpenetratable enshrouds the mysteries of the eternal world. Death is unseen 1 — he strikes bis blow in the dark. The devil steals in upon us, perhaps, unexpected, bua always invisible, and as is our deadliest foe, so is our best and truest friend. For Jesus Clurist is an invisible Savior, and Jehovah is an invisible God. How solemn Is the thought that an invisible being is ever at our side, and watching us, records with rapid pen, every deed and word, every desire i that rises within us, every thought that J passes through our mind on eagle's wing. Could this presence but become a greater j \ reality to mankind, what crimes would ' remain uncommitted, how promptly would every evil thought be banished, how feeble would the strongest temptations prove, what a purity, nobility, hiolij ness would be imparted to Christian lives ' There would be dignity in the humblest ) Christian men anil looks such, as rank could never affect or courtly training breed, and we should guard our hearts with such a door as stands at the threslihold of Heaven, beaming the superscription written in the blood of Calvary, t "There shall in no wise enter in. anything ) that defileth." God, as revealed visibly in Jesus Christ satisfied one of the stroni gest wants in humanity. For long ages | ago the whole earth was given up to I idolatary l , with the exception of one ' nation. The Hebrew stood alone. They I worshippiod in a temple without an idol I and rejected the use of images in the services of religion. Go back to remotest; times. Start from the age of thosie old ! Assyrians whose gods we have 'been dig- i ging from among tlie ruins of Nineveh or of those older Egyptians whose mummy forms lie entombed on the banks of the Nile ; tind coming down the course of time to the last discovered tribes, we find that all nations- (with this one exception) have been idolaters. All have I clung to the visible end employed eensijble representations of the divinity, j whether they adored one or ten thous- ! and gods. To fix the mind and affections j upon an invisible Being was like attempting to anchor a vessel on a foaming tide 'or raging billows. Then there wa» evi- j !dence of this 1 SENSUOUS WORSHIP ■ i in the history of the Jews. So prone was even the chosen people to idolabery that the golden calf was set up at the very ' foot of Sinai. Again, the grass wiaa hardly green- on David's grave when his son forfeiting his title of the wisest of men, allowed himself to be seduced 'by heathen women to 'lend his countenance to ddol- . atry, and ere one half .century had paaIsed, Elijah stood alone, faithful among tho faithless, he only protesting against ) the universal even I only, am left!" Tims rapidly, when abandoned by God l to their passions do both men and nations sink. But we have not to rake up the ashes of Jewish , history nor discover the gravies of ancient Ninirods and Pharaohs to prove THE DEEP LONGING that there is in our nature for <a God who inour scenes may embrace. Now in what way are w;e to account for the universal tendency to idolatry? It admits .but one explanation —the feedings from which idolatry springs are deeply rooted in our nature. The heart craves for something congenial to its nature, and desires in God a practicable object for its affections , to ding to. This'is our'want, and now ' we see how this want is met by the r Gospel, and is provided for bv Him, who knoweth our frame; who remembereth that we are dust. In his incarnate Son, God presents himself to'us in a way that meets all our wants. The Infinite is ] brought within the limits of our narrow understanding* 'and ,; >, > i h , THE INVINCIBLE IS REVEALED I to our sight. Jn thivt: divine, ey.e bent r upon us, whether bqdewed with bears or fi beaming with affection, we recognise, di- • vine Ibve- in a form -which we can know and understand, M Being before whom, we a mere man nor a graven image, nor p, (filing, but the II living, loving,eternal' express image of the invisible God. , cjirist is. the express image of the father. As regards the light and splendor fif ,divine being and character, as iV the" Father, r so is the Son, not partially ' but fully, not approximately l>ut exactly 1 . 1 Many Christians ' ti-ro ii.pt to be pos--5 sessed of a feeling tfhich 1 takes the form of a kind of emphasis Upon the tenderness and gfentlonte&notfrtWe 'SAn in contradistinction toUlue solom'n potaror- which the Fatliieii presents- in-i! the face of man's sin lprepenfcediloft,rftnd, -above all, of man's, s, vni 1 ejd•'iui(lot>• thei ma-si; q{ religion. .. qn.thc other hand, this half oo^s<4ous : -feeling.iabout a difference .between, ,Soij -and- the Father tends, to,.emphasis,?.the .mystery, the invisibility the , Father, till it seems an impenetrable isolation,hiding within i tscl f' vjfe'''jijot -wwit. eiements other than the the Father we seem to see often an inscrutable mystery mtftiPthafr'an 'heart. , ITow entiroTy is : tWd the'gr.iee of God in edntfAdtttioh; I'o suA beliefs! There it i 4 tliftt : "tlb 'riisvVi fiath seen the Father at any- : tlifte"i /ft 'His ensential glory. Biit theni "the begotten Son > that is in the Father He hath declared. Him." lie has told, .w■ «M«tl j,- -fully, finally, for He is the express image—the true impress of-tire.pefrstial Seal." In ' 1 the mystery -off'rifcbnutt* existence there miwt be forever depths unknown,but in the splendour of eternal -character there, is nothing which in Christ is not revealed. All til 6 holiness of the Father, all his omnipotence, all His omniscenee "" itrin the Son. . ' •