SUNDAY READING.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 September 1915, Page 9

SUNDAY READING.

SERMON preached by the REV. A. H. OOLVILE, M.A., at St. Mary's Church, New Plymouth. "You shall not see my face, except your brother be with you."-—Genesis xliii.-S. That was the pronouncement, short, sharp and stern, that struck home to the hearts of guilty men, for God was behind it, and it must have come to them as the word of God Himself. For a moment let us picture the scene. Ten men stood humbly before a brother whom long ago they had injured grievously. They did not know him for their brother, it is true. They did not recognise in the great Prime Minister ol Egypt the Joseph whom long ago they had envied and hated and sold into slavery, but his words were a thrust at the conscience which they made no attempt to parry—a thrust more telling than any direct accusation could possibly have been. Joseph said nothing to them about himself. He didn't, as we say, "rake up old sores." He didn't remind them of his dreams or administer to them that irritating "I told you so," which so far from bringing a man to repentance provokes him to defiance and to casting about in his mind for some justification. No; Joseph spoke to his brethren not of the past, Out oi the present and the future. He suggested to them the idea of repentance by reminding them of another brother, and of their responsibility for that brother, and he conveyed that suggestion, in the shape of a solemn warning: "Ye shall not see my face except your brother be with you." Long ago they had sold Joseph away from his father's home without mercy or compassion; well, that was past. God had over-ruled that evil and brought good out of it. It was out of their power to take it all back again and undo the past. But there was something they could dd. Let them care for ana protect their younger brother now if they would find favor in the eyes of one who had power of life or death, who eould save or destroy. And see how wonderfully this practical pinning them down to the present brought them to remorse and repentance for the past. That talk about one brother made them remember another, and without one direct word being said about it, the sin of long ago fame back to them, "and they said one to another, 'We arc. verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us and we would not hear, therefore is this distress come upon us.'" 'Now, my friends, we will leave the old-world story of Joseph and his brethren—though I ask you to keep what I have said to you about it in mind—and come down to the present and the

EXPERIENCES OP EVERY-DAY LIFE. I have said that God was behind the words that a great and good man spoke to those he would help in ages long gone by. God is behind them to-day: "Ye shall not sec-'fiiy face, except your brother be with you." It was'to bring this great truth about salvation home to the world that Jesus Christ lived and loved and suffered upon this earth—it was this that inspired His teaching, "Ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to Me." It was for this that strengthened Him in the agony of Gethsemane. It was for this He died on Calvary, and took with Him into the presence of God His brother, the penitent thief. It was for this, that instead of creating a little company of saints and mystics, He sent forth a band of missionaries into all the world and told them to make disciples of all nations. One can almost feel that the inspiring power of the Holy Spirit led those men to understand that the working out of Vheir own salvation meant the working out of the salvation of others. One can almost feel that in the minds of St. Paul and his comrades, as with desperate energy they labored for the redemption of the world, was ever present the solemn warning, "Ye shall not see my face, except your brother be with you." And I believe that is GOD'S MESSAGE TO THE CHURCH TO-DAY. Yes, I can guess what some of you are thinking. This is nothing new. Had not the .world already grasped the idea ? It is true that in the days before the war—how long ago it seems—one had heard a great deal of talk, some of it very loose talk, about brotherhood. It was supposed that the world could realise that ideal without God, without religion, without Christ. The brotherhood of man without the Fatherhood of God. The ideal that is still-born; and to-day we are face to'face, with the great failure. Nation armed against nation. Men who in theory are brothers using every diabolical means that material science has placed in their power to kill and maim and mutilate one another, and even at the centre of our Empire, distrust, suspicion, hostility among men who haa grown up to believe that the interests of their class were the most important things of all, what Mr. Asquith has called "the sinister spectacle of domestic strife." That is what brotherhood has oome to because men attempted to build it up on the foundation of materialism, legislation, ethics, anything but religion. Therefore I believe God's message to-day is to the Church that is to you and me. The Church in times past may have failed in her duty. We may have been "verily guilty concerning our brother." We may have thought too much of the religion of Christ as the monopoly of church-going people. We may have lost touch, or, rather, never got into touch with the very class, we ought to have claimed for the Master. For sins of neglect in Church needs forgiveness. But here and now God in His mercy sets

ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY' before us. One almost trembles when one thinks of it and thinks of the great responsibility that will be laid upon the Church in the immediate future. Our younger brothers, my friends, when they come home—some of them, wounded ami sick, will soon be in our midst. Many others, please God, will follow sound iii mini! and body. Men who have been through a great and wonderful experience, who have lived their lives as it were on a razor's edge for many long weeks and months, who have been ia constant touch with grim and terrible realities—they will come back with hearts warm for homeland friends, with spirits high and keen for a larger measure of life than contented them before they left these shores. J believe, too, that many of them will come back with natures deepened and strengthened as men who have been through a great adventure, who have seen comrades suddenly stricken into the great silence, as men who have faced death a thousand times and have realised how narrow is the frontier between this world and the unseen life—the invisible kingdom of God—a band of men whose hearts God has touched, la the Church prspar. Ed for them, prepared to give them a .home, to build th«n uj In the faith of

Christ? Or will that newly-awakened spirit be allowed to fall back again into the depths from which it came? My friends, we all understand the importance of caring for the bodies of the siek and wounded, for providing them with comforts and seeing that they do .not lose materially by the sacrifices thjy have made. Greater, far greater, is OUR RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR REAL LIVES. The country will welcome them back. Everyone will be eager to make them happy, to give them a good time, to praise and honor them. But for God's sake let us beware lest in doing so we tempt them to evil and hurt their souls, and quench the spirit that has been kindled within them. I speak earnestly on this matter, for I was in England at the close of the Boer war when the soldiers came back from the front, and witnessed scenes that would make you sick. Whole train loads of soldiers —every man in a helpless condition of drunkennessthanksgiving services perforce postponed while the men were got sober. Street orgies of the most bestial description, with a horrible increase of disease in many English towns, while the whole tone of society became coarser and more materialistic as the result of what was called "the reaction." Well, to compare the Boer war with this one is to compare small things with great, yet I believe we must take to heart the warning and remember it in the days to come. "Ye shall not see my fac>> except your brother be with you." A song, or hymn, that was very popular some time ago expressed the sentiment: "0 that will be Glory for me, When by his grace I shall look on His face.'' My friends, I believe that there will be no glory for me or for you or for anyone else, if wc stand at last in the presence of God without our brother; and I do certainly believe and say that there will be no glory for us when this war i 3 over if wc destroy all the greatness that has grown up in the lives of our younger brothers and plunge them into an atmosphere of materialism and frivolity.

A GREAT RESPONSIBILITY RESTS ON THE WOMEN.

Much depends on tliem. Men will come back, I believe, with a greater respect for women, setting a higher value on them—whether they be mothers or wives or sisters or sweethearts—than before they went away. If women make themselves cheap; if they take the lowest view of a man's idea of a "good time"; if they encourage coarseness and deliberately tempt to carelessness and frivolity, they will be doing the greatest wrong to the men themselves, destroying their own power for good and doing much to rob the Church of her opportunity. And how wonderfully, on the other hand, can they help! What a steadying influence you can have on that man whom you are hoping and praying to see again! He will be ready to come with you to Communion; he will love to come into the old church again and join in the hymns and prayers if only you will encourage and strengthen him; he will want to live a deeper life in touch with eternal things, in touch with God Himself, and you can help him to do it. Show him that you are not asliamed of the Gospel of Christ, that you believe In its power. You are praying for him now, for his welfare, for his safe return. Add to your prayers the petition that God will use you to keep him straight and pure and strong in the faith of Christ when he comes back to you. Can one not feel, my friends, that as all the millions of prayers go up to God to-day from millions of anxious hearts God looks down in great pity, with a Father's love and a Father's compassion, and yet sends down to us the solemn warning, "Ye shall not see my face except your brother be with you."

NEGLECTED OPPORTUNITIES. And I want to say one word in conclusion to those—and it may be there are many here—whose consciences are not clear about their brother even as they pray for him. They have an uncomfortable feeling that they didn't do their best for him when he was with them. Neglected opportunities for good, nay, actual temptations to do evil, came from them—if he should fall now—and these tilings seem to clog their prayers. Or it may be, like Joseph's brethren, the very fact that this younger brother needs their help, makes them think of another against whom they have sinned in the past, and to whom it is now too late to atone. Is it so indeed? Have you ever thrust sin into another life than your own? Have you ever by harsh word or deed smitten a loving face into grief? Would you give all that you possess to be able to call a loved one back from the dead just for a moment to ask for the word of forgiveness and healing—the brother whom long ago your selfishness sold into sorrow and shame It is an awful thought that we can never put completely right what we have once put wrong. But, mi mends there can be no despair. That brother has passed from yonr hands into the hands of God with Whom all things work together for good. See another brother is given to you now—a younger brother; do for him what vou would fain do for the life that has passed beyond your power to help or harm If you cannot recall Joseph, take care of Benjamin. Pour out your best in the service of your brother who is given to you now, who wiil soon be at your side, whom you can influence, whom you can protect, whom you can bring to God, and when "Heaven's morning breaks and oarth s dark shadows flee," you will hold that brother by the hand and be unafraid to look upon the face of God