SUNDAY READING.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 January 1916, Page 9

SUNDAY READING.

THE SEARCHING OF GOD. SEitMOX PREACHED BY REV, A. H. COLVfLE, M.A., at St. Mary's Church, New Plymouth. "0 Lord, Thou hast searched me out and know me." "Search me, 0 God, and know mv heart,"—Psalm 139, 1 and 23. What do you suppose was the necessity for this prayer, "Search me, 0 God, and know my heart"? The psalmist had already' declared that God had searched him out and known him, that there was not a word on his tongue, riot a thought in his mind, nor a desire in His heart that was not known to God. Why, then, did he pray, "Search me. 0 God,'and know my heart"? If he was really convinced that God knew him through and through, what ncei\ was there for any further prayer? J think we shall understand if we read the whole psalm. Between the statement of the first verse and the prayo: in the last he had been expressing very freely his feelings towards the people whom he considered wicked. They vicr(\ enemies of God; he was quite sure of that. Personally he would have nothing to do with them, and prayed that the Lord would slay them. And then when he had given full vent to his feelings, he began to doubt whether after all lie was quite right to take up this attitude, whether he was sufficiently sure of himself to be able so fiercely to denounce others, and lie prays, "Search me, 0 Lord, and know my heart; look well if there he any way of wickedness in me. and lead me in the way everlasting." He had declared certain people to be wicked and then wondered whether there might not be something wrong with himself. "Search me,- 0 Go"—search this attitude of mine 'towards my enemies and see if it is as virtuous as it appears to be; search me, 0 God, and see if my own motives are pure and my heart right, whether there is not something in my life that needs Thy discipline, perhaps just as much as there is in those whom I have denounced so stront'v. My friends, the man who wrote that pslam was Very wise and very right when he came back at the end and made that prayer to God. We are never more in need of it than when we declaim against other people, and give vent to our anger and our hatred. We are most of us ready to> denounce our enemies to-day; we cry out against them for their ruthlessness, brutality and greed; our newspapers vie with one another in passionate phrases of condemnation; our speakers and politicians exhaust themselves in whirling words of denunciation; in millions of private conversations since the war began have the most uncompromising epithets been applied to the Teutons and all their works. We have assumed and confidently asserted that they are God's enemies as well as our own. We are no doubt absolutely right in doing so, just as no doubt the. psalmist was perfectly right when lie cried, "Yea, I hate them right sore." There must be a place and a time 'for denunciation of that which our conscience tells us is altogether wicked and harmful. If we were never to clear the air by some explosion of fierce indignation against cruelty and wrong, life would become a very sickly, unhealthy thing, and the standard of right, living would insensibly become lower. Yes, my friends, but the very strength of our indignation against our enemies should turn our thoughts back upon ourselves. .Dare we as a nation appeal to God to

"SEARCH THE GROUND OF OUR HEART," to "look well if there be-any way of wickedness in us'"; Has there not been at the heart of the Empire a greed for the s°°d tilings of this life, an inordinate love of comfort and pleasure, a selfish lust for gain, and,a consequent neglect for religion and forgctfulness of God for which wo might well denounce ourselves? Is not some part at least of our indignation against our enemies due to the fact that the war has cut so cruelly into the ease and comfort of our lives and forced us to sacrifice* which we never thought we should have to make? In the days before the war responsible politicians were busily engaged in striving to make life smoother and easier for the people. You may say -that much of their work was good, and J may agree with you, or I may not. Anyhow./I am not here to talk politics. 'But- I do say that in the midst of our denunciations of our enemies by forcing this war upon us we would do well to search out our hearts and see if it were not very kirgely the love of ease and comfort, the desire for more of the good tilings of this life, and the dislike of sacrifice that led politiciaiw and people '(that is, the vast majority of people) to shut their ears to repeated warnings concerning the menace of war and the necessity of sacrifice in preparation. A certain set of English newspapers has been fiercely denounced lately in Parliament, in the Press, and by a large section of the public for their supposed want of patriotism. We would do well to remember that these papers, before the war, repeatedly called attention to the German threat hanging over Europe; and that since the war began they have consistently pleaded for the greatest national sacrifice that the Englishpeople could possibly make—compulsory military service at a time of national peril. I do not think that warnings of danger, incitements to greater energy, and appeals for sacrifice ought to be regarded as "pessimism," nor held to constitute a lack of patriotism. The fiercest denunciators of the late f.ord Roberts arc now compelled to honor his memory, and acknowledge his wisdom. A denunciation is after all very like a boomerang—it often (lies back and hits you in the face; and no one ought to remember that more constantly than he whose duty it is to preach to others. No one ought more continually to make that prayer to God, "Search me and know my'heart." In real humility I confess it. And when our conscience 'tells us that we must "speak boldly," and cry out passionately against injustice 'and cruelty and wrong, we may well paite'c at the last and turn our thoughts to Him Who alone knows the secrets of all men's hearts, the great Searcher-out of motives, the judge of all the earth Who can never make a mistake, and pray that He will look right into ojir lives and see us as we really are. and will "cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of His Holy Spirit." I am not sure that if we carried that principle about with us—no condemnation of others without prayer for ourselves—and made it a daily rule, we should live morally and spiritually better ■■.in! ><:fer lives. Certainly our'homes ••.Yivj'.'v h- happier. Think how much un-

comfortableness is brought into the home by the spirit of intolerance. Thin!; of the constant temptation to impatience even with those we iv-ally love, of the passionate or sarcastic condemntion of their faults and foibles, or the long sulky silence that means condemnation, and is often ,siore dangerous and deadly than the strongest outburst, of passion. We know well that the happiness of many a home has been marred by the spirit of intolerance. What a a-plendid corrective, what a

(SAFEGUARD TO OUR OWN HAPPINESS and that of others if after some stonn of condemnation lias shaken the house, or when the icy silence of disapproval has frozen all pleasant and natural relationships there, we could net away from ourselves and our own feelings anil turn our thoughts to Cod in prayer: ■'Search me, 0 God, and know mv heart; show mo my own selfishness and vanity and littleness, and lead me in the way's of peace and forgiveness. - * Would not such u prayer steady us. keep us humble and thoughtful and more patient with other, so that home would he a happier and a better place for ourselves and those who share it with us?

But there are even higher possibilities of happiness in this' attitude, and I want briefly to direct vour thoughts to the comfort of trio intimate appeal to God for His judgment—ave, with the comfort of realising that God knows us through and through, that He has indeed "searched us out." At the first glance we might think it a xory terrifying truth, but the psalmist very rightly gives thanks, for it. When h'e has. declared that God knows everything about him he says, "I will oive thee thanks, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made," and that expression does not apply only to our moral and spiritual equipment as well. ' Morally and spiritually we are "fearfully and wonderfully made," and as men seldom realise this, God's knowledge of it i s a cause of great thankfulness. We "do long to be really and truly known. It is this longing that gives the confessional its power—its dangerous power, if you like. It meets the longing of men and women to be "known." "wo are never quite known even by "the dearest heart and next our own," and. it we can believe that there is a God Who knows all about us, that is a great comfort. He will know our sinsyes, but He will know how we have inwardly disapproved of them ourselves; He will know of that disgust which shakes us when we have done some unworthy thing- for which others, who cannot see the disgust, are loudly condemning us. He will know our failures, He will also know our aims, and how we have tried. He will know what we have been, but He will also know what we have wanted to be. He is our first and final court of appeal. So St. John says: "If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart and knowetli all things," and Browning expresses tiie same thought in words'that I love and am never tired of quoting: "Thoughts hardly to be packed Into a narrow act; Fancies that broke through language and escaped; . All I could never be, All men ignored in me, This was I worth to God. Whose wheel the pitcher shaped.'.'

My friends, this is a very great truth, and a VERY GREAT SOURCE OF " COMFORT. . It is often supposed that men ustiallv try to appear better than thev are; f believe the truth is they are often verv much better than they appear; that the best nature of a man'very seldom comes into expression, and never into adequate expression. Men conceal their sins from others, it is true; but it hey also conceal their deep repentance, their desire for better things, their longing for God and for goodness; the moments when they are lifted above themselves, and touch eternity, and fee! Christ very near them—these things they hide.. This is so, I suppose, for various reasons. It is partly the natural reserve that belongs co things that arc very deep; partly a fear that if these things wore expressed they might be misunderstood or even laughed at; partly also a fear that the outer life cannot be kept in harmony with them, and that therefore the inconsistency would lie. too glaring. We are "fearfully and wonderfully made," and our actions are often out of line with what we know to be truest and deepest in us, and we shrink from expressing that- truest and deepest to our neighbors lest anon we should contradict it,' and thus draw upon ourselves charges of hypocrisy and inconsistency. But this'hiding.' of our deepest self w partly due to the fact that no expression of it could he complete. As Whitman says; "When 1 try to tell of the best that is in mo, I become a dumb man." Aye. we are "fearfullv and wonderfully made."- Who can miravel the mystery of personality? Who knows bift God, to Whom we all belong? Therefore I will give thanks to Tlim, for He made me, and laid His hand upon me, and knows me altogether. That is why I am not afraid of the prayer, "Search me, 0 God, and know my heart." I am afraid of those who know little bits of me, who get hold of fragments, who hear' words and see certain actions, and judge by external things. lam not afraid of the God Who knows everyhting, Who sees down to the roots of all actions, Who knows the depths of the heart. This is our comfort and our source of strengthlet us cling to it. Let us hohl\it fast through the dark days when others are eondlemning us, or criticising us, or looking at us coldly and suspiciously without full knowledge an<l thorofor'e without sympathy. Wc may deserve it ail ten times over, but it cannot drive us to despair if we realised that God knows all. He is great and strong and tender, and; above all. He. knows. What need we any further witness? Search me. 0 God, and know my heart; look well if there be any wickedness in me, and through Thy cleansing iiro lead me into the way everlasting.