SUNDAY READING

Taranaki Daily News, 12 August 1916, Page 10

SUNDAY READING

FIRE. SKRMOX PREAC!TKI> HY REV. A. TI. dUVILE, jr.A., AT ST. MARY'S f liciicn, NEW PLYMOI'TIT. "I ain come -to send liri' on the earth." -St. l.nkc \ii., ■!!!. "Wliiu do they know of England wlio only England know?" sa.vs tlie poet, meaning that if a mail lias never left tin; England in which he was born and bred, if lie has never travelled, never visited the coloiiies' which England's power han grasped and England's wisdom held, never seen other lands which England's influence has moulded and shaped, lie cannot truly understand the greatness, the comprehensiveness, the genius of the race from which he bus sprung, of the hind in which he was horn. So. in like inaiine: - , speaking with great reverence, we may say, "What can (hey know of lesus Christ, who only know the gospels'.'" The gospels are the old homeland of Christianity. To them we turn constantly, as in another sense we turn to England, for light and guidance and inspiration; we love them and. cling to them, and could never forgef, tliem; they must always be the foundation of our spiritual lives'. lint to really "know" Je:ius as tile Saviour and Inspire! - of men we must do more than sit at home and study the gospels. \\Y must live them out in many strange lands, i.e., through many new experiences, through many hard trials and dangerous advenall of which Christ, stretching out His arms, as it were, across the centuries, lias laid hold of and made His own. Without life in new spiritual countries the fnllnc>s of Christianity cannot be felt and known, cannot really become ours. For. my friends, there comes to men and women from Jesus "'hri-t, through His Church on earth, through the progressive revelation of the Holy Spirit, aye, through many personal experience.-', a wonderful lii'e force which 110 book, however powerful, could bring, which no written record could ever embody. "i am come to send lire on the earth"; "1 am not come to send peace, but a sword"—what siguilicaiicc would these two hard sayings of our Lord have had for without the experience of nineteen centuries ol Christianity, without the teaching of history and these two rear, of war to rub tliem in, to give them point and reality'! Very little, 1 am afraid. If we only know the gospels in a J look. if, that is, we separate them from life's daily experience, we are apt to forget what a hard, religion Christianity really is, what, a destructive religion, what a religion of adventure. We linger over the pages of the written word ami seek out and dwell on the consolations it contains. The gospels, we say, bring peace to the troubled soul, vest to the weary, hope to the despairing, as a beautiful English landscape bathed in the summer sun brings rest to the tired eyes. Jesus is the meek and gentle Sivioiii', led as a lamb to the slaughter; the dreadful and mysterious cross, and all IJis unknown pangs and hidden conflicts were for our relief and our salvation. Our chastisement was laid upon liim and with His stripes we are healed. All true, my friends, all very '.rue and beautiful, but it is

iA"I A" O.NB ML)!' >IF TIIK COSI'KL, what we might call the "lionu'" side. Life teaches lis harder tilings than that, more wonderful tiling because they are harder: and when bruised and hurt and smarting under the bludgeoning of life, lonely and. weary and home-sick, we turn our eyes to the gospels and cry out, perhaps indignantly, "How can these tilings be?" We learn what the stay-at-homes cannot learn; we Icnni that these things, too. are part of our Christian inheritance, and that the meek and gentle Saviour is also the iierce Incendiary, the mighty Warrior, the Trampler and Destroyer oi evil, the great Adventurer Whose words come to us out of the Oospel, across the ocean of years, full of special signilicanec to-day. "i am come to send lire 011 the earth. I am come not to bring' peace, but a sword." Kiru 011 the earth—what is the lirst thought that comes to us in connection with a lire? We have lately had a very striking object iu our own town, and without doubt when we witness such a sight, a lierce raging lire warring with triumph over its prey ami challenging and detying man's ell'orts to stay its progress, the lirst thought that comes to our minds is that oi destruction. We recognise in the. element of lire, a great destructive power bringing with it terror and pain and loss.

A GREAT INCENDIARY. Now, as 1 have said, the meek and gentle Jesus was a great Incendiary, lie brought lire upon the earth, the lire we speak of as Christianity, and He left behind Him a little hand of incendiaries who should spread the flames throughout the world: aye, the lirst effect of that lire was destruction. "O collie hither and behold the works of the Lord, what destruction he has brought upon the earth." Destruction is one of the works of Cod, a fact that we do not alwavs remember, and the first result of tin.' lire that Jesus brought on the earth was —destruction. Many of the old buildings of the world, rotten old theories and ideals, much I hat was lalse ami llimsy and corrupt in the religions and moralities oi men, fell crashing in the llames. The Creek ideal of culture, beauty without goodness, blistered ami withered before the rushing llame that kindled the desire for Clod an{l righteousness in the souls of men. .St. 'Paul carried the lire into the very heart of Greece when he preached at Athens and Corinth and Salouiea Jcs.us and the Uesiirrcition and held up before the eyes of -.in astonished world the Roman gallows us the symbol of salvation. Again, the world iuis probably never seen a more stable form of society than that Cmbodied iu the Roman Empire. Every precaution seemed to have been taken to protect the State from peril. Yet it is universally recognised that it was the Christian l'aith which dissolved the foundations on which it was erected. The religion of the Roman world, centred in the Emperor who was worshipped as a god, crumpled up before the lire lit by the teachers and martyrs of Christianity, and with its religion went its military power and its sway over the lives of men. So the lire of Cod has

S\YKI'T ON" THROUGH. TIIK .-HiICS, iwd in whatever country or town or community the true (lame lias been lit, the lirst effect lias always been destruction; abuses, corruptions, superstitions, lusts and'passions have perished in the llames, leaving a sort of strange desolation in the lives of men. V.ou re-

membor tluii extraordinary religious movement some ten years ago known as the Welsh lievival, a marvellous white llanee that swept from one end' of the country to the other, spreading even to ilie smallest villages ami hamlets. responsible men told me. tlmt the !ir-t thing apparent after Ihis fire had seized upon a town was an almost weird sensation of emptiness. H altered, just as a- material lire roe.-, the whole look and aspect of a ;ilaee. 1 experienced this sensation myself in u colliery town called J'lertlivr Tyelvil. in the heart of Wales, where I found myself one -weekend just after' the mission hail been held. The town was "empty/' .Men whose lives had been pretty well made up of drinking and betting and gambling suddenly found their occupation gone. Their interests bad been consumed, their lusts had perished, their evil impulses had withered. Even the pit ponies, it is said, j'tflt the result of the missions; their lives must have, felt empty ai the time without the familiar oath or kick or blow. So the. life oi a freed slave seems at first empty ;imi desolate; tin; absence of whal has been familiar, however had and rotten it may have hern, must always be jor a lime. Ves, my friends, ii"e is a, jjreat destroyer. Jt is at its work to-day, ra^iii" - liereely over the world, and assuredly it will leave h migl, ty desolation in many countries, in many hearts. Hut will' it not destroy much that is evil rotten and lilthy and unsightly, tlie lust for power in one nation, the lust for pleasure and comfort in another, the ideals of materialism and militarism, of worldly prosperity and selfish gain, all those shaking, insecure buildings that men have erected on tlie foundations of the shifting sands of timer We may hardly know our old world when the war is over; so much will have been swept away; there may'well be a great blank spate; in civilisation as there is now in the centre e>f our town. Things which to many people were sure landmarks ■will have vanished for even-, no doubt many old privileges, values and distinctions will perish in the llanies, and will leave a sense of desolation behind them, lint of this we may be sure that after the tire, if men will but listen, the-y will hear the voice of 'Jod, and liis purpose will be clear. Fur. my friends, most certainly (KID'S I'l'Ki'O.SK IS NOT DKSTIiI'C-

TION, ' lint salvation. Christ «winie not to destroy, but lo save, yet the destructive' process is necessary, because it means purilieation, and is often the only means of purilieation. The great lire of London involved terror and pain and loss, but it cleansed the town of its lilthy streets and alleys and insanitary houses, and from that great desolation rose, a purer and a sounder and a healthier <'iySo may it be with the world when this terrible war is over. The lire will have done its work, anil >«e with the experience of the years behind us, with the memory of past .failures and mistakes, must turn hopefully ami 'bravely to the work of reconstruction —nobler and stronger and stouter buildings, please (iod. in accordance with the plans of Christ, and on the sure foundation of eternity. .My friends, 1 must add one word about, a man's own personal experience. Have you never felt Cod's lire raging iiercely in your own soui, the lire of destruction? lla s sin never hurt you and made you feel how bitter are its fruits'; lias not the memory of past wrong done to other-; smouldered long within you:' breast, despite all your efforts to smother it? Ilave'vou never felt what are known as the "pangs of. conscience," following 011 some mean or selfish act, some spiteful or cruel word? My friends, it is the consuming lire of (lod, already kindled, just beginning its work, burning away not the actual wont or deed, nor yet the consequences of that word or deed, but the false, rotten stulf in you and me from which that word and deed have sprung; tearing its way through the littleness in our natures, the jealousy, the covetousness, the selfishness, the meanness and tile cruelty which, unchecked, grow up like noxious weeds in the inner life of a man. until they choke the desire for Cod and for gooilness and keep back the soul from its eternal inheritance. The consuming lire of tlod—have you never longed for it, never longed to get rid of that miserable passion, that rotten stulf of sensuality or sellishness or insincerity, which in your better moments you know is spoiling your life? There are some thing, that have to be burnt out of us before any good can come, and the stronger the personality liie greater the need of I!Oil's destroying' lire. My friends, let us dare to pray for it, for pain and suffering and remorse, aye, even for punishment, that the ground of our souls may lie swept clear lor the renewal of the grate of the Lord .lesus Christ, and that there may be a ring oi triumph in tne cry, "0 come hither and behold the works of Clod, what destruction he hath wrought in my own ;soii 1!" And assuredly, my friends, when we go forth into that strange other world abyut which so much 11119 been aliirnied and denied, we shall lind there the lire of Cod which can never be quenched, the eternal love of the Father which for <01111: will be the pure white light by which they see His face and know llim in Whom they have believed, and for others the raging, destroy ing llanic into uliich their souls are plunged, that the process of purifying may be completed, that the last enemy of the soul may be destroyed, that Clod may he all in all. J!lit for sinner and saint alike, the lire that Jesus sent upon earth, the lire that bunts iiercely in the world to-day, the lire that makes heaven and hell here ami hereafter is the lire of the love of Clod. That lire we need not fear, for what can we desire more than that we may come forth from every experience of this or any other world tried and tested and purified as gold is purified in the furnace, and to know that through the llamcs that lie lias kindled the Christ .marches on to Mis final victory in the hearts and lives of men.