SUNDAY READING.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 September 1921, Page 9

SUNDAY READING.

SHELTERING STRENGTH. “And a man shall be ae an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a wearv land.’® —lsaiah XXXII, 2. (By Rev. A. H. Collins, New Plymouth.) This is one of the purple patches of the Holy Book. For though the materia! out of which it is fashioned is simple and even common-place, yet with a touch of inspired genius, and a flash of poetic fire, it becomes a passage of singular charm, and the haunting beauty of the words captures the. imagination and rests the heart. Just as “in Memoriam” is fashioned out of the alphabet and“the Madonna” of Raphael out of common pigments, t>o out of a bit of natural scenery the prophet paints a picture, a parable, and a prophesy. Recall the picture as Isaiah saw it. Out yonder, far as the eye can reach, stretches the tawny desert-eand-—vast, sun-soaked, 'barren, trackless. When the sun is up the earth radiates heat like the mouth of a blast furnace. When the sun goes down the wind rises, first in gentle wavelets, which stir the sand to easy motion, then, gathering force, the sand storm sweeps on in smothering drifts.. Nothing can live under the ponderous weight of its cruel and glittering heat. But here, on the edge of the wilderness, and at the 'head of a valley, stands a tall, towering, purple rock. To the windward it forms a barrier that stops the desert drift, and on the leeward side it flings long, cool shadows. Out of the lieart of the rock water -drips and feeds the roots of tender things. Lush green grass spring up. Palm trees toss and wave. The stream music, and a garden blossoms in sight of the wilderness, where the sand is whirled in mad, dancing columns across the unsheltered waste. The tired Arab unyokes his camel, and sleeps in the land where the sun’s rays, like swordblades, dart and slay, because a rock stems the desert drift, and provides a shadow in a weary land. Then suddenly the prophet’s imagination kindles, and the picture becomes a parable, and the parable expands into a prophesy. The desert is human life. The drifting sand stands for the blinding, blighting, deadening influence of material things that smother life. The rock represents some strong, brave soul who stands up against the drift and shelters weak men and gives them time and space to grow. For as George Adam Smith points out. history is swept by drifts of superstition, error, poisonous habits and customs and controversies, and what has saved the world has been the uprising of some great man to resist these drifts, to set his will against the prevailing tendency, and be a shelter to the weaker souls of his brethren.

“The history of what man has accomplished in the world is at bottom the history of great men who worked there.” Under God, personal human power is the highest force, and God has ever used it as His chief instrument. But the parable is also a prophesy perfectly fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and what further I have to say falls under two divisions. The text is an epitomy of history, and it is an anticipation of the Christian gospel. AN EPITOMY OF HISTORY. It is an epitomy of history. For what is history save the record of great men, who served their generation, and served the world, by arresting the drive and drag of blind material things, ponderous anti poisonous influences, as fatal and choking as the desert sand, come sweeping down on men and nations, and under their malign influence the best things are smothered, until some brave soul stands . up and defies popular opinions, tastes., prejudices, and then weaker men stand 1 in the shelter of his strength and learn to think and act independently. Abraham is an example. He broke away from the habits and customs of his age, and dared to be singular, dared to reject the polytheism of Chaldea, and learned to worship one unseen Holy God, and in the shadow of his faith and example others began to live and trust Jehovah, and today. the three great spiritual religions of the world—Judaism. Mohammodism. and Christianity—claim Abraham as their father and founder. PPEARS. Years rolled, and the sons of Jacob had drifted into bondage. Thon Moses came cm the scene, and stood up against bonds and yokes, with the result that a nation of free men grew up in the shelter of his strength. Later, when Israel had drifted into paganism under Ahab and Jezebel, Elijah made a stand, and saved pure, religion from extinction. Later .still, when Israel and Judah were drifting into unholy alliance with Egypt it was Isaiah who rose and rallied, them with the cry, “Tn quietness and confidence shall be your -strength,” and so stopped one of the most dangerous drifts in history. In the early apostolic age, the church was in peril of becoming merely a ritual-

world faith, and it was Saint Raul who took a stand, and by resisting Simon Peter, «saved Christianity. When the Roman Church and the Roman Empire gathered, in desperate endeavor to enslave Europe, it was one lone man, strong in God and. mighty in the Scriptures, who cried: “Here stand I, I cannot otherwise, so help me God.” India is being saved from drifting into paganism, and the home churches from indifference, because Carey braved the jibec and floutc of fools, and launched modern missions, which evangelised India, and saved Great Britain. Again, when England was losing her soul and Sinking under a dead weight of formalism and stark godlessness, it was John Wesley who arrested the drift. When womanhood and childhood were being crushed out in the mines and factories of England, it was lx>rd Ashley who stood between them and the invasion of soulless commercialism. I GLADSTONE AND LLOYD GEORGE. It is so still. The people are saved because some strong soul stands alone, whilst time-servers hold off in cautious compromise. Unpopular causes win because some greatheart braves unpopularity. Reforms advance because the reformer is not afraid of opposition. Liberty is secured because Gladstone and Lloyd George challenged the sacrcdness of ancient precedent. Africa is saved because Livingstone suffered and died. China is waking, because Morrison and Griffiths John sang the Bethlehem song in her dull ears. Democracy is safe because bravo men resisted the doctrine and the deeds of devils. You may be as the shadow of a great rock to someone, you may save the situation in the home, or the office, or the workshop, by standing firm against the drift of conventional opinions and conventional practices, and conventional religion. You may stand between a lad and “smutty” stories, between a girl and unmaidenly ways, between a friend and the tongue of slander. One of the noblest legends of ancient Rome is the story of IJoratius, who held the bridge when the enemy was about to pour across into the surprised city. Macaulay’s spirited lines recall the story:—

“Then out and spake Horalius, The captain of the gate, ‘To every man upon this earth Death cometh soon or late; And how shall man die better Than facing fearful odds For the ashes of his country And the temple of his gods? Hew down the bridge, Sir Consul, With, all the speed ye may, I. and two more to help me, Will hold the bridge this day.’ ” I say fehat our text is an epitomy of history. Truth wins, reform spreads, the | Kihgdom of God comes, because fearless souls face fearful odds, and stand where cravens yield. PROPHETIC WORDS. But Isaiah’s words are prophesy. They find their complete fulfilment in the “strong Son of God” who stood up against the deadliest drift of the ages. He confronted sin with a sinless life, and proved by his example that wickedness is not -inevitable or eternal. Sin was round Him like other men, but where I they fell He stood upright, and in standing became the Saviour of the world. He arrested the drift away from God. He broke the po-wer of evil customs, habits, deeds. He gave the world a new conscience, new ideals, new hope, and a new goal. He introduced, new words into our vocabulary, new thoughts into the world’s mind, new’ light into tired eyes, and new life into despairing hearts. Under His shadow men /rest with great delight, and His fruit is sweet to their taste. •

An American engineer proposed an amazing plan. He would change the cni tire climate of the Atlantic coast ©i North America by deflecting the Gulf ! Stream, and sending it more direcrly into the Arctic zone. It would involve the building of a wall 200 miles long, at the cost of millions. But the result! The barren coast of Labrador would become a fruitful field! Jesus Christ entered on a more amazing enterprise, for He has turned the course of history and changed the moral climate of the world. Every soul of man, touched by the tropic warmth of His Divine Personality, finds his winter changed to spring. In Christ’s presence evil loses its power, the past with its awful surge is arrested, and under His shadow, “the wilderness and the solitary place blo-s-som as the rose.” He is ’•‘i'ho shadow of a great rock in a weary land."