SUNDAY READING

Taranaki Daily News, 4 December 1926, Page 17

SUNDAY READING

By

REV. A.H. COLLINS

CHRIST AND THE CROWD. “And the whole multitude* sought to touch Him; for there went virtue out of Him and He healed them all.’’ —Saint Luke vi. 19. A great crowd is a sad sight to all save the superficial and the cynical. Externally the scene may be festive and gay. The crowd may’ be dressed in holiday attire and move to strains of martial music; all concerned may appear to have succeeded in driving dull care away. Nevertheless, it is true as I have said a great crowd is a sad sight to those who look below the crust of custom and see the sins and sorrow of the people. Follow' the people home; consider where and how they’ live; think of the hard and hopeless poverty of some, the cruel and desolating sorrows of others, the squalid and brutal lives of many, and the struggles, doubts, hopes, and fears, common to them all. The matter is placed beyond dispute by the emotions of the Son of Man. He could not look upon them unmoved. For Him to see was to sympathise. The people flocked to His side. The people appealed to His pity. Men arc not slow to discover their true friends, and “He could not be hid.’’ CHRIST’S MAGNETIC PERSONALITY Run your eye over the gospels, and no' 3 the frequency of sentences like these: —“And they came to Him from every quarter,” “And He went to the seaside, and all the multitude cometh together,” I“And Jesus conieth into house, and the multitude cometh together.” Note the connection, “He cometh ....

the multitude cometh.” In the house, by the sea, in the desert the multitude felt the pull of this magnetic personality, and the reason is given in these words, “the multitude sought to touch Him for virtue came forth, and He healed them.” The evangelist tells the story with faultless grace and charm. In the midst of the thronging multitude stands this solitary figure. He is near, yet distant. Physically He is close enough to be touched by the crowd; spiritually He is distant as the pure heavens. Circumstances and sympathy brought Him to their level; but His awful holiness lifted Hint far beyond them; there was about Him not only “the Divinity that doth hedge about a king,” but the deity that stamps a God. Every word He uttered was as a port opening to a sea of wisdom; every act revealed power that is greater than is natural to man. HE HEARS AND. HELPS. “And what a mixed multitude it was.” “Oil, in what divers pains they met. Oh, with what joy they went away.” Some of them were more pushful than reverent. St. Mark says "they thronged Him.” But we all come to Christ clumsily, and most of us come greedily. We often pray with more vehemence than trust; yet He hears and helps. He would rather they had been more considerate of others; more patient in their expectation of His help; but He healed them all. There stood the withered form of one who had endured a wasting disease. Near to him one who was blind. Beside him one whose wild cry told of lunacy. Helpless on the ground lay another with palsied limbs. The deaf mute was there with eyes wild as they were quick, and far off, on the rim of the crowd, the leper lifted his pitiful wail. “Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me.” Thus, without pause to ask the cause of all this weltering sea of human misery, Jesus put forth His power to calm and cleanse. . And now, regarding the text as an open window, through which we may contemplate Christ's ministry, what shall we say of the spirit and method of Jesus? What has it to say to us? Jesus Christ’s example tests churches and individuals, men in trouble came to Him; do they ever come to us? Does anyone ever come to you saying, “I know I am all wrong. I have been a great fool, and I have made a mess of my life. Can you help me?” When the blinds are drawn and the knocker muffled because death is in the house, do the mourners seek your help? Do the sinful turn to you? Are you missed by the poor? If you were taken'away to-morrow would it make any difference to the neighbourhood? In other words, do we toneli men savingly? It may help us to answer these questions if we note some features of the model ministry.

First, then, all Jesus Christ’s work, for men was rooted in friendship—friendship that was bold, venturesome, and faithful. He came dose up to men. He stood on their level, spoke their language, entered their homes, and won their confidence. Unlike the ecclesiastic of His time, He attracted no attention by the eccentricity of His dress or the aloofness of His spirit. Jesus was not a priest; He was a layman. He wore the peasant’s dress, ate a peasant’s food, and carried a peasant’s load. Imagination refuses to picture Hun as one fenced off from the defiling touch of sinners, His friends and disciples were chosen from their ranks. He was at home in their houses, talked of their interests, and championed tiieir cause. It is there I find my first lesson. The one condition of service of men is that you love them with deep, sincere, manly love. Give away tracts if you like, provided they are the right kind, build mission halls if you please, though churches would be better; but remember that it is not enough to speak truth from the chilling distance of splendid isolation. The first thing is to establish kindly human relations, for God usually lays hold of men by means of human hands. Mr. Greatheart was Christian's greatest friend. “Thy heart must overflow with love. If thou another’s heart would reach; It is the overflowing heart That gives the lips full speech.” PHYSICAL HELP AND HEALING. The next thing I observe is that Jesus acted on the principle that He was dealing with souls that had bodies. His ministry was a ministry of physical help and healing. Christ* was the first medical missionary. “lie healed all manner of sickness and all manner of diseases.” The way to the soul is via the body. The body is the house in which the spirit resides, and if that house is leaky and draughty it will injure the tenant. The body 'is the organ of the spirit, and if the organ is out of repair the music will be spoiled. Have you never read, “He is the Saviour of the body?” Why, a great part of the four gospels is taken up with the story •of Christ’s, ministry to the physical necessities of the people.

Now I am not prepared to join in the thoughtless tirade against the churches. It is unjust and ungenerous. It would be a bad day for the poor and the afflicted if the churches took their critics at their word and ceased to teach the children and tend the sick. But in the light of the Master’s example we dare not, in our zeal for souls, neglect to care for men. We must be the sworn foes of the three d’s —dirt, debt and the devil. We must seek to rescue men from disease, from racking nerves, from insanitary dwellings, and from sweating dens. It is ridiculous to talk of plagues and fevers as the visitations of the Almighty; they are nothing of the kind. They are the direct and inevitable results of our culpable ignorance, and our criminal neglect. It is useless to pray that we may be delivered from “the pestilence that walketh in darkness” so long as we despise the simple laws of hygiene and sanitation. How dare we bo iflie and complacent when God’s little children are poisoned bv foul drains? Poverty, impurity, drunkenness, and sweating are perfectly preventable evils, and it is for Christian men and women to say so in tones of thunder. But in order to help we must feel, and in order to feel we must see. We are apathetic because we are illinformed. We don’t get close up to men. We hurry past the wretchedness, the stench, the vileness. We stop our ears to the cry of the distressed. We refuse to believe there are gaping wounds in the body politic because all’s well with us; the Master is not present to heat because we. His servants, stay away. Oh, we need a ministry that is Christlike because it is humane. It is told of Sir Bartie Frere that when visiting a Scottish home the master of the house sent his servant to meet him. The servant wished to know how he might recognise the great, man, and he was told, “when the train comes in you will see a tall gentleman helping somebody.” That is the ideal Christian.

SPIRITUAL RESERVE. But I note this further, Jesus Christ’s ministry of friendship and philanthropy was supplemented and crowned by a. ministry of spiritual rescue. He began with the body, but He could not stop there. Light for the eye is good, but light for the soul is better. A sound mind in a sound body is a great boon, but a pure heart is the greatest need. Christ's miracles on the body were not final, they were introductory. It is here I join issue with some who claim to represent working men. We do need better social conditions, and we mean to have them; but “man shall not live by bread alone.” We need more than changed conditions; we need regenerated men and women. Make the tree good andXhe fruit will be good. Sin is the sour taproot whence all our social evils spring; and until that is grubbed up the evil fruit will continue in one form or another. But sin is a personal thing, and needs to be dealt with personally, and the Christian gospel is the message which tells how Jesus Christ came into the world to save individuals. He died to put away sin. He lives to conquer sin in Iranian hearts. He died for you and He lives for you and in you. ‘ And if any man is in Christ Jesus he is a new creature, old things have passed away, behold all things have become new.” Yes, and new men will make a new world, and nothing else will.