SUNDAY READING.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2568, 31 July 1909, Page 4 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING.

SUNDAY AFTERNOON. We shall do so much in the years to come, ■ . But what have wo done to-day r We shall give our gold in a princely sum,/ But what did we give to-day r We shall lift the heart and dry the tear, We shall -plant a hope in the place oi fear, We shall speak the words of love and cheer But what did we speak to-day ? FIVE MINUTES SERMON BY GIPSY SMITH.

Text: “But when tho young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.”

I want you to think. “He went away.” Where did he go to? Back to his riches; but his riches did not satisfy him, and they never would. •llichos are convenient. They may gratify you t-o a large extent. They may give you opportunities for pleasures and preferments. They may help you to widen 'your outlook lor a little, or may bund your outlook. Riches are convenient, hut. they do .not feed the man within. A soul’cannot be fed on bricks ana mortar. The man who rides in carriages and drives the fastest horses, who drinks the most sparkling! wines, and sits in the fastest company does not revel in these things long. He turns away from them, wearied and tired, and sick at heart. A lady said to mo a little while ago, “I can* have all 1 want, as far as money is concerned, and a bio- tear rolled down her cheex, “I can Kave my delights, my fine clothes, my carriage, and my box at tlie opera or the theatre. I can have my fashions and my fashionable society,” and she shook like a tired, bird ; “but I am weary of it all. I want Jesus. These things do not satisfy me. If gold could feed a soul, then happy would that man have been who went in that seething whirlpool and left two millions' of money behind him. There was not a ripple to mark the place where he sank. His millions made him a suicide. ... , A millionaire died a little while ego and left twenty millions. His own family said he wasi the most miserable wretch they ever knew. You cannot satisfy the man within with riches. You are not built that way. /ou are built with different material, the material out of which God builds the planets, out of which God bands the eternities. When ’ worlds go out like sparks from a blacksmith’s anvil, when chose planets are split-wheels on the high-roads of the eternities, you will still exist. Why do you not try am feed your soul on things eternal. W iiy feed 'on air, and “spend your money for that which is not bread and your iabor for that which satisfietli noti* His riches could not help him. When no left Jesus, he loft the riches of the_ dees He left the treasures that never fade awav. His riches could not help him, and’ they cannot help you. . Where did lie go? Did lie go to his friends? Who could take the place ol Jesus? Ho had left Him. His friends were as badly off as he. He had not found in his friends what he had wanted or he would not have come to Jesus. The true friends of this world are few and far between. False friends bless you while vour pockets are full, yom cheek red,'your eye clear, and your brain brilliant; but let sorrow come, let the cyclone of misery strike you, the avalanche of failure fall upon you, and then where are your friends . I bey do not know you. The inendskips of the world are poor. Do not think ?■ ' will find a substitute m humanity tor Jesus Christ. He is “a friend that sticketh e'oser than a brother. I Where did he go? Back to his pleasures? They faded, and passed away with the evening. They were gone with the morning cloud. They perished in the using, faded like the flowers, and went out with the light There is a certain amount of gratification m v onely pleasure, I know, but it does not ; last. Wait till the bloom has gone from i your cheek; it can never be put back. I You may try, but we know when it is ! not real. When the eye grows dim, you can never light that fire <>gj un - Wait till the brain Tefuses to think, till the hand-trembles, and the step is infirm. What then? Where are the pleasures then? You may call them up, but they will refuse to come; you i mav thunder, but they will be dear; I you may ask the pleasures of the nolle j to fulfill their part of the contract, the j bargain they promised to give you; but they arc bankrupt, they* are sold up and empty. The pleasures He gives ■ are for evermore. j “He went, away.” Jesus, comes to you now, my brother, to you, my sister, with a voice full of pathos, full of pleadj ing, full of love for you, full of power l to save you. He knows what you are thiukni-,, what you are feeling. You are concerned about your soul, because His Spirit is striving with you, making you think of eternal things. In the light of this young man’s case, now that vou are on the point of turning one way .or the other. He says to you, ‘ A ill ye i also go away?” Can you m the face of that Dare you go away? It you dare. Some day you will hear him say, “Then they went away, now they must Co into the outer darkness./ You must settle it with yourself. Nobody can hinder you if you will come; nobody can make you come unless 1 you will. I-low can I help you to do it? I plead with you for Jesus Christ s sake not to go another step in tlie-wrong direction, hot to take another step away from Jesus. If you cannot get to Him because you feel too feeble, .if you fern too paralysed and physically unable to take a step towards Him because of sm, then turn your face to Him . Do not turn your back upon Him for that means death. Fall upon your knees/ looking /into l Jesus. Pray now. .You say, “[ cannot pray.” &ay this prayer, “Lord help me,” and if you cannot say it all. say “Lord.” If you cannot sayeven that', then LOOK, for 16 life for a look at the Crucified One, There is life at this moment for thee,

NOTES. ■“Look all over Japan. Over forty millions-have a higher standard of morality thanrtliey have ever known. Our ideas df loyalty and obedience are-bigh-,.or than ever: and we inquire the cause of this.great moral advance. Me. (■•an find it nothing else than tlie religion of Jesus Christ.”—A Japanese daily pa par. The Rcvi 11. S. Wopilconibe, who lias resigned...the position:. of bead of Oxford House, and accepted the invitation, of tlie Church .of England Men’s Society to travel for three years through tho Emnii'e, was to leave England by the -Ormuz on May 1.4. /The Church Congress is to moot this year i,n Perth, 'Western Australia, and Air. Woollcombo is one of the invited speakers upon the subject of “The'Church and the Men.” At the beginning, of 1910 it is proposed that the tour shall be extended, to New Zealand. .. "