SUNDAY READING.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2616, 25 September 1909, Page 4 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING.

GETHSEMANE

All those who journey, soon or late, Must pass within the garden’s gate; Must kneel alone in darkness there, And battle with some fierce despair. God pity those who cannot say: “Not uniiie, but thine” ; who only pray: “Let this cup pass,” and cannot see The 'rmroo.se in Getlisemane.

DR, WILBUR CHAPMAN ON “INCONSISTENCY.

I. Have you ever noticed the sadness which throbbed in the words of our Saviour at the Last Supper. “One of you shall betray me?” or when He was walking with them toward the garden, “All of you shall be offended this night because of me?” or when He was in the garden and we hear Him saying : What, could you not watch with me for one hour ?’•’ The stone that hurts Christ most is not the one that is cast by the unbelieving world; Ho expects that; it is the one that is cast by His own people, and there is only one stone that they can cast at Hint, and that is the one of inconsistency to talk one way and live another, confessing with the’ lips and denying in the walk. You never took a step" in the wrong direction but it was a stone cast at Christ. 1 have heard of a young lady who/ was engaged in the greatest amount of pleasure and frivolity, nearly forgetful of her loyalty to Christ. One clay being asked by her companions to go to a certain place, she refused on the ground that it was Communion Sunday in the Church. In amazement her friends asked her. “Are you a communicant?” If tho world does not know it, if your friends do not know it, we are taking up stones with whicn to stone Him.

AIR McNEILL’S FAREWELL

Rev. John McNeill closed his year’s ministry at Christ Church, Westmins-ter-bridge Roud, London, tho other Sunday, saying farewell in the evening to a crowded congregation. His last sermon was in Ills breezy, colloquial style, with flashes of broad humor and homely asides. One autobiographical passage was used to illustrate iiis argument that the horny-handed son of toil can be as much the gentleman as anyone whose hands are soft. “I remember,” lie said, “years ago my eldest boy came home from school. Evidently somebody had said something about his father’s genesis, that is to say. although 1 was a preacher then I had not always been a preacher. Johnny came home and crept into the study and get on my knee and said. ‘Father, were you ever on the railway?’ He had evidently heard it from some snob in the school. I said, ‘Yes, Johnny, 1 was.’ He gave a wee sigh. Evidently the worst he had heard was true. ‘Father,’ he said, ‘a porter, like those men down at Euston —the real bottle green, you know?’ ‘Oh yes, Johnny,” I said. Another sigii. Then suddenly he brightened up and said, ‘But, father, that would be before you were a gentleman.’ ” In his final words Air. AlcNoill said: “Good-bye; The Lord be with you. I can honestly say that I have always had a happy time. I have not been much away—only three times. I find by my book that I have preached 140 different, separate sermons, (Sundays and week-nights, in eleven months. You have attended with marvellous regularity. I thank you. To God be all the praise.”

• A GREAT TASK FOR AIR. ATOTT. ! Air. John H. Alott, who is just now in England on World’s Christian Student movement business, has been elected executive secretary of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ, in Am- j erica, a newly-formed organisation ; which aims at uniting tho eighteen million Protestant communicants in tho United States. At a meeting held in Philadelphia last December, at tvhicli thirty denominations were represented, a genuine desire for closer relationship was manifested, and it was felt that if Air. Alott can be spared from the Student movement there is hope ol a great measure of success.

MR. BALFOUR’S TRIBUTE TO EVAN ROBERTS. .When Mr. Balfour was on tlie point of preparing the address which he delivered at the National. Eisteddfod in London, he consulted one of the most distinguished Members of Parliament os to the line of thought that should he followed on such an occasion. In the course of the conversation, tne many features of the National life of Wales were touched upon. When, however, the influence of religion as the dominant factor in the Welsh character came under discussion. Mr. Balfour immediately inquired, “What has become of Evan Roberts?” “Are you interested in him ?” replied the Welsh member. “Interested!” was Mr. Balfour’s reply. “Why, when the revival was raging I read everything I could lay my hands on, so interested I was in its progress.” “Tell me,'; asked the Welsh member, “what opinion did you form of Evan Roberts?” Immediately came Mr. Balfour’s answer: “I regarded him as a religious genius, whose work is beyond criticism.”

EVAN ROBERTS’ FUTURE. Mr. Evan Roberts, who is still staying with friends at Leicester, denies that overtures have been made to him by the National Free Church Council, or that he has refused to consider any proposition made by them. Ho lias not relinquished any intention or desire to return to Wales for mission work, but he declares it to be “certainly beyond my. power” to inaugurate a fresh revival. Ready wit sometimes is more powerful than any argument, and ridicule is a miglity weapon if wisely used. Jedediah Burchard, the brilliant evangelist of the middle years of the 19th century, who swept like a flame over New York and Now England, was holding great prayer meetings at Danbury, Conn., before his preaching services. At one of these crowded prayer services, when many were asking for prayers for unsaved relatives and friends, and a young man had earnestly besouglit prayer for an aged father, a blatant infidel who haunted ,the meetings simply to interrupt, jumped up an raid: “Mr. Burchard ! I want to ask prayers for—the Devil !” “Go right on praying, brethern,” said Mr. Burchard, “this man also wants his father prayed for!” TJiat interrupter never again was heard at a meeting. A wise use of the ludicrous is often a great help in dealing with those whom no other means can reach. But it must be in careful hands, like any other sharp tool.