Newspaper Page Text
44 THE PRESBYTERH
m^nn??mm:!iiiiiiiiiiiii!iiiiiiiiiiiiiti!iiiiiiiiiHiiiiiiiiiiiiii;TO
Young People's Societies
DOES RELIGION PAY?
Topic for Sunday, January 23: Does Religion Pay? 1 Corinthians
3: 18-23.
DAILY READINGS.
Monday. Religion for nothing. Job 1 6:22.
Tuesday: Wliat religion costs, Aiaunew io: zi-zo.
Wednesday: What religion yields. Galatians 5: 22-26.
Thursday: What religion promises. I Peter 1: 1-9.
Friday: What religion gives. Matthew 11: 28-30.
Saturday: Where religion takes us. Revelation 22: 1-5.
Does religion pay? Of course it does, in the highest sense.
Values are not always measured in dollars and cents. You
may not be able to deposit religion's dividends in a bank, but
all the same, it pays, and pays well.
Nay, its dividends are appreciable. They may deposit
nothing, but they give a credit which enables one to draw
much. The security which a life completely conformed to
Christ offers is one of the most reliable of even human assets.
Character is better than money. True religion gives real
character. Its product is not an outward show of character
or a pretence of the thing. It goes down into the heart, and
by working upon the innermost recesses and springs of life,
makes life genuine.
Men imrrnw mrmp\- nnsitinns sppnre eninlovment. are
trusted because of the highest type of character, tli6 type
which consistent religion imparts. They command the respect
and confidence of their fellow-men. They are looked
to in times of need and in emergencies. They become the
substantial, reliable element of the community.
True religion imparts the qualities of true success. It inculcates
those habits and graces which make men prosperous.
Given industry, economy and temperance, and any one
will prosper, no matter in what part of the world he lives, or
what be his color or situation. These three qualities always
gather about them worldly accumulation.
The Christian religion inculcates these qualities and facilitates
their exercise. This it does, not as a matter of policy,
but as a matter of principle; not on the ground that they
pay, but on the ground that they are right, conscience, not expediency
or policy, is to be the guide and motive. Men are
to do right, even if it does not pay, but right finally always
pays.
Thus it comes about that God's word is found to be prac
tical and true when it asserts that "godliness is profitable
unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and
of that which is to come." Those who live the religious life
solely for what it produces in the world to come have missed
one of the best parts of it. It is a program for today and not
a promise for tomorrow.
That conception of religion, which regards it only as connected
with a future life is very low and unproductive.
Heaven, as a final reward for faith, is too commercial an
idea. The kingdom of God is within us, here, today, now.
Our life between the moment of trusting Christ and the moment
of death, is to be as really a part of our "heaven" as
the glorified part of it which comes beyond the grave.
True wisdom has respect to the entire scope of life, the
inward life, the outward life, the earthly life, the life beyond.
It seeks to make the most of life by seeing that life in all
its parts and relations and by co ordinating one par with
another in such a manner that each becomes a contributor
to the other. Thus the whole is developed and there is produced
a happily increasing return of growth, blessing and
joy.
Thus, again, religion is found to be an investment on
which one does not have to wait until "maturity," as it were,
to draw the dividends, but which is paying all the time, and
adding to itself in both capital and principal every day.
There is nothing else like it in all the world! ,
VN OF THE SOUTH January 12, 1910.
I Prayer Meeting I;
ininnnnitmmmtttKmmmagsuntttttmnmnnnniitinuuumtt.'
Topic?PRESERVATION AND ILLUMINATION.
Week Beginning January 16.? Matt 5: 13*16.
The Bible everywhere bears upon its front the fact that
the Christian's mission is to have a beneficial effect on soeietv:
ami not simnlv to the extent of helninir in a temnorarv
and superficial way, but to the extent of producing rad.cai
and permanent results. We must not only relieve men's difficulties
and cheer their lives, but we must save them with
the power of an endless life. All men are responsible for
the use that they make of the truth that is made known to
them, but we are responsible for giving them that truth
in the most impressive way. Our Lord accordingly calls us
"the salt of the earth," and "the light of the world."
It is the nature of salt to preserve from corruption, to season,
to freshen and sweeten. Its value for these purposes has.
been known through the ages and its use has been almost
contemporaneous with the history of the race. It is familiarly
referred to by classical writers, and its symbolical significance
has been applied in the rites of idolatry as well as in
the ceremonial of the true religion. Experience, as well as
Cmdntiirn ?/>o oh .-V*ltr.f 1> M n I ? ^ A. H ? r lU .
otiij/iiuc, icav_aca mai unman llttiui t? is t'UITUpi. D^iurtj Lilt?
flood and after, in the days of the Psalmist and the prophets,
in the time of Paul and Peter and John, the one fact of moral
corruption was deplored and dealt with. The remedy for
this corruption, says our Lord here, is the presence of true
believers among their fellow-men, exerting an influence that
will preserve them from their natural decay. If it be objected
that the world resists this influence and rebukes those
who offer it, the answer is that this is God's plan and we
are clearly taught that the gospel is the savour of life unto
life, or of death unto death. While many will reject, a small
and devoted number will accept and will themselves become
salt of the earth. Thus society is to be preserved and finally
transformed.
The seriousness of failing to affect society in a healthful
way is indicated by our Lord's inquiry, "if the salt have lost
his savour wherewith shall it be salted?" If Christian life
exists in the person, or community, or church only nominally,
or formally, without the saving elements for want of which
the world is ready to perish, what hope is there of preserving
its life? And how shall saving qualities be imparted to it
again? The question is not raised here as to whether true
believers ever totally lose that which constitutes them the
salt of the earth, but rather the principle is enforced that
the rescue of society and of individuals from an all-pervading
carnality is dependent vitally upon the health-giving effects of
Christian faithfulness. There is no other source from which
preservation and refreshment can come than from those
whose profession and attitude, if sincere, constitute them the
very element that is needed.
The same comprehensive statement of duty and responsibility
is here made under a different motnnhn, n^n
called "the light of the world." Christ is the great true
light of the world, shining with his own essential effulgence.
Like the sun, he is ever radiant from his essential being. We
shine with a borrowed light, like the moon, reflecting the
health-giving, gladdening rays that come from him as the
central and original source of all light, we shine by the light
of knowledge and holiness which are communicated from
him. Otherwise darkness and spiritual death must prevail
undisturbed. Our profession, our doctrine and character, as
consistent believers, render us conspicuous, like "a city set
on a hill," which can not be hid. Men form their impressions
of the merits of our religion from our words and actions.
It is God's plan that we shall be thus conspicuous that we
may communicate light to those around us. The radiance of
a consistent profession is very penetrative, and reaches far
into the surrounding darkness.
The inconsistency of concealing our faith and hone, the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge which we cherish, is indicated
by the appeal to familiar custom in the words