Séinon Bréached in Union Church on Sunday Morning, Maren 7, 1927 by the Rey. E. F. Horst-Smiith up hig) those Uackedt He Kad great possessions" Mark The Bible does not consist, of acholariy essays apd learned treat-Sees, It is mainly biography. It] contains numberless character sket~ ches, sonietimes drawn with yeiy few lines. But the people it speaks about are those who, lived aid breathed and displayed all the varieties and peculiarities that go "to make up real life. If we may Tiken the Bible to a picture gallery, then one. of the portraits before which many visitors linger longest is that of the rich young ruler. His engaging personality with its many attractive qualities arrests the attention of every thoughtful student. Shall we notice some of the' features of his character as sketched in these few verses?
1. His Moral Attainments, had satisfied Moses, but Moses had not satiafiéd him, I wonder to what extent tat is recognized to-day—that morality, though all to the good, is mot enough. Morality is manward thing, but we have Godward yearnings which it cannot meet. That is why missionaries come to China. It is fully recognized that China has her own moral teachings and we do not withhold respect for the guidance that her sages give on many of the human relationships. But what of man's relationship with Ged? What of the spiritual side, of man's nature? Well, here was & young man who was concerned about those things. And what was it that he sought? Life, eternal life. That is.
yond morality. As.the heaven's high above the earth, so are When this young man came. to, Jesus in his search for eternal lif Seas began by raising a few very elementary questions. He quoted some of the commandments, not quite at random. Everyone knows that, the ten commandments are! divided into two main groups. The Srst four commandments form one group and deal with man's duty towards God, while the second group deals with man's duty. towards his fellow man, You might riy that the first group deals religion; while the second group @eals with morality. And from the latter group that Jesus quoted, The suggestion was per haps this: We will begin at the beginning; let us start with que tions of morality rather than religion; with your duty towards man rather than with your duty towards God, The young man may have felt that these questions were really too elementary to be raised at all; the answers might have been taken for granted; he did not need to be told hot to commit adultery, or Xi, or! teal, or bear false witness," oF defraud. These prohibitions were not necessary with a man like him. Laws of prohibition were not enacted for people of his type. And this was all to the good, The world would have fewer problems to meet if) all men passed even these elementary tests. There might still bbe need for teuchers and preachers, Dut Inwyers and policemen would be out of work, Well, according to all accepted standards, this young ruler was a good mai Ho had]! every reason to hold his head erect in the presence of his fellows.
Now with moral attainments of this kind there is very often one Dlemish, namely pride. Moral people azo usually too well aware of their morality. That is the defect of their particular virtue, Tt is therefore all the more pleasing to notice that this young man's morality was combined with an attractive humility and & readiness to learn, When he approached Jesus He knelt in His presence. That was a very different attitude from that of the pharisee of whom Jesus spoke in one of His parables S<the man who, instead of praying, merely enumerated his own virtues. You have probably heard of the prayer of the little girl: "O God, make all bad people good and all Tt was a prayer insight, for one of God's chief difficulties is to make good people nice, Well, here was good man who was' nice. His morality was not cold and austere, He was an unusual man, full of charm and attractiveness. "And this is proved by the effect he produced upon Jesus, Something is said of him that is not said of anyone else who came to Jesus—"And looking upon him, Jesus toved him." And set he was conscious of something lacking. This leads us to consider:
His Spiritual Aspiration sHe recognized that something shore. than morality was necessary. He. ad Rept the Jaw—outwardly at Yepsty but he had not obtained the 'péneé that should have ensued. He and God! thoughts; beyond mere morality.
And what is eternal Li tone can answer that question in a word, the best we can do make halting attempts. But shall we be far wrong if we say. that eternal life is union with God; it is spiritual fellowship with Hi {is to be "in tune with the Infin The Gospel according to St. John is the best text-book on this subfect, for it written by a Christian mystic, who understood more of this deep experience than the writers of the other Gospels. He tells of full, abundant, abiding: life, It is not an experience that has to be postponed to a future time and relegated to a distant place, although we may well understand. that it is not experienced in its fulness here on earth. But the beginnings of it may be known and now. We are told in that Gospel "He that believeth on the: Son of God hath everlasting life."
may be a present possession. The bond of mystic union may be To sdy, that this is everlasting is not to say the principal thing about it. The fact that it continues into the next world is true, but it is hardly more than incidental, It is the nature of tha€ life, its essence,: hat is all important. The character of that life is a cause, its cent is un effect. The mystic union with Christ is of such an intimacy that y it. as Prul was another example. He was able to say, "I live, yet not I, but Christ live th in me." He was bound to Christ in a union that could not be dissolved, therefore he was able to exclaim, "Who shall separate 21 am' persuaded that neither life nor death shall be able to [separate me." To possess such life, such an experience, was the aspiration of this young man. No-ing less than this would satisfy the cravings of his spiritual nature. He realized that the mere perform-Jance of the elementary moral duties towards his neighbours could not secure him this. This longed-for experience belonged to an altogether higher realm, a loftier plane. But he was sure from what he had seen Jof Jesus that Jesus possessed the secret. The de the depths of coalled to the supply that dwelt in the depths of the heart of Jesus. "Deep called unto deep, deep need unto deep supply. Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"
'0 life! how Blessed, how divine! ula my deep. And let that blessed life be That was his quest, that was his spiritual aspiration. And that, Jmoreover, is the gift that Jesus longs to give. The highest joy of both God and man is attained when that gift of eternal life is bestowed.
Why then was thie aspiration. not immediately met? Why was not this quest at once successful? There iwas a hindrance, there was a rival quest. Shall we then notice thirdly
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.