A Sermon Preached in Union Church on the Occasion of the Special St. Andrew's Day Service, November 27, 1927
"Hig delight is in the law the Lord."—Pealn 1, v. 2 well-known local Scotsman once told me that, much as we may regret it, it is impossible to persuades his fellow-countrymen to Jeome to Church more than once a year. I'am rather more of an optimist than he end our regular: congregations here prove that things are not quite so bad as ko suggested, Yet 1 suppose it is tree Jof some of you thet it is only at. ithe special St, Andrew's Day: sei vice that we have the privilege of [welcoming you here, If that is the ease, then there is the possibility that the only Biblical character of whom you ever hear is Andrew, the brother of Peter. Well, much [we admire him, it seems a pity that Jyou should not be made aware that there are other things in the Bible besides references to your Patron 'Saint, and it hardly can be out of place' to speak to a congregation composed largely of Scotsmen about the Bock of Psalms, the Ihymn-book of the Bible, a collection lof poems with which your ancestors (if not you yourselves) were very familiar, and on which they nourished their spiritual life, Now, the first Psalm is a very fit introduction to the whole volume. It tells us that there are two alternative ways of living. They are strongly contrasted; you cannot, adopt both, but you must choos tone, It is not our purpose this morning to speak of both of these alternatives, but to concentrate our Jattention upon verse two, which tells of a man whose way of life is healthy, harmonious, and happy. His is the Kind of life that compels our admiration. It is the kind of} life that in our best moments we feel we should like to live. What Jdoes this verse tells us about the true way of life? We shall answer that question if we select for special Jemphasis three of its leading words "Lave, Lord, Delight, An Orderly Life antithesis of law, has its own law, and Paul speaks, with profound truth, of the perfect law of liberty, For there is no liberty without law, A Universal Reign Many of your will remember that, towards the end of the 19th \Century, @ materialistic philosophy which Ww As 0 serious enemy to Christianity gained eur~ rency. Everything that could not be explained by it was denied. Miraclés, and special revolution were ruled'out On what ground was this system of philosophy sup-Jposed to be opposed to Christianity? On this ground, forsooth J—the universal reign of Inw. That, indeed, was a wonderful doctrine, The universe is not subject to lexprice, or it would not be universe, for the very word implies order, design, regularity; that things do not happen by accidents that every effect must have an ades Jquate cause, What seemed not to have occur fred to the exponents of that philosophy was that they were playing into the hands of the theists whom they supposed they we Jdethroning; that they were real ming in different Janguage what. used to be called the argument from design; that they were illus trating what Christian people have Jalways known—that God is not a [God of confusion, but of order; that the universe ean'be depended puny that it will not let you down, Of Jeourse, it was supposed that that doctrine of the universal reign of ruled God out; that it mad [Him unnecessary. That is where our Paalmiat would not agree with them and that is where no philoso-[pher of the present day would agree with them. The Psalmist derstood that the game of must be played according to rules of the game, Life must capricious or rebellious. Th is our first statement: the true life L—The first thing to be said Jabout the true way of life ix that it is regulated, It is orderly; it, related to" some plan. The Psalmist speaks of "the law." Now se live in a time when there has been wholesale revolt against law of any kind. We have soon sixteen years of anarchy in China, when an ige-long, system has been scrapped fand no new system yet has been built up to take its place. We have witnessed ten years of upheaval jand chaos in Russia, where abuse fof liberty has resulted inevitable tyranny. The World War involved the. break-up of customs and systems that had been laboriously built up during genera tions. Old sanctions no longer are regarded as binding; old custoros fare discarded and even ridiculed. suppose elderly people always used to look at youth with some measure Jof misgiving. The most placid and rigidly respectable of our grand: mothers themselves once were the objects of suspicion, That kind of ing is probably not peculiar fro one generation. Yet who will Jdeny that' the break with tradition, ithe experimenting with things new Jand untried, the revolt from all}! forms of restraint, has been more than usually violent in our day'
How has it worked out?) Has lawlessness been an unmixed blessing? In China and in Russia the. result has been a new tyranny, worse than any restraint imposed. by law, If the Emperors beat the. people with whips, the Revolution. aries have beaten them with scor-_ pions. In our Western countries, has the casting off of restraint brought about 2 more peaceful mind? No, it appears not. People Jare not any happier. No; it won't ido. We can't live without law, When liberty degenerates into Ticence, it leads. to. a more cruel one that is regulates
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.