A Sermon Preached by the Rev. A. N. Rowland on November 25, 1923, in Union Church, Shanghai "Turn us again, O God, cause Thy face to shine, and we shall be saved." Ps. 80, 3.7.19.
The most distinctive and beautiful thing in human life is that it can be turned and turned again by the process that in the New Testament is sometimes called Conversion. Conversion means turning away from what is lower to that which is higher. It is the exercise of repentance and faith.- Thus it is not simply a turning on its own axis after the manner of a weather-vane. Conversion is a spiral turning, like that of a screw which brings life up to a higher plane. The common standard of measuring life is by success which means going on and far in one direction, But so often it happens that the soul is lost on the way, and man's power of going on cannot be compared with his power of turning round as the most beautiful feature of human life.
CHAMBERLAIN ON TEMPTATION, The outstanding illustration of our subject in the New Testament is the Apostle Peter. He showed a capacity for turning and turning again until his whole nature was given over to the will of God. It is on such a Kind of man that our Lord builds his Church, not on those who are proud to stand where they always did. The present election in England has brought Mr. Joseph Chamberlain to mind. Once he spoke of the increasing temptations which beset a public man, calling for increased powers of resistance to the very, end. And must we not believe that if Satan tries to increase his grip) on man God means to get a closer hold too? The story of the Apostle Peter might have been given us to answer this very question. Let us take the four chief turning points in his life, when he brought his nature more and more fully under the will of God as it was shown him in Christ.
'The first scene is by the lakeside' and is described in Luke 5. Simon had failed in his fishing and was discouraged, when he found that the Man whose preaching had attracted him was able and ready to help him marvellously in his own job. It was enough to reveal to him the moral majesty of Christ, and he exclaimed "Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man." On, that occasion his conscience had won: in questions of right and wrong henceforth he became sensitive to the standpoint' of Christ. His old self complacency never returned: his vanity was no longer an invincible shield. Has our self-esteem thus been wounded unto death? That is the first turn.of real conversion, when our conscience has been subdued by Christ.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.