I, His first aspiration is that he' may present worthy ideas of God.
It should not be necessary to. stress the point that the whole purpose of coming to Church is to think about God. It is indeed true that religion takes in the whole range of life and that no true human interest is excluded. But} all of these interests must be view: ed from the Divine standpoint, The Church does not exist to discuss, politics and economies as such; its business is with religion and with all else in the light of religion.
The all important question for any worshipping congregation of people is: "What are your ideas of God? Are there ideas worthy or mean?" Our conceptions of God are fundamental; they will determine our whole conduct.
Now what ideas of God does the Pealmist present to us? He says two things about God:
The first is that God ie the Strength, andthe mi is of stability, rel worthiness, Here is a worthy conception of God. He is the "Rock of Ages." Io is able to adequate shelter und those who trust in Him. able to bear all the weight we pur upon Him. The load that would crush us, He can support. "Cast thy burden upon the Lord and He will sustain thee."
The second thing he says about God is that He is his Redeemer. Now we do not expect to find a full-orbed Gospel in the Old Test ment, yet we do find many a and anticipation of—redemptio and in many a Psalm where a deep sense of sin and unvorihine: expressed there is also the prayer! for restoration and the hope of forgiveness. And one of the Pealmists boldly declared "There is forgiveness with Thee that Thou mightest be feared." God did not commence to love men as a result of Calvary. No, the Cross was the perfect expression of pardonine: 1 love that springs eternally in the heart of God. It was the love of God which caused the Cross, not the 'Cross which caused the' love of God; and there is a sense in which the Lamb was "slain from the foundation of the world." And centuries before Jesus came, an! ancient prophet exclaimed: "Who is a God like unto Thee which par-done th iniquity?"
Yet it is not enough for us to retain Old Testament conceptions God, however lofty. We cannot indeed improve on the words of the Psalmist, but we ought to be able to fill them with a richer content; for since he wrote them, the love of God has become incarnate, in the Person of Jesus Christ, Who has shown us by His words and deeds, by His life and death that God will overcome every obstacle in His search for men; that He will endure unutterable pain win them back; that He loves mea with a love that is inexhaustible and that is stronger than death, stronger even than sin, Here then is a conception of God that every preacher should keep steadily before his congregation—the conception of a God who is both Strength and Redeemer, Who is All-powerful and Allloving, 1 need not point out to you how the two parts of this conception aripplement exch other, and. how' rach alone would be incomplete. The thought of God's power without His love might fill us with fear, it might crush us, would) bring us ro hope. rly the thought of His love without that of His power might call forth our admiration, perhaps even our sympathy, but might still leave us in despair. But the thought that God is both Strength and Redeemer, that He is both able and willing to save us, fills us with hope and Rladness and with the consciousness that we have a message that may! well be called a Gospel, Prompting to Thoughtfulness LI, 'The preacher's second aspi tion' is that ko may provoke his congregation to thoughtfulness, Now I admit again, as I did the outset, that Iam faking certains Nberties with the text, for the mist was not thinking of preach.
and congregations, But we out with the understanding, is prayer could be used suitable Invocation with which to preface a sermon and I am now taking advantage of that stipula. tion, Some preachers alter one of the pronouns and so adapt the words go that they more aptly serve this purpose, and they read them like this: "Let the words of my month and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in Thy sight." The words are the preacher's, the ditations are the hearers, The ions of the preacher have gone before; he has spent many hours dwelling on the theme. the time of the Sermon it is for him to use such words as shall provoke, meditation on the part of the hearers, Tt has been said with great truth that it is rot modern thought, but modern thoughtlessness, that we, have to fear, and every preacher worth his salt fondly hopes that he may be able to inspire his people for themselves, It follows thoughtful congregation will hot meekly accept all that is pre-nted to them, but personally well to accept all If after some tone of you comes to me and I don't agree with what you I shall be inclined to reply you must have been all er you hold the same Tt does not matter at
views as do, 0 long as are provoke ed to hold some of your own. It is written of one of the audiences fof the Apostle Paul that "they scardhed the Scriptures daily ce whether these thing were #2."
here was no taking of with a congregation like that. Even the Apostle Paul could not blue them' into.believingg anything he eared to say. And that congregation was using its undoubted right. The more critical the hearers are the belter. The reason that agitators have such an cary time
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.