Sermon Preached in Holy Trinity Cathedral on January 10, 1926, by the Rev. E, A. Rigden, MA, M, Chaplain to H. M. S. Durban "What de "your Wife*—St. James 1, 14.
"Look! those men are Christians!"
That arresting sentence stands beneath a picture drawn by a fam-fous artist. Two men are passing down the main street of Damascus in the early days of Christianity. They are objects: of curiosity to the Test of the population, and one on-Tooker, with these startling words seeks to draw his companion's attention to them, "Look! those men are What a distinctive thing it was in those days to be a Christian! The followers of our Lord were known as "the people of the Way;" because they followed a mode of life 80 different from that of their To-day one would be at a loss to select from the crowd upon a modern street the men and women of Christ. In those days these Christians were few, they startled "the city with the daring originality of their life, In these days when they are many and powerful, their conduct is scarcely distinguishable from that of the world.
Why did Jeremiah harbour this wish? It was because he was disappointed and disquieted, he was disheartened, everybody seemed against him. "He felt he stood alone "Run ye to and fro through streets of Jerusalem, and see now] and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if you can find a man, if there be any that doth Justly, that seeketh truth." "From the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one of.them, is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one doth falsely." He felt isolated, in the crowded market place he was as much alone as in the wildest solitudes. And believe me it 19 possible to be lonelier in Fleet Street than in the middle of the Sahara, (Is there an acuter perience that that of the boy away, from home the first night? to many a sensitive sou! it has been the, first night in hell. That was the ease with Luther on his way to Worms, like Jesus treading the way to Jerusalem and Calvary.)
No one looking at the best types of modern society to-day, would dare to say "Behold! the Kingdom. of God!"
The Perpetual Struggle Those who follow Him are called tom perpetual struggle with "things as they are" in the interest: of "things as they ought to be." If we really followed Him it would just as certainly be said of us, as of the early Christians, "These are they that turn the world upside down, What is your life? St. James asks each one of us, Turn with me for moment to two different pictures Presented to us in the Old Testa ment of attitudes of life. The picture of Jerefniah, who was called by Divine Providence to be a prophet to hiv people. He would gladly have escaped from the task appointed, unassisted by circumstance, by nature timid, easily wearied and impatient, ho wished to escape from life's stern demands. "I would be anywhere else but here—let me go," might have been his watchword, and out of that. besetting mood he cries "Oh! that T had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men!" His was not a prayer for solitu: but prayer to be set where a man can} enjoy all the interest of lifo, with.
The Longing for Escape 'My brothers, how often do we! yearn to escape. from the respon-Aibilities of life, from the burdens that lie at our own door. As Li if it is well lived, resper sibilities' increase, busi fluence, the life of the home,.they all become larger, fuller, deeper.
And we long to escape from the monotony. When. day after day men rise to the same task, when morning by morning, spring, summer, autumn and winter there is the same daily routine, We fret and, chafe at the dulness of the days and we long like Jeremiah for release.
'There are hours too when we wish to escape from "ourselves." think if we could change our lot we should be very happy and content. ed, but as time proceeds, we find what we require is not a' change of scene, but of We have come to know ourselves, our weaknesses, our limitations.
There came a day when Jeremiah could have gratified his wish, when Jerusalem was taken and everything was lost, and a home in Baby-Ton was offered him. But he did {not seize the chance, he had come to realize that God had a work for him to do in the world with his people. game and go, like the river past the rik on which you lie in the long summer afternoon. Oh to have no other work in life than to watch the street from the balcony window, than to feel the interest and glitter of life and to achieve your duty towards your fellow-men by a kind-Tines and courtesy which are never put to the strain of a prolonged acquaintance.
The Only Lookers On \ful." We are called to be soldiers and not deserters. We are set here by an ordering God not to fy away, but to hold on and to fight on and trust on to the end.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.