Welsh Journals

THE WELSH WEEKLY. July 22, 1892. CARDIFF EVANGELISTIC MOVEMENT. OPENING OF THE EAST MOORS HALL. This commodious building, which has been erected for the congregation which has been brought together at East Moors during the last twelve months, was opened last Sunday. Accommodation is provided for over a thousand persons. The hall floor, which measures 84 feet by 48 feet, is capable of seating 450 persons ; the gallery, which runs round three sides of the building, will hold 400, while the terraced plat¬ form will seat 150. The hall is lofty, painted in a soft light colour, well lighted, and admirably ventilated. The woodwork is of polished pitch pine, the seats having reversible backs. The heating is of an improved system, and the whole reflects considerable credit on the contractors, Messrs. Thomas and James, of Canton. The glazing and gasfitting have been carried out by Mr. Lewis Williams, of Cardiff. The cost is put down at £2,000, towards which £400 has already been subscribed, and more promised. At the morning service, the Rev. Professor Ellis Edwards, M.A., Bala, preached. He took for his text, Rom. 12th chapter, part of the 2nd verse—" Be ye trans¬ formed." " Nobody likes to think that he is too old to change. We all like to have new clothes. An out¬ ward change is a sign of an inward change. On the other hand, as a man becomes older he begins to fear that he cannot be changed, and the very day that this thought enters a man, then he really begins to be old ; looking backward is a sure sign of old age ; but look¬ ing forward prevents a man, even if he is eighty, to grow old. However old you are in years, "be ye transformed," and you'll never grow old. In order to show the possibility of this transformation we will bear in mind that there were many in the Roman church, to which the apostle addressed these words, that were given up by everybody—a most hopeless class of the population—yet to these did the apostle say "be ye transformed." And they were transformed. It was amongst them that you would find the light of the world ; and not with the worldly scholars, philosophers, &c. We like a change in the direction of the most beautiful. What a change we witness in that direc¬ tion here to-day ! You have changed the tent for a magnificent hall. That is but a parable, and a very weak one. I hope to show the changes in the senses of men and women that may take place in this hall. But the whole story is not down in our text. The direction of the transformation is not specified. What would be gained by telling a man to be changed from good to evil, The story begins in the 7th verse of the 7th chapter : " I had not known sin, but by the law : for I had not known lust, except the law had said, 'Thou shalt not covet.' " Paul was a transformed man himself. He was once a Pharisee—a member of the strictest Jewish class—but he did not then know what sin was. " I have not known what sin was, but by the law." I imagine that the ten commandments were to him as ten angels, all visiting him in turns, and he did not find himself guilty till the last came to him ; " thou shalt not covet." Then he thought that he saw his sin, and fell on his knees. But the moment he under¬ stood this he coveted more than ever with an inward feeling—" I won't give this up." There is a passage in Milton's Paradise Lost that illustrates this : the poet imagines that an archangel is placed in the sun to watch Satan. The archangel has a spear in his hand—such a one that everything that touches it appears in its natural form. The angel comes down to the earth, and thf> devil touches the spear, and the king of darkness appears in his true colour. With the same result did Paul touch the tenth com¬ mandment. Then he saw himself. He saw that he was the same man ; and prayed to Christ in despair, and from that time onward he knew nothing but Christ. It's of no use trying your own quackery : you must see your need of Christ. God gives us power to ask for Christ, but not to burst the door. You cannot buy this power. God is too great to sell. There was once a poor family in which was a little boy very ill. They were too poor to give him what he needed ; but one morning he was nearly dying, and, although it was winter, he told his visitor that he would like to have a rose. Remonstrance was of no avail : he would have a rose. His sister gathered together what money she had, and remembered tha the king resided in the locality, and knew that he had flowers in his greenhouse. So she went to the palace with her sixpence, and met the king's daughter. She She asked her if she would please ask her father to sell her a rose for sixpence, to give to her dying brother, and the princess answered with a smile, "My father does not sell, but give." Our God is too great to sell. What is sixpence to a king 'I When God has done for us what we cannot do for ourselves, he wants our help then to use it. I cannot make a tree, but when I have one I can take care of it ; I cannot make a field, but I can cultivate it when I get it ; I cannot change this heart, but when God put good seed in it I can use it. A machine is a thing to apply power to the right place ; and so we are in God's hand to apply the power that he puts in our hearts. We are not under the law, and God does not want us to act as if we were under it. There are two ways through which a transformation may be effected—(1) To feel the con¬ viction and act according to it : that the power is with God, and not with ourselves. (2) Read the Bible to see what is promised. There was an old man once (it was before postage stamps had be thought of) that was seen galloping to the place he had received a letter from, in order to get the writer to read it for him. Learn to read the Bible for yourselves. Some people do not try to understand it, but wait till they go to heaven. We must grapple with its truths now. By reading the Bible we keep our belief in God quite fresh. By neglecting to read it, I sometimes begin to think that God is stingy, like myself. Live also with Christ. The company a man keeps leaves its impression on him. This is the company that teaches good manners to people. It is not dress that makes the friar, but the condition of the heart. In the afternoon, Rev. J. D. Walters, M.A., of Cardiff, preached from Luke xv., 18.—"I will arise, and go to my Father." The preacher first of all drew notice to the great ever-living force of these words, by asking, Can you conceive Jesus uttering these words 1 We could imagine that such words required a great deal of preparation before uttering them. There are no words in any language that have done so much work as these. If I could make such an eternal sen¬ tence as this, I would willingly lay me clown and die. Another marvellous thing in connection with the uttering of these words is, how did Jesus know what would be the prayer of a prodigal son ? He had never been a prodigal himself, and in the answer to this question I would try and interest you this after¬ noon. There is a knowledge of the inside of men in this wonderful Bible ; first, Christ here represents the ineradicable belief of man in the Fatherhood of God. These words "The Fatherhood of God " have become now of every day use, but they are only 40 or 50 years of age as common coin. They are the words that made Edward Irving famous. They were uttered by him at the side of a death-bed in the presence of one of the English lords, and the next day were used by this lord in the House of Lords, to prove some proposition. How marvellous it is that Christ took this gem and put it in this polluted man's lips. But these words contain the kernel of religion. If you cannot say "Father," you have no religion. A man can believe in the infinite without having a vital re¬ ligion. The very use of the word "Father" implies a personal religion. Well, this is the answer of the question—God is behind the human heart. Second, Jesus Christ here represents man attempting the divinest of all things. Man is at his greatest when he lifts himself up to God. The greatest thing a man can do is to turn upon himself and say, "I"—this man in me—" will arise and go to my Father." This is the highest mark that a man can put to his ambi¬ tion. Christ ventured to put these words on this man's lips, because not only that he knew man, but also that he knew God. Third, Christ here repre¬ sents tlie final end of religion—" I go "—a marvellous sentence. There is nothing that will rub the black dye off your souls, but by being in contact with God. Could I venture to say that these words were minted in heaven ? After applying the words of the text to the audience, he brought to a close one of the most impressive and edifying of discourses. In the evening Rev. Professor Edwards again preached from Romans 1. 16. He said that the text gives to us the kernel of the gospel. It contains what will conquer the sins of our hearts. The |preacher, after describing the entrance of Paul into Rome as a prisoner, said a few words on the religion of the city at that time. The Romans knew nothing of salvation. There was nobody to offer what you and I call salva¬ tion. All that the Romans cared and prayed for was a good market, or success in war. They had a god that they could turn to, and ask for a blessing on a little cheating that they had prepared on the market-day. So while Paul was entering even as a prisoner, he was not ashamed ; he knew that he had a power behind him that could save souls, and that none of his enemies possessed. No one possessed this power then, now, or ever will, if he does not possess the gospel. The New Testament does not say anywhere, that we have not good thoughts in us. Jesus Christ loved the young man that asked him that great question, "What shall I do to be saved," for the good that was in him. He knew that he was telling him the truth, when he told him that he had kept the Commandments, and for that he loved him. It is possible for a man that is a follower of Christ to possess much good. Esau did not possess the tricks of Jacob, but Esau became a pagan, and Jacob turned out a good man. Do we not know men outside the church of Christ who are better at a given time than professors of Christianity ? Baalam was a prophet, and a prince came to him one day to ask him to curse the sons of God, but he would not curse them because he knew that they were the sons of God ; yet, he did not join. Do we not know men that know that they are killing themselves by a certain sin, yet how tender are their consciences to¬ wards everything and everybody else ? Let us remem¬ ber that the consciences of men may be tender, and yet destroying themselves at the same time by their adherence to their sins. Everything outside the church is not sufficient to save a soul. A man may have a little self-denial, but be without the great self-denial that requires to pick up the cross. The goodness that we have by nature is like an apple, if we keep it long —without the gospel—it will soon rot. What nature cannot do, Christ's gospel does for it. Esau only possessed a natural good ; he was, as many other people are, always in good temper, but he was not over-careful of his duty, and it ended with him in paganism, and a hostile family. But Jacob had a grain of good in him, that is, he called on God to help him. The little good that was in Esau was not enough to make him completely good, while Jacob's good grew in him, and after the night that he wrestled with the angel of God, we did not hear of him making any sly trick. There is a power that changes men ; for in¬ stance, we find in third chapter of John, Nicodemus coming to Jesus to be taught. He did not think that he wanted anything else, and if we lived then and knew him we would think the same. He was a religious man of a very upright character ; but Christ answered that he must be born again. Everything that can be got by education is not enough. To be born in the church of Christ is not enough, we must be born again. But he wanted so mething else beside to be taught. The word teaching takes for granted that the one taught can see, but Nicodumus could not see how this could be done ; and Christ showed him the absur¬ dity of what he was seeking by the parable of the wind,—he wonld never refuse to breathe because he knew not from whence the wind came, and so, was he going to refuse this new birth because he could not see how it worked ? He put the stress not on the under¬ standing, but on the power that works. Ask for this power with earnestness, and then, if you are refused, begin to preach as much as you can against Christianity. But suppose a man goes to the doctor and tells him how he feels, and the doctor, after examining, prepares a medicine for him, and before the man promises to take the medicine he must understand it, and wants an explanation of the theory of medicine. Why, it is enough for him to know that it has cured many before him that complained of the same thing exactly as him¬ self. The doctor says, '' Try it ; it has done many good." Many people refuse religion on the same ground as the patient refuses his medicine ; but we have nothing to tell them but that it is the medicine that cures the world. How is this power to be got ? It is to be got for the asking. I would not like to see the man that would try to prove to me how good my parents would be to me if they were living; I wouldn't have patience to listen to him. I know that they