Sentiment and Sacrifice

2 Sam 23, 15-17

“Stands the clock at ten to three and is there honey still for tea.”

I remember those lines of Rupert Brooke after I read this O.T. story of King David. THERE IS A SIMILARITY, It comes from a poem R. B. wrote in Germany while he was serving as a soldier in the 1914-18 war. He contrasts the drab of his surroundings with the beauty of GRANTCHESTER and asks “Do the hares come out about the corn? Oh is the water sweet and cool, gentle and brown above the pool. And remembering the old clock in the church tower that at stopped at 10 to 3 and never varied, he finishes his romance “Oh yet, stands the clock at 10 to 3 and is there honey still for tea? THE DELIGHTFUL SENTIMENT of a young man recalling the scenes of HIS CHILDHOOD. THE STORY behind our text is that of an old man – a hardened warrior – a King and poet recalling the happy memories of his childhood. Let’s piece the story together.

The old enemies of Israel are at war with them again and Israel is hard pressed.

Bethlehem has been captured and David was hiding with his picked men in a cave of Adullum. Tired with fighting and dejected with defeat he suddenly recalls his associations with the little town of Bethlehem and cries out “Oh that one would give me to drink of the water of the well that is by the gate of Bethlehem.” And the story tells how three of his mighty men – risking their lives – burst through the hosts of the philistines – drew water from the well – and brought it back to King David. And when they offered it to him he would not drink of it but poured it our before the Lord

JUST SENTIMENT – Yes! But worthwhile – It’s it the evidence that with all the hardship and all the glory and success that had some to him through the years his heart was still youthful. The years had not petrified it.

The story comes at the end of David’s life. Vs. 1 – More than 50 years had passed since he had played about the well outside the gate of Bethlehem – but nothing could happen to this truly regal old man that could chase the romance of youth from his heart.

Sentiment – perhaps but there is nothing to be ashamed of in such a feeling. It adds richness to life.

Last May I was standing in the porch of our church welcoming the worshipers to our Sunday School Anniversary – just before the afternoon service an old man came in – handed me a card he asked to be given to the preaching – etc (editors note – I’m sorry, I don’t know the end of this story!)

He had come over 100 miles to revisit the place that had been his spiritual home –

And if this service can do nothing more than revive our hallowed memories and take us back to the altar we so easily and shamefully have forgotten it will be well worthwhile.

Just Sentiment – but you know it is a most precious thing to be able to preserve , and carry through the years that time has buried, such powerful memories. “THE HEART” says Pascal “HAS A 1000 REASONS THAT REASON CANNOT UNDERSTAND.” and if we follow the dictates of our hearts – it’s logic is always sounder than the head – we shall always reverence and hold to the things that are good.

Now don’t let us confuse this idea of SENTIMENT with Sentimentality. It is so easy for it to degenerate into that.

It is a good thing to recall the past. It is a good thing sometimes to talk about it but if we are always doing it we are likely eventually to bore our best friends. And I haven’t a deal of sympathy for the folk how moan about how different things would have been if we had our time over again – sentimentality – That will never help us – and we shan’t have our time over again.

DID YOU HEAR THE STORY of MINER – HE & Wife MEMBERS of D &J – he carried on at work a bit longer – then looking forward to retirement. Wife found old letter – in which he had promised that if she married him she “would have a gredely husband” - tried to show it him after breakfast the next morning – impatiently snatched it from her and put it in his pocket. Rushed off to pit – soon after going down was a fall – read letter in light of the lamp while waiting for rescue - “EH lass I’M glad to see you. You’ve got a new husband.”

The best things never grow old – recall them – remember the well at Bethlehem. I don’t care if you are 50 – 60 – 70 years away from those hallowed memories of yours. Keep them. Don’t let anything crowd them out.

AND DO SOMETHING TO SAVE THEM. IT IS THE WAY TO SAVE YOURSELF.

… … … …

Now let us come back to the story. There is another thought – even greater than the idea of sentiment. IT IS SACRIFICE. “He would not drink but poured it out before the Lord.”

These mighty men on Davids little band – thirty of them – were all famous men. They would rank like our famous sportsmen -

Yet three of them had risked death to fetch David his water. Their DEVOTION touched in David a cord desperation sent. Seemed to bring God very near to him -

The water at Beth – was no different from that of the springs about him – but the water in the vessel the men carried was no longer ordinary water it was sacred. It could only be given to God.

SOMEHOW – I feel something of the spirit of calvary in this story. It seemed a mad thing for these three men to hazard their lives for the whim of their king. But LOVE DOES MAD THINGS. -

“IT brought my saviour from above to die on Calvary.”

SACRFICE – It is the only way this old world of ours will work. It begins with God loving the world enough to allow his only son to die in it – for it.

We can only understand that thought when we realise and can say - “HE loved me enough to die for ME.”

It is the folk who realise and feel most deeply the cost of this sacrifice for others -

Have you ever thought why so many men and women give so much of their time and energy – often money – in supporting good and worthy causes. In the majority of cases it is because they themselves have been moved by the spirit of gratitude for what has been done for them. And in the highest sense it is in response to the sacrifice of Christ for them.

“Love so amazing – demands.”

Do not be afraid of the emotions which moves you to cling to the best – even though many call it SENTIMENT. And never be afraid of the urge that bids you give and give again.

Pentecost

Did ye receive the Holy Ghost when ye believed. Acts 19:1-10

One of the most popular literary characters in many homes to-day, expecially where there are children, is Winnie the Pooh. You remember he is the hero of the A.A.Milne book of that name, an amusing teddy-bear with the soul of a poet. As you would imagine some of the poetry is queer and not always is the poet successful. Once when the going was heavy he explained the situation by saying “poems and hums are not things that you get they are things that get you”

That is a great truth put in a simple way, a truth with which all poets would agree – because they know that their greatest thoughts are given to them. Some outside force, some vision of the unseen glory controls their minds. Poems they will agree get you.

We sum up the idea in a word and call it “Inspiration”

The same is true of the higher ranges of music and art. Two famous artists of a bygone generation, Millais and Bunre-Jones, met in their old age and talking about the subjects of pictures, one said to the other “they just crowd in upon me” and the story reminds me of an elderly minister who was both a good preacher and a good teacher. I asked him once where he got all his ideas form that he put into his sermons and what he said I will never forget, “Well, I just read far and wide with my subject in mind and then I light my pipe, and sit down in my study with a stub of a pencil and they just come” All this you see is evidence of a power outside a man to aid and supplement his own. In the religious life this power that inspires and helps us is the Holy Spirit. And all noble thoughts and all lofty visions and the joyous sense of forgiveness are not things that you get they are they are things that get you.

Or as Jesus said to Nicodemus “The wind bloweth where it listeth you hear the sound thereof but canst not tell whende it cometh or wither it goeth, so is everyone that is born of the spirit.”

Or as one of the finest of our Whitsuntide hymns puts it

“And His that gentle voice we hear

Soft as the breath of even,

That checks each fault, that calms each fear

And speak of Heaven.

And every virtue we possess

And every victory won

And every thoughts of holiness

Are His alone.

This is an important truth that we often overlook. It does away with the theory, so often preached to-day, that a man can save himself by the power of his own choice and his own free will. True a man’s redemption has somewhat to do with himself but if it has also to do with the church and everything to do with the Gift of God, the Holy Spirit.

But this doctrine of the Holy Spirit means more than that. It is to this gift that Paul is referring when in the strange story of a dozen men he met in Ephesus, living an impoverished kind of Christian life, he ask “did you received the Holy Ghost when ye believed?”

I wonder of how many of us Paul might ask the same question, and what does he mean?

To-day our thoughts turn to the story of Pentecost, the most striking story that history can provide of the out pouting of the Holy Spirit into human lives.

And don’t let us imagine that the experience is unique to that one occasion. The holy spirit has come through personal lives many times since, and when Paul asks this question it seems to me that he expected to find Christians living in this experience of Pentecost. We often miss the point about Pentecost. The important thing is not the strange physical phenomena – the wind and the fire – but the inward change in the lives of those who had received the Holy Spirit, and the changed outlook, and the influence they had upon others.

Have you received the Holy Ghost? Asks Paul and he proceeds to answer the question for us. The gifts of the spirit he says are, “Love, Joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” If your life is enriched with these blessings there can be do doubt as to the answer.

There were a number of People in Paul’s day who placed a lot of emphasis on the miraculous, but the Apostle answers them “Now concerning spiritual gifts” and gives a list including the abnormal and the miraculous, but he goes on “I show you a more excellent way” Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love I am become a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal” For him love was the supreme, the most precious gift of the Spirit.

But finally, one thing more, this is not all “To whittle down this gift of the Holy Spirit to the acquisition of a kindly heart is disastrous” (Dr Micklem)

The promise with the Holy Ghost is power. Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you.

One of the most glorious things about Pentecost was the courage that came with the gift of the Spirit to the weak and doubting disciples.

Power is still the mark of spirit filled men. I read a letter the other day written after a Coventry raid by a Christian there. He said that he had seen the flowering of nobility in the midst of destruction, and he spoke of the fellowship during the raid, as something quite new to him. They could take it he said that had the power to. I do not know my friend what we may yet have to endure but I do know that the Holy Ghost, the comforter, can give us power, and strength and courage in every circumstance. We think of the martyrs of the christian faith who faced evil and danger and persecution with a quiet dignity – with power, not of their own surely but from on high the gift of this same spirit.

So we may ask ourselves to-day “Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?” and the answer is In the assurance we haven in our own hearts of the gifts of Pentecost.

The promise is to you and your children so it come happen now.

Pentecost 13^th May 1951 Sydney Street Methodist Church

The Ascension

The Ascension – Acts 1:1-11

I want to deal in this talk with the subject of the Ascension of Jesus. I have never dared to preach about it before but I seem to have been unable to put the idea out of my mind. It is I am afraid a very much neglected teaching… We fight shy of dealing with it perhaps because it cannot be treated as a natural occurrence. It is true the event cannot be explained naturally but let me say at once that if it cannot be explained in scientific terms, neither can science explain it away. The Christian religion is one of revelation rather than direct observation and actually we could not have known God at all had He not revealed Himself. He does of course leave us to discover some things for ourselves. Those discoveries constitute our science, but there are some things that are only matters of revelation and faith, because we cannot discover them by any other means.

The ascension is part of that revelation and we have to try and see what it means.

THE NECESSITY

It is very easy to see, I think, the necessity of Christ’s ascension. Since that God had become man it was inevitable.

He had dwelt amongst men as a man with men. But thus to become man was to be at the mercy of men. It left men free to either accept or reject his sovereignty. It was even possible for men to scorn His word and put Him to death. It was possible. In fact it happened.

He entered our history by birth, in the usual way and thus far He seemed likely to leave it in the usual way by death. But it couldn’t just end like that if God were to be true. The fact that Jesus did die shows how easily and completely goodness can be defeated when all the might of evil that men can muster is pitted against it.

If such a death had been the end of Christ’s life then victory would have remained with evil. But it wasn’t. The resurrection contradicts all that. Yet to prove that Jesus was sent from God wasn’t something more even necessary?

After his resurrection Jesus appeared to His disciples in many places and at various times. They were strange appearances too. He came to them through closed doors and met them in most surprising places. In fact they could never be quite sure when He was absent. But this kind of visitation couldn’t go on indefinitely. There were very dear and reassuring but they were localised. He could only be in one place at one time. And had He not promised to be with them always. He he not said that it was expedient that He should go away of the abiding presence of the comforter would not come. Yes there had to be more than the resurrection. He had to return to the Father. But how were the appearances to cease? How was that beloved body to be withdrawn from them so as not to leave them wondering if He would be coming again? It must be done in such a way that they knew they would see Him no more, and yet it must happen so that they knew he was the SON of GOD and that he had conquered. There new faith must be confirmed and assured. Yes since that the word had become flesh and dwelt amongst men the ascension was necessary.

And so – we know the story – he gathered His followers over towards Bethany and after He has blessed them etc they saw Him ascend and while they still watched the a cloud receive Him out of their sight.

I know that men have tried to argue that all the after resurrection appearances of Jesus and not less the story of the ascension were the imaginations of overwrought minds, but they haven’t explained why or how they ceased to be overwrought on one and the same day.

It is very unlikely that so many would be subject to such an imagination as the ascension at the same time. And it is strange that none of the disciples seem to have seen Him after. The whole story hangs together quite consistently. If this did not happen then what DID? There would be more confusion and a tremendous gap if the event of the ascension were omitted from our gospel.

WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THE ASCENSION? then

What has it to teach us?

First as Paul says “He who began a good work will perform it unto the end.” God completes what he commences. Men may frustrate even delay the work but they can only delay it. The ascension of Jesus was not a retreat from the world. It was a return to the Father and the glory that was His. He entered human life to claim us and our allegiance. And though He was rejected He was not defeated. He took His place again, as a King would at His Father’s side. He never will be anything but a King. We sing “Crown Him with many crowns” and well can we do. Men’s rebellion against God may go on – justice may not seem to be apparent – But the truth is the world punishes itself – Jesus is King but a king who can wait. He knows that victory is His and His justice is tempered with mercy and patience.

In spite of all that men did Jesus persisted in His attitude of redeeming love and still does. He was not defeated and as Paul has it “Wherefore God has highly exalted Him” He reigns, and must until all bow the knee.

And the ascension assures me that God who begins a good work in will will perform it to the end. He became like us and was tempted in all points as we are yet without sin, and thereby proves what height of goodness can dwell in the human body like mine. A goodness that can fit us to dwell in the society of God.

Indeed God did not disdain to dwell in the society of men and it is a significant fact that Jesus took to Heaven a bodily form easily recognisable as His. - “And didst Thou take to heaven a human brow” - And art Thou His kinsman now?” Did I say significant – I should have said triumphant. Humanity in the society of God in Heaven. Our humanity then does not disqualify us from such a prospect. “I go to prepare a place for you – that where I am there ye may be also.”

Do you remember the story of Madam Curie the gifted woman who discovered radium. It is a wonderful story – but one in which the Christian faith has no place. No religious ceremony at wedding – children – no word of hope over husbands grave. Pierre Curie was killed in accident in Paris Street – she wrote in diary - “Everything is over. Pierre is sleeping his last sleep beneath the earth. It is the end of everything. Everything.”

She struggled on bravely – but I remember when I first read the story feeling how chill and dark the world would be if we had no hope such as that Jesus gives us in the words of his ascension.

Finally there is another thing I want to say. A thing perhaps of even greater importance. The disciples were quite satisfied that He had gone to be with his father. John says he came from God and went to God. Amongst men he was still the Son of God and now in Heaven he is Still the son of Man. He came amongst men to represent God and before God now he represent man. And so cires John we have an ADVOCATE with the Father. Have you noticed what a wonderful verse that is in Jean Ingelow’s hymn.

“By that one likeness which is ours and thine

By that one nature which doth hold us kin,

By that High heaven where sinless thou dost shine

To draw us sinners in.”

Isn’t that why we make all our prayers and requests in His name and for His sake.

His love for us brought Him to Bethlehem and in spite of Calvary, because He is both the Son of God and the Son of Man He loves us still and to those who desire Him he is ever present.

He has not withdrawn from conflict and left His followers to fight alone. He is nearer to us that breathing, closer than hands or feet.

He ascended on High that He might complete His work began and be with all His children everywhere at all times and in all places. That is to those who believe in Him.

Be obedient as Jesus

And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth; and He was subject unto them. Luke 2:51a

Somebody said to me about a teenage boy, the other day, “He’s a nice lad. You can tell he’s been well brought up.”

I knew that they meant. And so do you of course. The remark has a ring about it similar to this text. Listen! “He went with them and was subject unto them” It was eighteen years of discipline packed into it. 

We read the only authentic story we have about the early life of Christ telling of His visit to Jerusalem at the age of 12. 

A truly remarkable story that most likely in the first instance was told by His mother. And when the excitement was over Jesus returned to Nazareth with His parents and accepted discipline of the home. 

We can picture them walking along the village street. Entering the house and closing the door behind them. It closes as far as authentic stories go for another 18 years.

We should like to know what happened behind that door; but I doubt whether we have any more right to conjecture that we have to pry into the private life of any family. 

There is one thing, however, we are told. The one thing we can be certain about. The one things, maybe, that we are supposed to know. That as a bot and a growing man Jesus was obedient to his parents. “He was subject unto them” or as Dr Moffat translates it “HE DID AS THEY TOLD HIM.” 

We know that there were during these years seven other children born into the family. Five brothers. Two Sisters.

And it is fairly certain that before Jesus left the home for his ministry His father Joseph died and He carried on the work of the carpenters business. That may have been why He stayed at home so long. 

There must have been many ups and downs in such a family. But He was always content to accept the judgement of His mother.

All of this story singles out for us is the one fact that it was not His will that was done in the Nazareth home, but the will of Joseph and Mary. And it was at at time when most folk begin to find their own feet . Want to assert their own rights. Chafe and fret against parental control. But He was obedient Paul says “He learned obedience through the things He suffered” and there is little doubt that it began in His home. 

Just think! His ministry, with the full splendour of God’s glory shining through Him lasted only three years. But for 18 years He was content to teach Himself and us the one lesson – OBEDIENCE.

IT MUST BE IMPORTANT – AND SURELY HE WAS RIGHT. It was the foundation on which His life was built. What perfect patience was His. What humility. What purity. What goodness. It began in obedience practised in the home at Nazareth. 

It still is a fundamental virtue of life and though it may be a much more difficult thing in our day, when we prate so much about self expression and personal liberty, we still can get nowhere without it. Human nature has always been in need of discipline. We like to be a law unto ourselves. We don’t like being told what to do but unless we learn the lesson of obedience life will be a failure. 

This must be the foundation of all family life. - It is impossible without it. 

Imagine a home in which everyone did as he pleased – where there was no sharing of duties – where everyone had meals just when it pleased him. The place would soon be chaos. There has to be rule and order. There has to be one who embodies the law.

Let me say this to those of you who are parents. Teach your children obedience. Teach it not for your own sake thought but in their own interests. Surely God ordained that we should be set in families in order that we may learn at the very commencement of life this indispensable lesson. 

And what is true in the family life is true of all social life. We must live to fixed laws and regulations. We can’t have a thing just because we want it, irrespective of whose it is. We’ve got to observe the discipline of the highway code when we take to the road. In short we’ve got to obey the voice of authority. None of us is free to do as we like. We are proud of the freedom of our democratic government. It wouldn’t last very long though if men grew lawless and disobedient. Obedience is the very foundation of our liberty. 

And this holds true in the life of the individual – in your life and mine. 

As Paul argues – Christ was the Son of God yet he had to learn to be obedient to all the laws that governed human life. And if that was true of Jesus, can we claim any exemption?

He learned obedience by stern discipline – by times of quiet meditation – by regular worship and fellowship in the village synagogue. Without it He could never have been the true Son of His Heavenly Father. 

And it was Jesus who taught us that we are all children of God – He taught us to pray “Our Father which art in heaven.” But it isn’t just as easy as that. There is no getting near to God without obedience.

We all know our lives are not what they ought to be. Sometimes we know quite well what is wrong with them too – but we just won’t face up to is. We are not really happy and the failure is our disobedience. 

It isn’t for me to tell you what to do.

We each know what we ought to do, We can never be truly happy – or feel ourselves to be the children of God until we do it. 

So I ask you very humbly but very sincerely go home and begin to do the things that you know God wants you to do.  

His ain folk didna ken Him

He came unto His own and His own received Him not. John 1:11

I was considerably interested a week or so ago when I found this text translated “He came… and His own did not recognise Him.”

And then when I found a Scottish version of it which read “He cam unto His ain folk and His folk did’na ken Him.” I was distinctly intrigued.

It is one of the most chilling experiences of life to deserve and expect a warm welcome from strangers and yet to receive none. But to be greeted coldly and slightly by our relatives is even worse. None of us is immune from the hurt that come from being deliberately avoided and cold shouldered by those who know us.

That is the tragedy that lies behind this text. And it runs right through the Gospel -

John commences His Gospel with the pathos that this text lends it and strangely enough he closes it with a story equally as tragic “And when the morning was come Jesus stood on the shore but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus.” Once again “He cam unto His ain folk and His ain folk didna ken Him.”

It is the SUPREME TRAGEDY of the New Testament.

MESSIAH came to OWN PEOPLE – (carefully prepared) Failed to recognise Him.

Reminds me of two stories – Ulysses

                                               Lost son.

THAT WAS HIS HEARTBREAK -

AND WHY DID IT ALL HAPPEN? Why so carefully instructed did they fail to recognise their King -

TOO CAUTIOUS!

TOO ORTHODOX – Dr Stalker

“Life of Christ” at time of Advent Jewish Nation had attained a degree of orthodoxy unprecedented in its history -

Free of idolotry – priests recognised and honoured – Temple Services attended Feasts observed with strictest regularity.

But FAITH had become STEREOTYPED – no room for new light – so failed to recognise their Lord.

(3) LANGUAGE – Masters of the letter – but strangers to the spirit of the prophecies.

R.L.S. used to tell of a beggar who often sought his company, Could recite noblest passage in English Poetry – could not DISCUSS -

Dr W.L. Watkinson – tells of student of his acquaintance – extraordinary genius for acquiring book-knowledge.

That was the tragedy – The Jewish leaders mastered the prophets - but all words.

Ye search the scriptures thinking that in them ye find eternal life; but they merely testify of me, and ye will not come to me that ye might have life.

(DETAIL) pay tithe 7 mint & cumin & have omitted the weightier matter of the law, judgement mercy and faith. These ye ought to have done and not left undone.

He came unto His own folk etc. It is the most ancient of tragedies - & Most MODERN – HOW CAN I PUT IT RIGHT?

Story from early days of American history. The animosity between red and white men had reached such a pitch that no home was secure – Resolved great Yeoman Army – BANCROFT described lovliest scene witnessed in Western World.

Beneath bower erected on green river bank – chiefs and warriors, Sencas, Delewares, Shawness sued for peace -

Surrendered captives – reunion.

But many remained unclaimed – someone suggested lullabies -

God knows every move of the soul to-wards Himself and will go out to meet them.

To those who know and receive He gives the right to be called His sons.

Preached in Horninglow Methodist Church. Year unknown.

What is it? Manna, the Bread of Life.

When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat.” Exodus 16:15

Can you imagine the first light of dawn breaking over a huge expanse of desert – The light is dim and uncertain but already hundreds of men and women are about – men and women dressed in the flowing robes of the East. They are moving slowly over the sand – some going this way – some that – and all with heads bent and eyes glued to the ground. Yes’. They are looking for something which every now and then they seem to find. They stoop and pick up a little white pallet out of the sand – examine it – and excitedly shout to one another, “Man-hu”, Man-hu?” That is to say “What is it?”

AND JUST BECAUSE nobody knew wht it was, and no body could explain it or give it a name the word they used when they asked the question “Man-hu” clung to it and it has become known down the ages as “Manna”

The Psalmist you remember called it “Angels Food” “They did eat Angel’s Food”.

Now it strikes me this is a very fine story and quite suggestive for a temperance day discourse.

Let’s reconstruct the story. I’m fairly sure that most of us will have forgotten some of the details and the whole story is most interesting, almost peculiar.

The Israelites have been led from Egypt down the East side of the Gulf of Suez, past Marah and on to Elim. Now leaving Elim – Elim with it’s Palm trees and crystal fountains, it’s comfort and abundance – they were led by the Pillar of Cloud and Fire into the hot and arid desert. Soon they found themselves far from sources of supply and the provisions they had brought with them exhausted. The farther they marches the worse conditions became till in answer to cries and grumblings God met their needs with the equivalent of bread and meat.

The story reads like a romance of the desert and though I know it has a quite natural explanation there is no doubt that the story has been preserved throught the ages to show that God was and is of such a nature that He never leads men into circumstances where His provision for them fails.

The desert is a cruel, rentless place but it is true now, as then, that God never with-holds His grace.

So the manna came – and it continued for forty years – it continued, that is to say, all the while they needed it. Until they reached the Promised Land - “And the Manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the corn of the land, neither had the Children of Israel any more but they did eat of the fruits of the land of Canaan that year -”

God doesn’t do what men can do for themselves; “Piety must never paralyse the wheels of industry”

But there were never allowed to forget the wonder of the Manna. It was one of the things that was preserved as a memorial in the holiest of all places – the ark of the Covenant – Along with the rod that budded and the table of stone, was the golden “casket containing manna.” Ever to remind them how miraculously they had been sustained.

1. As Paul points out “He that gathered much has nothing over, whilst he that gathered little had not lack.”

It was the kind of pro-rata ration. The strong and agile gathered much but found that he had just enough to satisfy hi need. The weaker, less active man gathered less yet found he had enough in his smaller portion to make a new man of him.

There is behind it you see a divine principle of justice – fair treatment for all.

That was one of the earliest and most important lessons man had to learn, and still has to learn.

The security of national and international peace depends on it. The well being of each is the well being of all.

It is because some want more than enough that others have to go short. - Human greed in any shape or form is harmful.

We don’t need reminding that conditions have changed since bible days but the general principles of living haven’t. Men still need food, warmth, clothing etc and God’s provisions haven’t altered.

There is abundance in the world for all and thought men are slow coming to realise this truth gradually I think they are.

We may do much in our own personal lives to work out this principle but the state certainly has the obligation of providing living conditions for all; but let men having received enough for their needs be content and thankful for the provision.

Whilst no state can justifiably look upon appalling needs and conditions and ignore them, neither is an group of people justified in trying to exploit others.

2. There is another striking provision about the manna – it would not keep. Hoarding it became putrid and revolting.

It had to be gathered each day afresh

No man can live successfully on the graces of the past. What grand feasts and good times we have had are happy memories – good to be remembered – but they will not do for to-day.

Yesterday won’t serve for to-day not to-day for to-morrow. I need new grace with each situation. In our Christian life that is very true. I wonder if it’s general impoverishment isn’t due to our neglect to gather the heavenly food.

The Bible never lays down detailed regulations of conduct which are hard and fast rules for all men everywhere – it suggests divine principles to be applied to every human problem and need. And the principle here is that each new situation needs new consideration and fresh supplies of grace.

There is rather a delightful suggestion in the apocraphal Book of Wisdom that on the tongue of every Jew the manna assumed a different palate – just according to his taste -

God loves individuality. He revels in variety.

I may not need His grace in the same way as you may need it, but the glory of it is, it is just what I do need when I seek it.

That is the glory of the Christian Gospel it’s principles are the need and can be applied to all men everywhere.

3. And there is another thing about this manna – in spite of the rule that it would not keep – it was specially ordained that it should keep once a week, for a period of 48 hours. “For on the sixth day they gathered twice as much, as Moses said to-morrow is the rest of the Holy Sabbath of the Lord.”

This is another important and vexed problem that is taxing our Temperance and Social Welfare Dept.

Nowadays folks would have been saying “Why shouldn’t we gather manna on the day of rest? What possible harm can there be in it?

Whether anybody talked like that then I don’t know, but I do know that as the story says they didn’t gather on the Sabbath. It was forbidden.

Seems that one day had to be set apart to honour Him from whom the Manna came. And you see with God it was so important a point that He made special provision for the day so that the question of whether it was right or wrong to gather it needn’t arise.

At bedrock the principle of the Sabbath is for ever the same. For us the day has changed and the customs of observing it; but right from the day the underlying principle hasn’t. THE UNDENIABLE FACT IS, THAT THERE IS ITS NEED. The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.

We all know the various, religious, psychological and historical arguments for the need of a day of rest but that is beside the point.

It is a divine principle that our very exhaustion should compel us to rest.

The Sabbath is a divine creation and anything that tends to destroy is must be wrong.

What it is right or what it is wrong to do on the Sabbath is hardly the point – the point at issue is that we observe it.

The surest way of keeping our Sunday, and most folks want to, it by honouring it as God’s day. If we love God we should love His day and if we believe in Christ then we shall be zealous about keeping the day that celebrates the fact He is alive!

Now in case you just think this ancient story of the manna just a fable let us turn to the New Testament and listen to what Jesus has to say to those who taunted Him about this story of the manna. “It is true; your fathers did eat manna in the Wilderness and are dead; but as for Me, I am the bread of life; he that cometh to Me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”

If this means anything it means that far from being an ancient episode, it may become a present and joyful experience.

We all know Matthew Arnold’s Verses -

‘Twas August, and the fierce sun overhead

Smote on the squalid Street of Bethnal Green,

And the pale weaver, through his windows seen

In Spitalfields Look’d thrice dispirited.

I met a preacher there I know, and said;

“Ill and overworked, how fare you in this scene

‘bravely;’ said he, ‘for I of late have been

Much cheered with thought of Christ, the living bread;”

How wonderfully everything brings us back to Him who is the Bread of God sent down from heaven, it Him who is the answer to the world’s need.

Year Unknown

The mention of the Temperance and Social Welfare Department implies this sermon is from between 1932 and 1950, though Temperance Sunday continued to exist until 1960.

The Parable of (What to Wear at) the Wedding Banquet

“My man how did you get in here without a wedding robe?” The man was speechless.” Matthew 22:12.

Well might he be speechless – He had no excuse for being there without the necessary regalia.
I remember when I was a boy I used to read this story with a great deal of sympathy for the man. I felt keenly his embarrassment – it must have been bad enough to be the only one in the company not properly dressed for the occasion without having attention drawn to it. I couldn’t quite reconcile the scene with my idea of Jesus either. It didn’t seem like Him to be inconsiderate - perhaps the man was poor and didn’t own a dress suit: And in any case did the clothes matter so very much?
I know now of course that the matter of respectability doesn’t enter into it – Jesus we know too well had more sympathy for the poorly clad than the prim and proper Pharisee.
But still I gather from the story that the question of clothes does matter. After all that is the main point of the story – the man was there without the correct dress and he had no excuse, because as a matter of fact there was a robe provided for every guest who came to the feast. It was the custom of the day. Well might the Master enquire – HOW CAMEST THOU IN? The man was an impudent gate crasher
Actually he was as welcome as any other guest but to refuse the provided regalia was an insult to the host which could not be tolerated.
There is you see a significance about clothing after all. There are times when to be improperly dressed is detestable and insulting. I might grub around in my garden in an old suit and without a collar but you would hardly expect me to enter this pulpit like it, or yet would my friend feel honoured if I turned up at his wedding slovenly and unkempt.
We need only to recall the familiar pictures that Ian McClaren and Isobel Cameron has drawn for us to the Scottish Kirk men carefully dressed in their Sabbath black to recognise at once that the matter of correct dress has invaded the realm of religion. The church also has always had it’s special vestments and though the old puritan hated ritual and ceremony yet he carefully preserved his Sunday Best Clothes. Maybe we haven’t quite grown out of the habit.
‘And in so far that these gestures are in acknowledgement of values that have their proper place’ They do at least keep us reminded of the dignity of the church and the Sabbath.
But we must not forget that we are dealing with a parable – If you like a parable about correct dress, and if it has a meaning at all it does mean that it is useless expecting that we can feast on the good things of the Kingdom of God unless we are properly clad for the feast in the garments of truth and sincerity.
1. Worship – We gather for the feast of good things provided in this free gift of worship. Does it matter what clothes we wear? We remember the story of the Sunday School teacher who would tell her girls to put on their best dresses when they came to worship as a suggestion of reverence. And as far as as it goes we agree. But we mustn’t descend to the level of Samuel Pepys who boasts openly that his object of worship was often to see what clothes people wore and display his own. We know it doesn’t matter as far as real worship is concerned whether we are richly or poorly clad. But the symbol is healthy and good.
- we cannot expect to enjoy the feast of worship unless clothed in the garments of beauty and holiness. They that worship must worship in spirit and in truth.
2. Bible.  - We are very proud of our open Bible and speak of all the wealth and feast of good things to be found in it, but it’s wealth is not lavished on all and sundry. To approach the feast in the garments of a cynic, poking fun at the story of Jonah and facetiously asking where Cain got his wife from? Pouncing on this story which seems incredible and that passage which seems to have a discrepancy is merely to be thrown out of the feast. The Bible doesn’t yield it’s goodness to any common gate crasher. I know there are some folk who do have honest doubts about the bible – but so often the clothes these doubters wear are so obviously ready-made and ill-fitting. They have been picked up second-hand from somebody else.
American visitor to Royal Acadamy  - viewing pictures “Call this art?” “Sir these pictures are no longer on trial but visitors are”
“The word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, and quick to discern the thought and intents of the heart”
3. So it is true of all the Graces of God’s kingdom, no man is excluded from enjoying them, the only condition of entrance to the feast is the wedding garment. The dress is all important. To refuse the conditions is to be shut out of the feast. To enjoy the graces of God in the realms of our own lives we must adhere to their conditions. Unless ye forgive men their trespasses neither will your heavenly father forgive you yours.
So obviously, the garment stands for that which fits us to share in the joys of the kingdom and unless we are clothed in the spirit of unfailing grace we stand amongst the guests without the wedding garment.
To conclude let us return to the parable. You know that it is a parable of the kingdom setting forth the principles of the realm which Jesus came to establish.
Therefore it is true on a larger scale that there are men who often seem to crash into the territory of the kingdom of God and are found to be without the wedding robe – I was told of a young man who started to preach and yet repudiated allegiance to God – when asked why claimed to be communist etc.
So men in their service to country and humanity come over the borders of the kingdom wearing the uniform of another King.
“All Jesus said “The kingdom sufferth violence and the violent take it by force”, But the kingdom knows how to be courteous to such gate crashers. It tolerates them, but will not endure their rudeness. The kingdom is hospitable enough in it’s invitation to the feast of lavish things but the invitation cards state that a wedding garment must be worn and no man is admitted to the feast in any other clothes.
That’s where men stumble  - The kingdom is open to all it’s grace is amazingly free but there is no getting in with the crush. There is a reserve placed on every seat – A man does not enter the kingdom until the conditions of the kingdom have entered him.  The kingdom of God is within you, and until it is within us we are not within it.
When the guests in this story accepted the garment he at once pledged his loyalty to the king. And do it is that when you give the principles of the kingdom a place with you, you have an abundant entrance. Our personal and social redemption lies in our identity in the kingdom.
Men who try to reform the world without God are doomed to failure. The plan for the world’s redemption is complete. The feast is already spread – when men are willing to wear the garment prescribed for the feast the truth and reality of Christ kingdom with come.