SEMON BY THE REV. W. SCOTT.
AT the beginning of November last there was a great drought in Eastern Australia, and on the 13th of the month a fast-day was held in the Brushgrove-Grafton congregation, the following interesting report of which appeared in the Clarence and Richmond Examiner of Saturday, the 16th:—
Wednesday last was observed as a solemn fast, with humiliation and prayer for rain. Public worship was conducted in Brushgrove Church, where a large and representative congregation assembled. After preliminary devotional exercises, the Rev. W. Scott announced as the subject of meditation, 2 Chron. vi., 26, 27; vii., 13, 14; the subject being the part of Solomon’s prayer, at the dedication of the Temple, bearing on their own circumstances of drought: “When the heaven is shut up and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; yet if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou dost afflict them; then hear thou from heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, when thou hast taught them the good way wherein they should walk, and send rain upon thy land, which thou hast given unto thy people for an inheritance.” Why did Solomon anticipate such a calamity as the withholding of rain? He knew the fickleness of man, and his proneness to depart from God. God, moreover, had warned them by Moses in this matter—”Take heed to yourselves that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside and serve other gods, and worship them; and then the Lord’s wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit.” (Deut. xi., 16, 17; xxviii., 23, 24.) In his prayer Solomon sought to provide against the extremity of such threatened judgment; and he received a gracious promise from God that if, “when He shut up heaven, and there was no rain, His people humbled themselves and prayed, and sought his face, and turned from their wicked ways, then He would heal their land.” This explained their own service that day. They had here the fact that God providentially withholds the rain, and so “turns a fruitful land into barrenness”; and, again, the cause of this, “for the wickedness of them that dwell therein.” Such a warning providence was to “teach us the good way wherein we should walk.” This was little regarded nowadays, and secondary causes were all the talk in a time of drought. Here, however, they had the primary cause—the explanation that concerned them as moral agents—God making Himself known to a sinning people in judgment, by shutting up the heaven till they acknowledged their offence. King Solomon’s sublime utterance in this matter appealed to them now. And, when the heavens were as brass, distilling no dews; and the earth as iron, yielding no fruit, to whom could a people go but unto God? Wealth and substance, even where possessed, could not procure for them a drop of rain; nor could the husbandman plough or sow in hope, unless God watered his furrows. Solomon believed in a people praying for rain. They had a memorable instance afterwards in Israel, when Elijah, the Prophet, prayed earnestly that it might not rain, so that it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months; and prayed again and the heaven gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit. (James v., 17, 18.) Prayer to God, then, in such a strait was their duty and privilege.
But whilst they had these Scripture principles to guide and encourage them under the Divine correction, it was necessary to recognise that God would not regard the prayer of those who went on in their trespass. The direction in the text had reference to those who prayed “towards this place,” namely, the Temple. That was where the sacrifices for sin were to be offered. Solomon, during his prayer, we are told, “stood before the altar of the Lord.” They were to do the same. Christ was their altar, their sacrifice. He was the way—the one Mediator for them with God, with whom they were to deal. They needed mercy. For this they were to confess their sin, and forsake it, that the tokens of Divine displeasure might be removed. This was made clear to Israel, later on, under Elijah. They had been mixing the worship of Baal with the worship of Jehovah. “How long halt ye between two opinions?” the Prophet asked. Before he would pray for rain, the supremacy of the true God and the purity of His worship were recognised and established before the nation in connection with sacrifice. Thus they exclaimed, “Jehovah, He is the God.” This meant the overthrow of human inventions in worship. When a people repent, they turn from such idols to the true God. In the passage before them, when God shut up heaven and there was no rain, the people were to “humble themselves, and turn from their wicked ways.” Hence their own solemn fast. It represented, scripturally, a day of restraint from worldly business or pleasure, along with an abstinence from the ordinary comforts of life for the time. Such prayer, with fasting in emergent circumstances, had been attended with the Divine blessing: “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.” (1 Peter v., 6.)
In closing, Mr. Scott appealed to the assembled congregation to maintain their loyalty to the Word of God, in its integrity, as their infallible guide, in the face of the infidelity and worldliness all around. He reminded them of the two great pillars of their religion, which it entrusted to them on the highest sanction: “Ye shall keep my Sabbaths, and reverence my Sanctuary: I am Jehovah.” (Lev. xxvi., 12.) In connection with these, he felt that their community had sinned a great sin. The Sabbath was openly and increasingly desecrated in various forms; the Sanctuary also was profaned by unscriptural practices, whilst many had forsaken the assembling of themselves together. God had permitted the drought and other evils to come upon them, yet there was His promise, “If ye keep my Sabbaths and reverence my Sanctuary, ‘then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.'” (Lev. xxvi., 2-4.) They were but a handful after all, as compared with the population around them, yet it was nothing with God to help whether with many or with them that had no power.
Solemn intercessory prayer followed, and the service was closed with praise and the benediction—the Psalm being, “O God, Thou to Thine heritage didst send a plenteous rain.” It is further to be recorded that rain began to fall in the evening after the service.
Roman Catholicism in New Zealand.
There is one grave feature in the promotion of Papists to positions of great responsibility which should not be overlooked. An esteemed friend sends us a portrait of the Right Hon. Sir J. G. Ward, the Premier of New Zealand, with the remark that he is putting all the Roman Catholics that he can into the Post Offices. Protestants stand no chance for any positions where he has a voice. And another friend raises a note of warning as to the mole-like way in which New Zealand is being managed by the Roman Catholics, without any notice being taken. What, we ask, can be done? Two things, for sure—to be instant in prayer to Almighty God, the Ruler of all, and active in instructing the people by every means and on each opportunity.—Monthly Record of the Protestant Evangelical Mission.