Rutherford Waddell is a man who moved from Ireland to New Zealand to share the Gospel. Listen to a sermon preached during World War 1 by a missionary to New Zealand.
Big thanks to Richard Roodt for reading this sermon for us.
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[00:01:04] This is Troy and Joel and you're listening to Revived Thoughts.
[00:01:14] And let us not think it is far off from us.
[00:01:17] It is already here upon us in these lands.
[00:01:21] It is Christianity itself that is challenged as the great despotism.
[00:01:27] Every episode we bring you a different voice from history in a sermon that they delivered.
[00:01:32] Today we're going back to a sermon.
[00:01:33] It was preached in the year 1919 in New Zealand by a man named Rutherford Waddell.
[00:01:40] Rutherford.
[00:01:41] Rutherford.
[00:01:43] Rutherford.
[00:01:44] Oh, I don't know why that's so hard for me to say.
[00:01:47] Rutherford.
[00:01:47] Rutherford.
[00:01:49] Rutherford.
[00:01:51] Waddell.
[00:01:51] Waddell.
[00:01:52] Waddell.
[00:01:52] Waddell.
[00:01:52] New Zealand.
[00:01:53] Is this the first New Zealand pen we have on our map Troy?
[00:01:55] Thank you for saying that Joel.
[00:01:57] I wanted to let you know if you're checking the Revived Thoughts map you should go
[00:02:00] to RevivedThoughts.com.
[00:02:01] Check out that map.
[00:02:01] It is an amazing amount of episodes that between Revived Thoughts and Mars and Missionaries
[00:02:05] and our other programs we have covered so many spots in the world.
[00:02:08] And this is finally getting New Zealand on the map for Revived Thoughts.
[00:02:12] Now it's not the first time for the studio, at least in an episode on the history of Christianity
[00:02:16] in New Zealand.
[00:02:18] That's also very good but this is getting New Zealand on there.
[00:02:21] And the person who's speaking this sermon, part of the reason we went in this direction
[00:02:24] was because he is from New Zealand as well.
[00:02:27] He's got a strong New Zealand accent.
[00:02:29] So we thought that would pair really nicely to just be able to cover an area that we have
[00:02:33] never really covered before.
[00:02:34] So that was pretty cool.
[00:02:36] Absolutely.
[00:02:37] We got some positive feedback to talk about.
[00:02:40] We do, Joel.
[00:02:41] This one comes from Richard R. on Spotify.
[00:02:45] It says, Working My Way Through the Archives.
[00:02:47] This sermon by Ambrose has been one of the best so far.
[00:02:50] Amazing to hear how God sovereignly works despite man for his glory and our good.
[00:02:54] Thanks for Revived Thoughts team.
[00:02:55] Thank you for listening.
[00:02:56] And I will also say, if you have not listened to that sermon by Ambrose from about a year
[00:03:01] and a half ago, almost two years ago, definitely check it out.
[00:03:04] It's super cool.
[00:03:05] Ambrose gave that sermon, Dearing a Siege, and he just preaches his heart out.
[00:03:08] It's an amazing sermon.
[00:03:09] And if you are tired of waiting for the newest episode each week, remember Revived Thoughts
[00:03:14] has hundreds of episodes to go check out.
[00:03:17] And I think there many, many, many of them are really, really good.
[00:03:20] And you should go listen to them and learn about some new people you probably don't know very well.
[00:03:25] Another one came in.
[00:03:27] I got to be honest with you, I don't know how we got this one.
[00:03:30] It says 5 out of 5.
[00:03:31] It's like a review, but I'm not sure if it's on Apple Podcasts.
[00:03:33] I didn't see it on the US Apple Podcast, but that doesn't mean it's not on one of the other ones.
[00:03:37] Or it came through our website, so here I'm reading it, but I'm not sure how this review got to us.
[00:03:43] Praise God for this ministry 5 out of 5.
[00:03:45] I am a pastor working my way through seminary and I found you guys on one of my long drives to church where I minister at.
[00:03:50] I instantly fell in love with the historical context of my favorite ministers like Flavelle, Owen and McChain.
[00:03:56] Hey, glad you like McChain.
[00:03:57] We have some good news for you coming up then.
[00:04:00] There's sermons to music, your humor, everything.
[00:04:02] I am currently thinking about starting a small ministry at my church where I would read a Puritan prayer,
[00:04:06] say something that appeared to them, preach one of their sermons once a month.
[00:04:09] All inspired by you guys.
[00:04:10] Your ministry has edified me and much in my walk with Christ I pray that it would edify many more to come.
[00:04:15] Praise God for you and your ministry.
[00:04:16] May the Lord bless you.
[00:04:17] Going forth, thank you.
[00:04:18] Corrado.
[00:04:18] I got to say, I am really touched by that and I really hope you do.
[00:04:22] And we have heard from other people who are reading sermons out there and taking these old sermons and sharing with them.
[00:04:28] And nothing, honestly, nothing makes me more happy than to hear that people are not only being inspired by these great old sermons,
[00:04:34] but they're taking them out into the world, sharing them, reading them from pulpits or reading them to friends or sending them around.
[00:04:40] That's just...
[00:04:41] I don't want to keep this wisdom locked up.
[00:04:43] We've got to get it out there to the world.
[00:04:44] And so when I hear something like that, I am just thrilled.
[00:04:47] I hope that more people will join you and that this will become a thing where the church starts getting into these old sermons at large because I think we need it.
[00:04:55] One more.
[00:04:56] This one came to us, I think, on YouTube and it was from our revived conversation.
[00:05:00] Joel and I were talking.
[00:05:01] I mentioned Matthew Henry and I mentioned The Secret for Me, which was...
[00:05:05] I kept mentioning Matthew Henry in all my Bible papers because he was the only one that came up.
[00:05:10] He was the first one that would come up on Google.
[00:05:13] This person said,
[00:05:14] I would be the first new quoted Charles Furchin and John Calvin quite frequently, not Matthew Henry.
[00:05:19] So hey, Robert Sparkman, you were doing better than I was out there.
[00:05:23] You were quoting the big dogs.
[00:05:24] I didn't start quoting those guys until an embarrassingly long amount of time.
[00:05:29] Matthew Henry, his commentary for some reason were like public domain.
[00:05:35] So all of the commentary sites had to plugged in by default as like the free commentary version that anyone could watch.
[00:05:43] Whoever was in charge of his estate knew that.
[00:05:46] That's how you get name recognition out there.
[00:05:48] For a guy who's been dead for 300 years, his PR team really took to the internet well and got his name back out there for everyone.
[00:05:55] We honestly should have an episode with him on now that I think about it.
[00:05:57] We haven't done that.
[00:06:00] We don't have a Matthew Henry?
[00:06:03] What an embarrassing thing that his PR team hasn't reached out to us since then on them.
[00:06:09] We'll have our people call their people.
[00:06:11] We'll get it sorted.
[00:06:13] There we go.
[00:06:14] All right, today we're talking about Rutherford Waddell while known for his ministry in New Zealand.
[00:06:22] Actually born in Ireland.
[00:06:24] He's an Irish guy born in the year 1850.
[00:06:28] And if you know anything about Ireland in the 1850s, you know, this is the heat of the bad times and the potato famine.
[00:06:36] So rough time.
[00:06:38] We covered C.H. McIntosh who was also a minister during the potato famine.
[00:06:42] There's a little bit more information on that episode as well, but not a great time to be in Ireland.
[00:06:49] His mother died around this time and I don't know if it was directly related to starvation or there's also a cholera outbreak that was hitting the region around that time as well.
[00:07:02] So it may have been from cholera as well.
[00:07:05] But all these things kind of compound and feed into each other to make it just a not great time.
[00:07:09] You have famine, you've illness, you've sickness.
[00:07:12] People were getting out of Ireland.
[00:07:14] His father was a minister and he did eventually remarried and have more kids.
[00:07:18] And so Rutherford would have had a stepmother, but really it was his aunt that he looked up to the sister of his biological mother.
[00:07:27] That was his mother figure.
[00:07:29] Waddell hated school growing up.
[00:07:32] He would try to cut class whenever he could.
[00:07:34] However he could by the age of 14 he kind of gave up on school and worked a store counter and he would work very long hours just to try to make ends meet.
[00:07:43] And that was his life. He was content with.
[00:07:46] Joel at some point Waddell here, he became a Christian.
[00:07:50] Now he said he grew up in a Christian home but his first 18 years he just didn't have that much interest in God.
[00:07:55] However it says that a sermon from a strange preacher at a strange church in a strange place.
[00:08:00] I'm not, that's not my quote.
[00:08:02] That was the quote from the article I was reading.
[00:08:05] So if that sounded weird to you, if that sounded strange to you, that's how it was worded.
[00:08:10] Really made his eyes open to the need for God.
[00:08:12] I would love to know more information. What sermon? What was this specifically that we don't know?
[00:08:16] And from there it says that his brother then helped aid him in coming to Christ, but even the way that was worded,
[00:08:22] I couldn't tell if his brother was like a strong Christian and pushed him into the faith,
[00:08:26] or if like his brother was a bad example and made him wake up to the reality of needing Jesus.
[00:08:31] The answer is we just aren't sure.
[00:08:33] But either way these two things happened around his 18th year and brought him into the faith.
[00:08:38] He joins his father and his maternal grandfather in the family trade of being a Presbyterian minister.
[00:08:45] So again when we say he grew up in a Christian home, his dad was a Presbyterian minister.
[00:08:50] He then went to school and graduated, but when he graduated there was no job for him.
[00:08:55] He couldn't find any work as a pastor. Nothing was really opening up for him.
[00:09:00] It didn't try to become a missionary, but he kind of got rejected from the mission boards at the time too.
[00:09:05] It's after a while finally an opportunity opened up for him, but it was not in Ireland.
[00:09:10] It was in New Zealand.
[00:09:13] At least as I mentioned earlier, did a history on the episode of New Zealand.
[00:09:16] I really think it's a good one and how many other podcasts do you know that have covered the history of Christianity in New Zealand?
[00:09:22] But if you want to get an idea for what it was like in the 1800s to be a Christian there
[00:09:26] and what kind of spiritual climate you're going into, I definitely think you should check that out
[00:09:30] because it's an interesting episode because New Zealand, it did sound like it had a pretty rough time getting the gospel to it
[00:09:37] and some big misfires happened there.
[00:09:40] But anyway you'll need to listen to that episode to kind of get more of the history of that.
[00:09:46] So in 1877 he took this relatively poor post out in New Zealand.
[00:09:53] He arrived and it kind of hit things off with his congregation.
[00:09:57] They really seem to like him. They really bond.
[00:10:00] So just kind of this smaller poor little community that he was able to minister to.
[00:10:07] It seems like have a good rapport with the people there.
[00:10:11] He was a bit of a Christian socialist which makes him a little controversial as we usually don't cover socialists on revived thoughts.
[00:10:20] But personally I'm against him myself if I can be, if I could just put that out.
[00:10:24] I know it's bold to take that stance with the Church History Podcast but I will go ahead and say I would normally not want them on it on the show
[00:10:32] but there is, his case, as you will see and as you enjoy I think listening to more of his history
[00:10:38] I think you'll understand why we kind of made this one exception.
[00:10:41] Yeah he seems to be, well and he goes through different areas of life
[00:10:44] and you can kind of see his opinions and feelings on things evolve over time
[00:10:49] but largely he does seem to be somewhat of an anti-government socialist.
[00:10:53] You know like his motivations seem to be stemmed from his poor upbringing
[00:10:59] and his desire to see people help the poor and his desire for the community to help that
[00:11:05] rather than the government helping that.
[00:11:06] He doesn't want the government to be empowered to do this.
[00:11:09] He thinks that people should rise up and do this.
[00:11:13] So that thing comes to things like anti-alcoholism.
[00:11:16] He was very much anti-alcohol.
[00:11:18] He took a pledge to abstain from himself and would encourage the people around him to do so
[00:11:22] and so this is kind of like a little vignette of his interaction with government bodies.
[00:11:27] That's interesting. You can kind of see how it changes over time
[00:11:30] but there was a point where he was very much against having Bibles in public schools.
[00:11:35] He didn't want Bibles to be included in public schools in his reasoning.
[00:11:40] So again we're talking about New Zealand specifically here.
[00:11:43] He's looking back on his own past and he was raised in the Catholic school
[00:11:48] and he felt like it was not a great experience.
[00:11:50] He didn't want the state to teach religion.
[00:11:53] He thought that was a pretty dangerous thing.
[00:11:55] He wanted that separation of church and state
[00:11:57] and this was like a pretty important talking point for him where he was pretty stern on it
[00:12:03] but it's something he changed his mind on over the years.
[00:12:05] Several years would go by and he'd argue back and forth.
[00:12:08] Eventually he kind of flipped the script and decided that he did think Bibles should be in schools.
[00:12:16] He became a proponent of it, citing that this is the most important book anyone can read.
[00:12:23] I kind of got the sense, yeah maybe kind of surrendering it to the Lord.
[00:12:27] You know let the Lord use this book in these people's lives even if systematically
[00:12:33] it might be being curated and delivered in ways that he had a bad experience with in the past.
[00:12:40] Fascinating I thought, to see...
[00:12:43] We don't often see people in revived thoughts change their mind on things
[00:12:47] especially on political issues kind of like this
[00:12:50] and so it was kind of interesting, a little bit refreshing to see someone have thoughts
[00:12:54] and I feel like on both sides I understood where he was coming from
[00:12:59] how you would have one point and then have that change as you change as a person, as you get older.
[00:13:04] Yeah so I thought that was a pretty good example of like okay this guy isn't...
[00:13:08] It is not the way you would normally think of when you think of that term.
[00:13:12] Now the amount of charities WDL was involved in was exhausting to research.
[00:13:17] You don't normally try to list everything they do
[00:13:19] and this was just one of those guys that happened sometimes where I just go,
[00:13:22] I give up, I cannot list everything in one episode, it would be just such a long laundry list of activities.
[00:13:28] I don't know how he did it.
[00:13:30] New Zealand was going through a very bad depression especially when he got there.
[00:13:34] So his church was running food banks, mission halls, libraries, savings banks,
[00:13:38] kindergarten and what they called cultural centers
[00:13:41] and everything else they could think of to try to reach the people,
[00:13:44] take care of the needs of the people and bring them to Christ.
[00:13:48] He also had a very passionate crusade against sweatshops and child labor.
[00:13:52] A problem in New Zealand at the time I didn't know about
[00:13:57] and he gave a sermon called On the Sin of Cheapness
[00:14:00] that basically took the country by storm and really changed everybody's perspective.
[00:14:03] And had I known that beforehand I probably would have picked that sermon
[00:14:06] to be the one that we read but this sermon basically was how
[00:14:09] you're enjoying all these cheap goods but the way you get those cheap goods
[00:14:13] is on the backs of poor people who are absolutely suffering,
[00:14:16] on the backs of people who are getting treated like dirt
[00:14:19] and you're enjoying all your cheap goods and acting like it doesn't come from a bad source.
[00:14:23] And honestly I read that and I looked at some of the sermon
[00:14:26] and thought, there's some truth for that to us today still.
[00:14:29] I mean it is not something that has completely gone away
[00:14:33] that the world we live in is built with a lot of cheapness
[00:14:36] and some of that cheapness comes at the expense of human suffering
[00:14:40] and Waddell was very much convinced that if we are Christians
[00:14:43] we need to be better with how we use our money
[00:14:46] and if we're constantly feeding into a machine that hurts people
[00:14:49] we are a part of that process.
[00:14:51] You're starting to sound like a socialist over there Troy.
[00:14:54] I don't know, you better watch yourself.
[00:14:58] I gotta say this is one thing I'm not worried about becoming a socialist.
[00:15:02] I feel pretty convinced that is about as unlikely as a thing can be.
[00:15:07] Between all of his lectures and preaching and book writing
[00:15:11] he was a very busy man, very exhausted man.
[00:15:14] I was reading that he had on average four hours of sleep a night
[00:15:18] with all of his activities which is not enough.
[00:15:21] You need more hours of sleep, that is too little of a sleep.
[00:15:25] So he was a busy pastor, he was involved in his community.
[00:15:29] There's this particularly sad and tragic interaction that we see
[00:15:34] with him in his congregation where there was a couple in his congregation
[00:15:39] that was getting a divorce.
[00:15:41] So this was in 1880 and the father didn't want to pay child support
[00:15:48] towards his wife and so they were meeting with Waddell
[00:15:52] and he was trying to counsel them but the husband was getting more and more angry
[00:15:56] and was starting to threaten Waddell and his ex-wife here
[00:16:01] and things were getting violent and disturbing
[00:16:05] and Waddell tried to get the police involved saying
[00:16:08] hey this man is unstable here.
[00:16:11] It sounds like before anything could have been done this man sadly.
[00:16:16] There was a day in which his wife was walking home one day
[00:16:21] and the husband ran up, grabbed his wife and with a stick of dynamite
[00:16:27] pulled a stick of dynamite out of his hand
[00:16:29] and held it together with him and his wife and blew them both up
[00:16:34] and did a murder suicide there, killed them both with that explosion there.
[00:16:40] Rough on Waddell.
[00:16:43] This was an interaction, a counseling journey that he was heavily involved in
[00:16:49] and these were people in his congregation and he would officiate the wife's funeral
[00:16:55] and so I don't know when I see people that are stressed with ministry
[00:16:59] or having a hard time with ministry
[00:17:01] and stories like this that make me think it could be worse.
[00:17:04] You could have some pretty...
[00:17:07] I mean obviously there are pretty intense scenarios like this that happen in today's day and age
[00:17:14] but that's some pretty heavy ministering that this man is going through there.
[00:17:19] Yeah, I mean you would just...
[00:17:21] If you did not turn it over to Christ, you would have some huge guilt
[00:17:25] like did I do enough?
[00:17:27] So that would be tough.
[00:17:35] Do you understand yourself as no other?
[00:17:37] Someone who can be your true wish
[00:17:39] and want to experience the most beautiful adventure of your life with you?
[00:17:44] The shopping platform Shopify revolutionizes millions of companies worldwide.
[00:17:49] With Shopify you only focus on your online shop
[00:17:52] without programming or design knowledge.
[00:17:55] Thanks to the efficient education
[00:17:57] and intuitive social media and online marketplace integration
[00:18:00] you can buy and sell ebay and co-purchase on Instagram
[00:18:04] and you can reach new groups of target.
[00:18:08] Shopify offers on a single secure platform
[00:18:11] all tools to build up your online business.
[00:18:14] You can test it for free and present a business worldwide.
[00:18:18] www.shopify.de.try
[00:18:21] Just enter shopify.de.try and start.
[00:18:26] Made for Germany, powered by Shopify.
[00:18:32] Another big event in his life happened in the 1890s
[00:18:35] where he had to help defend his friend in a heresy trial.
[00:18:39] There was a big Presbyterian court council had
[00:18:42] which they did have back in those days.
[00:18:44] It wasn't like they would go to jail or get killed or anything
[00:18:46] but the Presbyterian church could basically remove this person from office
[00:18:51] and we actually mentioned all of this in our episode on J. Gresham Machen
[00:18:55] a long time ago because he also went through a similar trial
[00:18:59] but this one sounds interesting to hear a heresy trial
[00:19:02] like, okay, is there any heretics? What's going on here?
[00:19:05] Well the big heresy this guy was in trouble for
[00:19:07] was saying that he believed that when babies died
[00:19:10] it was not certain that babies would go to hell
[00:19:12] they might go to heaven and when I hear that
[00:19:15] that's what he's on trial for. I go, oh, that...
[00:19:17] Yeah, I don't... Apparently at the time
[00:19:20] and maybe still I'm not sure I didn't look it up actually
[00:19:23] but it was kind of assumed that if a baby died
[00:19:25] they went to hell and the question that
[00:19:27] would get you a heresy trial as this guy was under
[00:19:30] and Waddell basically said this is an old doctrine
[00:19:33] many people believe it to be true maybe
[00:19:35] but there are lots of people who also don't believe it to be true
[00:19:37] and they teach it publicly but privately when you talk to them
[00:19:40] they say I don't actually believe this
[00:19:42] but I have to teach it this way and he said
[00:19:43] so why is this guy in trouble for saying publicly
[00:19:46] what most of us are saying privately
[00:19:47] it doesn't seem fair and his friend did get acquitted
[00:19:51] they basically said yeah, you know, okay, you're right
[00:19:54] we shouldn't call you a heretic for that one
[00:19:56] Waddell was also worked to make wives
[00:19:59] divorcing their husbands easier in the case of drunkenness
[00:20:04] and abuse and when you hear the earlier story
[00:20:07] that Joel mentioned you could probably see why he wanted to do that
[00:20:10] apparently at the time it was very easy in New Zealand
[00:20:13] for a husband to divorce their wife
[00:20:15] but it was very, very difficult for a wife
[00:20:18] likewise to divorce their husband
[00:20:19] and Waddell was basically like look divorce is bad
[00:20:23] but if a woman's being abused
[00:20:24] and has a drunk husband and can't get out of the marriage
[00:20:27] that's also really, really bad for her safety
[00:20:29] and for everything else so we shouldn't have this one standard
[00:20:33] for men they can basically walk out whenever
[00:20:35] but this other standard for women where they can't seem to get away from their abuse of husbands
[00:20:39] let's try to make things more equal
[00:20:41] all of these things and many, many more Waddell was involved
[00:20:44] and he was an important and influential person
[00:20:47] in ministry at the time
[00:20:49] and he ended up living until the year 1917
[00:20:51] he dies there towards the end of World War I
[00:20:55] but even in this sermon you'll hear him talk a little bit about World War I
[00:20:58] he's preaching all the way it looks like to the very end of his life
[00:21:02] and this sermon now in joy it says
[00:21:04] Till the Stars Appear
[00:21:39] So we labored at the work
[00:21:41] The work
[00:21:42] What was it?
[00:21:44] We know what it was for Nirmaya
[00:21:46] We will not dwell on that
[00:21:48] We want to ask what it is for us
[00:21:50] The work
[00:21:52] How shall we name it?
[00:21:54] Let us go straight to the Master
[00:21:56] We shall let the Lord Christ tell us
[00:21:59] In John 6 29
[00:22:02] Jesus answered them
[00:22:04] This is the work of God
[00:22:06] that you believe in Him whom He has sent
[00:22:12] Every word there is pregnant
[00:22:14] with the profoundest significance
[00:22:16] has sent
[00:22:18] He has come into it from the other side
[00:22:21] He is not a human evolution
[00:22:23] but a divine gift
[00:22:25] This is the starting point
[00:22:27] and it carries everything else with it
[00:22:30] And so we labored at the work
[00:22:33] and this is the work
[00:22:34] That you believe on Him
[00:22:37] whom He has sent
[00:22:38] That is primary
[00:22:41] that is fundamental
[00:22:43] If you go wrong there
[00:22:45] ruin awaits you everywhere
[00:22:47] Is not that what this war has been writing
[00:22:51] out for us in lines of blood and fire?
[00:22:54] We are watching with awe
[00:22:56] the doom of civilizations that forget it
[00:22:59] They thought they could repair human nature
[00:23:02] without divine aid
[00:23:04] They thought they could build the Holy City
[00:23:06] the New Jerusalem
[00:23:08] by the untempered mortar
[00:23:10] of human wisdom and power
[00:23:12] and their towering bables have buried them beneath the ruin
[00:23:17] And what is true of nations
[00:23:18] is true of individuals
[00:23:20] is true for each of us
[00:23:23] When we come to ask what life means
[00:23:26] we must start here
[00:23:28] This is the work of God
[00:23:29] that you believe on Him
[00:23:31] whom He has sent
[00:23:34] Multitudes do not do that
[00:23:37] Spurgeon was once staying at an Italian inn
[00:23:40] the floor was dreadfully dirty
[00:23:42] He thought he would like to get it scrubbed
[00:23:45] but looking at it
[00:23:47] he perceived that it was made of mud
[00:23:49] and the more scrubbing
[00:23:52] the worse it would be
[00:23:53] That is humanity in its natural condition
[00:23:56] It wants regeneration
[00:23:59] before it can get reformation
[00:24:01] It wants to be washed
[00:24:03] before it is starched
[00:24:05] It requires to be washed white
[00:24:07] rather than whitewashed
[00:24:09] It needs the new man
[00:24:11] before it can get to the Superman
[00:24:14] It must be brought
[00:24:16] under the power of a higher self
[00:24:18] that is God
[00:24:20] than its own
[00:24:21] if it is to achieve the end of its creation
[00:24:25] This is the work of God
[00:24:28] There are other works
[00:24:29] any amount
[00:24:31] but they can only be perceived and achieved
[00:24:33] when you start right
[00:24:35] when you realise that
[00:24:36] this is the primary and fundamental business
[00:24:39] This is the work of God
[00:24:41] that you believe on Him
[00:24:43] whom He has sent
[00:24:45] Then you can go on to construct character
[00:24:48] and build a new Jerusalem successfully
[00:24:51] not otherwise
[00:24:53] And so we laboured at the work
[00:24:57] laboured
[00:24:58] Yes, the work needs labour
[00:25:01] Nehemiah and his friends were beset by foes
[00:25:04] foes fiassemen formidable
[00:25:06] and so it has always been
[00:25:09] and today more than ever
[00:25:11] The war against the enemies
[00:25:13] of the spiritual life without us
[00:25:15] and within us
[00:25:17] is a war in which there is no discharge
[00:25:19] It is the constant and special business
[00:25:22] of the ministry to direct and inspire it
[00:25:25] It is true that in these days
[00:25:27] in certain quarters
[00:25:28] the work of the clergymen
[00:25:30] is ranked among the unproductive employments
[00:25:33] A certain four-year-old cousin of mine
[00:25:36] whose father was a minister
[00:25:39] confided to his mother one day
[00:25:41] that he was going to be a train driver
[00:25:44] after a time that ideal faded out
[00:25:47] and then he told her
[00:25:49] that he was going to be a minister
[00:25:52] like her father
[00:25:53] or like father and do nothing
[00:25:57] That is the popular notion of the minister
[00:26:00] A section of modern democracy
[00:26:03] assuming the premises
[00:26:05] goes to the logical conclusion thus
[00:26:08] as I read recently in an Australian newspaper
[00:26:11] to quote it
[00:26:13] When will the people seriously wake up
[00:26:15] to the fact that these priesthoods
[00:26:18] and in particular the Christian variety
[00:26:20] are the enemies of liberty
[00:26:22] and general social well-being
[00:26:24] end quote
[00:26:26] To some extent
[00:26:27] this superficial idea is justified
[00:26:30] The results of spiritual work
[00:26:32] are the last to appear
[00:26:34] They are the final products of evolution
[00:26:37] and critics in a hurry do not make allowance for this
[00:26:40] So the minister is misjudged
[00:26:43] But
[00:26:44] his severest judge is himself
[00:26:46] There is possibly no other profession
[00:26:51] in which a man may do so much or so little
[00:26:55] be so lazy or so laborious
[00:26:58] For 40 years I have been living my life
[00:27:01] and trying to do my work amongst you
[00:27:04] Of the character and quality of that work
[00:27:07] it does not become me to speak
[00:27:08] I will only say this
[00:27:10] that in one form or another
[00:27:12] the spirit of Ruskin's true and terrible words
[00:27:16] have ever haunted me
[00:27:17] To quote Ruskin
[00:27:19] it is the doing of good work
[00:27:22] that is the entrance of all pristoms
[00:27:25] It is not done
[00:27:27] If it is not done
[00:27:28] the day will assuredly come
[00:27:30] when those who have shirked labor
[00:27:32] must labor for evil instead of good
[00:27:36] And so we laboured at the work
[00:27:39] We laboured
[00:27:41] Yes, we
[00:27:43] marketable honey is the product of a hive of bees
[00:27:46] not of a single bee
[00:27:48] It has been my good fortune during all these years
[00:27:51] to have had the cooperation of scores
[00:27:53] of men and women of high character
[00:27:54] and far vision
[00:27:56] Nothing is more remarkable than the way
[00:27:58] in which losses have been made good
[00:28:00] and the blanks of ranks
[00:28:03] filled up as the years went by
[00:28:05] The individual waves of the sea
[00:28:07] are perpetually breaking
[00:28:09] and thinning away from less
[00:28:11] and less to nothing
[00:28:13] But new ones ever take their place
[00:28:15] and the succession never ceases
[00:28:20] Life's a vast sea
[00:28:21] that does its mighty errand without fail
[00:28:24] Painting is unchanged strength
[00:28:27] though waves be failing
[00:28:31] And so it has been during all the 40 years
[00:28:33] of ministry of this church
[00:28:36] I have had the pleasure and honour
[00:28:38] of being associated with this finer company
[00:28:40] of labourers as ever any minister possessed
[00:28:43] The dry records of these years in cold print
[00:28:47] may not seem to count for much
[00:28:49] But Sir Robert Nicoll
[00:28:52] Sir Robert Nicoll says truly that
[00:28:55] the pages of a church report
[00:28:57] may be prosaic enough on the surface
[00:28:59] but to those who understand what they mean
[00:29:03] they are full of a heavenly poetry
[00:29:05] To quote him
[00:29:07] The collection of the money
[00:29:09] The giving of the money
[00:29:10] The keeping up of the societies
[00:29:12] The Sunday school teaching
[00:29:14] The Bible classes
[00:29:15] The help in the choir
[00:29:16] The visiting
[00:29:17] The prayer meetings
[00:29:18] The unbroken
[00:29:18] Hopeful, wistful attendance at divine services
[00:29:22] How good these all are
[00:29:24] We do not recognise the workers as we should
[00:29:28] Nor do we acknowledge the value of their work
[00:29:32] I am sure the Lord thinks very differently
[00:29:34] from many of their sniffing critics
[00:29:37] What these critics do for the regeneration
[00:29:39] of the world has never been clear to me
[00:29:41] What is clear is this
[00:29:43] That it is the work of the church in the field
[00:29:46] The unnoticed, regular, obscure work
[00:29:49] that has kept the soul alive in England
[00:29:52] and end quote
[00:29:54] And it has done the same in New Zealand
[00:29:58] and it has kept the soul alive
[00:29:59] these 40 years in this church
[00:30:01] All honour to that gallant succession
[00:30:04] But great and good as all this has been
[00:30:09] Something more will be needed for the future
[00:30:12] A new age is breaking upon us
[00:30:15] It demands new energy
[00:30:17] We are moving into a time that will test the church
[00:30:20] as it has never been tested before
[00:30:23] Dark days are ahead of us
[00:30:25] We have ended one war
[00:30:28] but another is upon us
[00:30:29] even more ominous than that which is over
[00:30:32] We are all watching with wonder
[00:30:35] and awe the advance of Bolshevism
[00:30:37] A shrewd Russian writer aptly named it
[00:30:40] an Asiatic despotism under a communistic label
[00:30:45] Dr. Fitchett of Melbourne says
[00:30:47] It has in it a strain as fierce and as cruel
[00:30:51] as that of the Caliphs
[00:30:54] who in its early days carried
[00:30:55] Mohammedanism by the sword
[00:30:57] over three quarters of the civilised world
[00:31:00] and threatened at one moment to overwhelm Christianity
[00:31:05] And its relentless advance threatens
[00:31:07] to be as irresistible as the slide of a glacier
[00:31:11] Marshall Fuch compares it to the green
[00:31:14] slow-drifting poison gas the Germany invented
[00:31:17] and used to the horror of mankind
[00:31:20] What its principles are we need not hear, Inquire
[00:31:24] It is enough to say that it is out to make
[00:31:27] an end of Christian civilisation as it understands it
[00:31:32] Let it be willingly admitted
[00:31:34] that there is much in that so-called civilisation
[00:31:37] that needs, imperatively, to be destroyed
[00:31:41] But if the Christianity of Christ disappears from the world
[00:31:45] then chaos and primeval night will come again
[00:31:48] And nothing less than that
[00:31:51] is the peril that threatens us today
[00:31:54] And let us not think it is far off from us
[00:31:57] It is already here upon us in these lands
[00:32:00] It is not simply that stark atheism and materialism
[00:32:05] are being preached by pen and speech among the masses
[00:32:08] It is Christianity itself that is challenged
[00:32:12] as the great despotism
[00:32:15] Our nation will never be safe
[00:32:18] I am quoting from an Australian Labour newspaper
[00:32:21] Our nation will never be safe
[00:32:23] for honest men and women until the cross is on the ground
[00:32:27] That emblem of tyranny stains the atmosphere
[00:32:31] End quote
[00:32:33] That is the sort of teaching that is filtering down
[00:32:36] among the masses of these lands
[00:32:38] It is well the church should know where its enemies are
[00:32:41] and what they mean
[00:32:42] And beyond and behind all these again
[00:32:46] is the whole oriental world
[00:32:48] China, India, Japan and the races of Africa
[00:32:54] If these vast hordes of mankind are not Christianised
[00:32:58] they will prove to the new civilisation
[00:33:01] what the Huns and Vandals were to the old
[00:33:04] The church must put all its forces into the field
[00:33:07] if it is not to be overwhelmed
[00:33:09] It must make an end of its chokers
[00:33:13] its camp followers
[00:33:14] They must either get out or get in
[00:33:17] There is no room for them elsewhere
[00:33:20] and the church must gird itself as never before
[00:33:23] for a fight to the finish
[00:33:25] Either too, it has been merely tiddly winking with the work
[00:33:29] It has been holding its creed as a perhaps
[00:33:33] and its faith as a Sunday luxury
[00:33:36] Well-dressed congregations have been singing
[00:33:39] onward Christian soldiers
[00:33:41] marching as to war
[00:33:43] Well, probably two-thirds of those who sang
[00:33:47] have never struck a blow for the crown rights of Christ
[00:33:51] The war just ended as shown us what fighting is
[00:33:55] and when you measure up the numbers
[00:33:57] the sacrifice, the money, the endurance, the hardship
[00:34:00] the blood and the death of those who fought the Hun
[00:34:03] against those who fought for Christ
[00:34:05] the contrast is ghastly
[00:34:07] All that must be reversed if Christianity
[00:34:11] is to leaven the world
[00:34:13] and if Christianity does not leaven the world
[00:34:16] the end is not far off
[00:34:19] Dean Church, a quarter of a century or so ago
[00:34:23] wrote some words in one of his great books
[00:34:26] that are applicable today
[00:34:27] He said then to quote
[00:34:30] They are grave reasons for looking forward
[00:34:33] to the future with solemn awe
[00:34:36] but awe is neither despair nor dismay
[00:34:39] and Christianity has had dark days before
[00:34:42] that faith which has come out alive
[00:34:45] from the darkness of the 10th century
[00:34:47] the immeasurable corruption of the 15th
[00:34:50] the religious policy of the 16th
[00:34:53] and the philosophy of the 18th
[00:34:55] may face without shrinking
[00:34:57] even the subtle perils of our own
[00:35:02] Only let us bear this in mind
[00:35:05] that it is not an abstraction
[00:35:07] or a system or an idea which has to face them
[00:35:10] No, it is the plain you and me who believe
[00:35:14] We sing
[00:35:15] Truth crushed to earth shall rise again
[00:35:18] The eternal years of God are hers
[00:35:21] but error wounded writhes in pain
[00:35:25] and dies amid who worshipers
[00:35:29] Yes, alright
[00:35:32] but don't you forget this
[00:35:34] that truth has failed and will fail again
[00:35:37] if not backed by truthful men
[00:35:39] Christianity is the truth of God
[00:35:42] but it is not self-acting
[00:35:45] it must act and operate through its believers
[00:35:48] and its believers must be men and women
[00:35:51] who do not hold tepid opinions about it
[00:35:54] but foam convictions
[00:35:56] Opinions accomplish nothing
[00:35:58] convictions born of the Holy Spirit
[00:36:00] transform worlds
[00:36:02] and so we laboured at the work
[00:36:07] from the rising of the morning
[00:36:10] that is my next point
[00:36:12] from the rising of the morning
[00:36:14] when I came here 40 years ago
[00:36:16] it was the morning of my ministerial life
[00:36:19] I had been only about 16 months in a settled charge
[00:36:24] I was very inexperienced
[00:36:26] and I knew little comparatively
[00:36:29] what I did know
[00:36:31] was somewhat crude and undigested
[00:36:34] but there are things associated with the morning
[00:36:38] that wise people such as were given to me
[00:36:41] will be patient with
[00:36:42] they will remember that the mellow autumn fruits
[00:36:46] and glorious colours that we see around us here
[00:36:49] that these pass through a green and sour stage
[00:36:52] and so the morning's light is naturally
[00:36:55] somewhat raw and unsweet
[00:36:58] youth is ambitious
[00:37:00] few of us learn by the experience of others
[00:37:02] we do not start where they left off
[00:37:05] we think we shall find our way where everybody else fails
[00:37:09] but if we are sensible
[00:37:12] the years bring what Wordsworth calls
[00:37:14] the philosophical mind
[00:37:16] we see much go from us
[00:37:18] many of our bright brave aims
[00:37:21] and ideals dissolve in a dripping mist
[00:37:24] they come the inevitable disillusionments of life
[00:37:28] it sobers and often saddens
[00:37:31] the dreams of my youth writes
[00:37:34] Hazlet came upon me
[00:37:36] a glory and a vision
[00:37:38] and came no more save in darkness and in sleep
[00:37:43] and that is so with many
[00:37:45] but for the Christian believer
[00:37:47] they are great compensations
[00:37:50] a poet of my country sings
[00:37:52] give me back the wild freshness of morning
[00:37:56] ah, but there may be better things
[00:37:59] than even the wild freshness of morning
[00:38:03] for years and years as one has well written
[00:38:06] for years and years on to old age
[00:38:10] men dream that there is only one kind of happiness
[00:38:14] the happiness of our will gratified
[00:38:16] and our ambitions realised
[00:38:18] and the little idols we have set up
[00:38:21] smiling down upon us
[00:38:22] but when they are made wise
[00:38:26] in the communion of the Holy Spirit
[00:38:28] they understand that their blessedness
[00:38:31] is quite other than that
[00:38:33] that it comes to those who have died
[00:38:35] to the anarchy of inordinate desire
[00:38:38] and live the life hidden with Christ in God
[00:38:41] end quote
[00:38:44] that is true
[00:38:45] and now the long day wears to its close
[00:38:49] the morning of the meridian are far past
[00:38:52] and my face looks to where the days bury the suns
[00:38:56] in the dear golden west
[00:38:58] O, to be with thee, sinking to thy rest
[00:39:02] thy journey done
[00:39:03] the world I'll leave as blessing thee
[00:39:06] and blessed O setting sun
[00:39:08] the clouds that near the morning joys forget
[00:39:11] again aglow
[00:39:13] and leaf and flower with tears of twilight wet
[00:39:17] to see thee go
[00:39:21] and so we laboured from the rising of the sun
[00:39:24] till the stars came out
[00:39:27] that is my next point
[00:39:29] till the stars came out
[00:39:32] Lord Willsley says in his
[00:39:34] soldiers pocket handbook
[00:39:36] quote
[00:39:37] it is most important that the officers
[00:39:39] should study the almanac well
[00:39:42] and keep before them the hours of sunset and sunrise
[00:39:45] and of the moons rising
[00:39:47] so that all possible advantage may be reaped
[00:39:51] by every hour of darkness
[00:39:53] end quote
[00:39:55] excellent advice for soldiers of the cross
[00:39:58] as well as soldiers of the empire
[00:40:01] and so we laboured till the stars came out
[00:40:04] what shall we say is the significance of that?
[00:40:08] do you remember it is recorded that
[00:40:11] when God created the stars
[00:40:13] He said among other things
[00:40:16] let them be for signs
[00:40:19] and these stars in the sky of life and labour
[00:40:22] of what shall we say they are the signs?
[00:40:26] for my purpose I will mention three things
[00:40:30] first
[00:40:31] they may be taken as the sign of our work
[00:40:34] will look at the day's end
[00:40:37] it will not end in the great glow of a sunburst
[00:40:40] but in the glimmering starlight
[00:40:43] few of us perhaps expect that
[00:40:46] in the rising of the morning
[00:40:48] few of us perhaps expect that
[00:40:50] in the rising of the morning
[00:40:52] but all who labour seriously know full well
[00:40:56] that sooner or later
[00:40:58] when they have done all
[00:41:00] when they have done all
[00:41:02] they are but unprofitable servants
[00:41:05] they know well how poor and meager
[00:41:08] they will look the results when the light of eternity begins to widen about them
[00:41:13] where have you been my brother
[00:41:16] for I have missed you from the street
[00:41:18] I have been away for a night and a day
[00:41:21] on the Lord God's judgment seat
[00:41:24] and what did you find my brother
[00:41:27] when your judging there was done
[00:41:30] weeds in my garden, dust in my doors
[00:41:33] and my roses dead in the sun
[00:41:37] that is so
[00:41:38] we all discover it
[00:41:40] if we are earnest sooner or later
[00:41:43] John Elliot the apostle to the Indians
[00:41:46] at the end of his long life said
[00:41:48] my doings have been poor and small and mean
[00:41:51] and I will be that man who shall cast
[00:41:54] the first stone at them
[00:41:57] if Elliot could say that of his doings
[00:42:00] Elliot perhaps the most wonderful worker
[00:42:02] since the days of the apostles
[00:42:04] it becomes infinitely lesser
[00:42:07] ones like myself to say far stronger things of mine
[00:42:11] yes you reply
[00:42:13] humility is so easy where pride is impossible
[00:42:17] but God's workers have nothing to be proud of
[00:42:21] except God himself
[00:42:23] it is he that works in them
[00:42:26] all is of him
[00:42:27] and so they are content to fill a little space
[00:42:32] if he be glorified
[00:42:35] a second thing that the stars may be taken
[00:42:38] as sign of when they appear in the sky
[00:42:40] of life and labour is this
[00:42:43] they are a prophecy
[00:42:45] of the end of both in this world
[00:42:48] I suppose that after 40 years of work
[00:42:52] I ought to feel old even patriarchal
[00:42:55] the funny thing is I don't, not a bit
[00:42:58] my mind is far more alert and active today
[00:43:01] than it ever was before
[00:43:03] and I hope spiritually I have not declined
[00:43:06] I think if only the instrument
[00:43:10] the body that is would but respond
[00:43:12] say for 10 years longer
[00:43:14] I could do more and better in these 10 years
[00:43:17] than in the past 40 put together
[00:43:20] but I fear I cannot look for that
[00:43:23] Browning's words come to me often
[00:43:26] honey and gall of it
[00:43:27] there is life lying
[00:43:29] and I see all of it
[00:43:31] only I'm dying
[00:43:35] that is the experience that takes many
[00:43:38] the consciousness of seeing work
[00:43:41] that they would like to do
[00:43:42] and feel they could do better than ever
[00:43:44] but they are held back
[00:43:46] denied the power to accomplish
[00:43:48] and at last know that they must
[00:43:51] die like a sick eagle looking at the sky
[00:43:54] that is the gall of it
[00:43:56] and yet there is honey in it
[00:43:59] great honey
[00:44:00] for is it not one of the strongest proofs
[00:44:04] of human immortality
[00:44:06] so it has been found by many
[00:44:08] study Browning's wonderful poem of Cleon
[00:44:11] if you would realize its force and significance
[00:44:15] and so I come to the last thing
[00:44:17] which I will mention as the stars prophecy
[00:44:19] they are prophecy of the light
[00:44:22] and power and joy of a grand coming day
[00:44:26] what year in a beautiful little poem
[00:44:28] in answer to an address from some of his
[00:44:30] old schoolmates 27 years ago
[00:44:33] ends it up thus
[00:44:35] hail and farewell
[00:44:37] we go our way
[00:44:39] where shadows end we trust in light
[00:44:42] the star that ushers in the night
[00:44:45] is held also of the day
[00:44:49] yes infinitely greater
[00:44:51] and more glorious day
[00:44:53] is not that just what the stars prophesy
[00:44:58] look up at them as you go out tonight
[00:45:00] they appear to you only little thin
[00:45:03] glimmering pinpoints of light in the ebb and sky
[00:45:06] while this earth of ours looms vast
[00:45:09] and mighty beside you
[00:45:10] yet it is just a reverse
[00:45:13] just a reverse
[00:45:16] think of the magnitude and multitude
[00:45:18] of these stars
[00:45:19] take your stand in imagination on one of them
[00:45:23] say for example on Sirius
[00:45:25] with its flash and flush of many colors
[00:45:28] and now look back on your earth
[00:45:31] and what is the size of it
[00:45:33] it is the size of a half penny
[00:45:36] but a half penny seen at the distance
[00:45:38] of 50 million miles
[00:45:41] and millions of stars are even
[00:45:43] faster than that
[00:45:45] faster than our sun
[00:45:47] and then
[00:45:48] lest we should be overwhelmed by the might
[00:45:51] the magnitude and the multitude of these
[00:45:53] immense worlds that we call stars
[00:45:56] then
[00:45:57] well what then
[00:46:00] then
[00:46:02] lift up your eyes on high and sea
[00:46:06] who created these
[00:46:08] he who brings out their host by number
[00:46:10] calling them all by name
[00:46:12] by the greatness of his might
[00:46:15] and because he is strong in power
[00:46:18] not one is missing
[00:46:20] Isaiah 40 verse 26
[00:46:24] Yes
[00:46:25] and they are all for us
[00:46:27] for we are of infinitely more concerned
[00:46:31] to God than the gases and chemical matter of his stars
[00:46:34] O the might
[00:46:36] and yet the tenderness of this glorious God
[00:46:39] listen
[00:46:41] he heals up the broken hearted
[00:46:43] and binds up their wounds
[00:46:45] he does that
[00:46:46] he who takes up the aisles is a very little
[00:46:50] and wheels these myriads of suns and stars
[00:46:53] through his infinitudes of space
[00:46:56] and so we gather faith and courage
[00:46:58] to sing with browning
[00:47:00] grow old along with me
[00:47:02] the best is yet to be
[00:47:04] the last of life for which the first was made
[00:47:07] our times are in his hand
[00:47:10] who sayeth
[00:47:12] a whole eye planned
[00:47:14] youth shows but half
[00:47:16] trust God
[00:47:18] see all
[00:47:19] nor be afraid
[00:47:22] no
[00:47:23] we will not be afraid though the mountains be removed
[00:47:27] and the hills be cast into the sea
[00:47:30] and if the smallness of our poor work saddens us sometimes
[00:47:34] if our sunrise seems to be merged at the last
[00:47:37] into the thin shimmer of starlight
[00:47:39] may be over there
[00:47:42] who knows
[00:47:43] it may take on something of the dimensions
[00:47:46] of the stars themselves
[00:47:48] we may be astonished
[00:47:50] as Christ suggests to us in his parable
[00:47:53] at the great and gracious commendation
[00:47:56] which he will give to us
[00:47:59] to that which seemed to us here of no consequence at all
[00:48:03] and when at last the day comes
[00:48:06] as come it must to all
[00:48:08] when our sun finally goes west
[00:48:10] and the night wind brings up the stream murmurs
[00:48:14] and scents of the infinite sea
[00:48:15] then
[00:48:16] if it has been for us
[00:48:19] Christ to live
[00:48:20] we shall welcome it
[00:48:22] welcome it not in the minor keys
[00:48:25] a minor key of Tennyson's
[00:48:27] crossing the bar with its low moans
[00:48:29] and its dim hope
[00:48:30] but rather in the clear triumphant notes
[00:48:33] of a latest singer
[00:48:36] star rise and moonlit peace
[00:48:38] the last clear call has come
[00:48:41] and silver fingers on the pale brows fleece
[00:48:44] beckon the sailor home
[00:48:46] no moaning of the bar
[00:48:48] but down the tide
[00:48:50] the worn sails
[00:48:52] filling free
[00:48:53] the stately spirit bark
[00:48:55] in fearless pride
[00:48:57] stands out to see
[00:48:58] star set in silver sleep
[00:49:01] the night wind freshly ablows
[00:49:04] as through the pathless silence of the deep
[00:49:07] the great ship goes
[00:49:09] no sadness of farewells
[00:49:12] but from the skies
[00:49:13] like music faint and far
[00:49:16] one gathering shout of triumph swells
[00:49:20] and dies beyond the morning star
[00:49:23] I conclude with Jude 1.24 and 25
[00:49:31] now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling
[00:49:34] and to present you blameless
[00:49:36] before the presence of his glory with great joy
[00:49:40] to the only God our Saviour
[00:49:43] through Jesus Christ our Lord
[00:49:45] be glory, majesty, dominion and authority
[00:49:49] before all time
[00:49:51] and now and forever
[00:49:55] Amen
[00:49:55] Thank you for listening to today's episode of Revived Phocs
[00:50:11] Today's sermon was narrated by Richard Root
[00:50:13] Big thanks to Richard for reading another sermon for us
[00:50:16] Yeah, if you want to hear more by him
[00:50:18] you can check him out as he recently read Zacharias Orsinias for us
[00:50:21] So that's two episodes for him
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[00:51:02] This is Troy and Joel and this is Revived Thoughts