eChurch Blog

This is a fantastic post by Abu Faris over at the Spitoon blog, which is largely based on an article from the Hudson Institute, which is well worth a read.

For With G-d Nothing Shall Be Impossible

About 15 million Christians continue to live in the Middle East, the biggest non-Muslim minority left in the Muslim-majority countries of the region. Yet every year, more and more leave their homelands for overseas; pressurised into flight by systematic economic and social discrimination on the basis of their faith.

Of course, the Christians of the Middle East have not been alone in this. Starting with the sometimes sizeable Jewish minorities of the Arab world, religious minorities have been more or less forced out of the region since the end of World War II. Together with the Jews,  Zoroastrians, Mandeans, Bahai, Yazidis, and other, smaller groups have all left the region that gave birth to all the monotheistic faiths. Those that remain have often been reduced to what one Christian commentator has called an underground,  “catacomb” faith, recalling the persecuted faith of the Early Church.

Nina Shea, in a recent article, comments:

Within our lifetime, the Middle East could be wholly Islamicized for the first time in history. Without the experience of living alongside Christians and other non-Muslims at home, what would prepare it to peacefully coexist with the West? This religious polarization would undoubtedly have geopolitical significance.

She echoes the views of the Lebanese Catholic scholar, Habib Malik (son of the late Charles Malik, one of the drafters of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights):

The existence of settled, stable, prosperous, and reasonably free and secure native Christian communities in the Middle East has served in many instances as a factor encouraging Islamic openness and moderation, creating an environment of pluralism that fosters acknowledgment of the different other. . . . In Lebanon, before the outbreak of war in 1975, Muslim communities lived with their Christian counterparts in a free atmosphere of mutual respect. The fruits of this coexistence are evident today, even after so many conflicts, among educated classes of Lebanese Sunnis and Shiites, who stand out in the broader Arab Islamic context as full-fledged examples of modernity in every way. Islamic moderation is strengthened when Muslims live with confident co-national adherents of communities that respect women, do not condone suicide bombing or religious domination, are compatible with liberal democracy, defend personal and group rights, and are comfortable with many features of secular life.

Charles Malik is the founding director of the Foundation of Human and Humanitarian Rights -Lebanon, an organisation dedicated to a secular, democratic and liberal future for all the communities of modern Lebanon.

Elsewhere, the Copts of Egypt continue to suffer between the hammer of Islamist pogrom and the anvil of the state’s continued complicity in discrimination against the Coptic Orthodox Christian community. Shea quotes the brave and indefatigable Bishop Thomas of the Coptic Church, who has single-handedly attempted to preserve the ancient Coptic language (the last living descendent of the language of ancient Egypt) and the fragile culture of the Egyptian Christian community. For his pains, Bishop Thomas has faced repeated death-threats. Bishop Thomas recalled his own upbringing as a Copt in Egypt and the hope that his faith brings him:

I grew up memorizing the Quran, and a lot of the Hadiths, hearing the stories of the history, how the Islamic troops were victorious. And we have to study that and we have to write it in our exams and we have to praise it. Nowadays, the media has the same style and, wherever you are, you hear Quranic reciting. It shouts everywhere, and this is part of the pressure that people are living with. Even though we are facing a lot of hardship, still we are not weak because, simply, truth is strong, love is strong, hope is strong, and that enables the Christians in Egypt to continue.

Finally, Shea discusses the incredibly brave Anglican priest, Canon Andrew White. She writes of her friend:

The 45-year-old Anglican priest, afflicted with multiple sclerosis, voluntarily gave up his prestigious post at Coventry Cathedral to minister in Iraq. Since 2003, he has negotiated hostage releases, reconciled Sunnis and Shiites, operated free medical clinics, and supported Baghdad’s eight remaining Jews. White is the pastor of St. George’s Church, an ecumenical congregation he established for the remnants of Baghdad’s Chaldean, Syriac Orthodox, and Assyrian communities. Scores of his congregation have been murdered, and White himself was featured on a sectarian group’s “wanted” posters. He was once bound and beaten by security police.

I received a letter from him on October 25, which said in part, “I am very sorry to tell you that the two major bomb explosions in Baghdad this morning have done serious damage to the church compound. . . . Outside the church, at least 132 people were killed and over 600 injured. Destroyed fragments of their bodies have been thrown through windows of the church. . . . Many of our staff and church members remain unaccounted for. Lay Pastor Faiz and I have been trying in vain to reach them by telephone. Today was a terrible day for us. But even in the blood and trauma and turmoil, there are things for which we can, and indeed must, praise our G-d.”

There is a passage in the Gospel of Luke, one of many that never fails to move me. The Angel Gabriel has visited Mary. Mary is understandably troubled by the news that she is miraculously pregnant. Gabriel reminds her that her elderly kinswoman, Elizabeth, has also against the odds become pregnant:

And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren.

For with G-d nothing shall be impossible.

One might think of the Churches of the Middle East as Elizabeth, elderly, seemingly barren – and of their brave and devout followers there, who hope on hope that their Churches may survive their present troubles, that they might too be part of the light that is so needed unto the nations of that troubled region. One does not have to be a Christian, nor even a believer of any kind, to understand the demands that anyone of a liberal, democratic and progressive stance must take on this issue. The freedom to worship in peace and safety is part of all of our universal human rights. Perhaps the dwindling Christian believers of the Middle East might take some comfort in those words of the Angel Gabriel, spoken so long ago, to a poor, confused, terrified young woman in the middle of the night:

For with G-d nothing shall be impossible.

Brave or mad?

AFP

SEOUL — A 29-year-old American Christian, claiming God showed him a vision of North Korea’s liberation and redemption, has entered the country to urge leader Kim Jong-Il to repent, activists said Saturday.

Robert Park, a US citizen of Korean ancestry, crossed the frozen Tumen River from China and walked into the North without permission on Christmas Day, they said.

“While crossing the frozen river in a snowstorm, Park shouted loud, saying ‘I’m a US citizen, I came here to proclaim God’s love’,” a colleague of Park’s told AFP.

“But all were silent on the other side of the river. We assume he was arrested by North Korean border guards there. But we don’t know about his fate,” he said on condition of anonymity.

Park, a self-proclaimed seer and activist, is a leader of an international campaign for North Korean human rights called “Freedom and Life For All North Koreans: 2009,” his colleague said.

The group describes itself as a worldwide coalition of Christian ministries and activists working to promote human rights in the North.

Park reportedly carried a letter addressed to Kim and other leaders calling on them to repent.

“I proclaim Christ’s love and forgiveness towards you today. God promises mercy and clemency for those who repent,” Park said in the letter, which was made public Saturday.

“He loves you and wants to save you and all of North Korea today,” he said.

US embassy officials said they had no information on the reported incident.

The letter urged the North to close all “concentration camps”, release political prisoners and allow care teams to enter “to minister healing to those who have been tortured and traumatized.”

In March this year, two US journalists who crossed into North Korea from China while working on a story about human trafficking spent more than four months in jail for illegal entry.

Television journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee were sentenced to 12 years hard labor but were freed as part of a diplomatic mission spearheaded by former US President Bill Clinton in August.

Pajamas Media also has an article on this - Crossing Into North Korea

Israel National News by Dr’ Alex Grobman

The Christian holiday season is the time to publicize the real “moment of truth” about Christian Arabs’ suffering under the PA. Up to now, for the most part, Church leaders have remained  silent about Muslim abuses.

On December 11, 2009,  Palestinian Christian leaders issued a 13 page document known as “Kairos Palestine-2009: A moment of truth.” Having “reached a dead end” because of the “Israeli military occupation,” the leaders appealed to churches worldwide to treat Israel as they had apartheid South Africa by divestment and economic boycott.

The authors of this document include anti Israel Patriarch Emeritus Michel Sabbah from the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Lutheran Bishop of Jerusalem Munib Younan, Archbishop of Sebastia Atallah Hanna from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, so this distorted description of the plight of Christian Arabs in Gaza, Judea and Samaria is no surprise.

Justus Reid Weiner, an international human rights lawyer, warns that the present Christian Arab leadership is not telling the truth about the conditions in these areas, and who is responsible for the anguish of Arab Christians.  The “patriarchs and archbishops of Christian Arab denominations,” he says, “who are currently deceiving the international community, are self-interested people. They collaborate with the Muslim perpetrators of intimidation and violence. Against all evidence they claim that the Christians Arabs are living comfortable and prosperous lives. In fact the present situation is growing worse by the day.”Though these false accusations are not new, there is a danger they could change the way some of Israel’s Christian supporters view the Arab/Israeli conflict. Let us examine what is really transpiring in these areas.

Samir Qumsiyeh, owner of the private Al-Mahd (Nativity) TV station in Beit-Shahur, warned that, “15 years from now there will be no Christians left in Bethlehem. Then you will need a torch to find a Christian here.” Christian population changes in the West Bank have been flat from 1967 to 2006.

The cause for the concern is the Islamic success at the municipal elections,  and the Muslim campaign

of “intimidation” to force Christians to leave and relinquish their land.  After the Palestinian Authority (PA) took control of Bethlehem in 1994, they altered the municipal boundaries of the city and the predominately Christian suburbs of Beit Jallah and Beit Sahour to incorporate the 30,000 Muslims residing in the nearby refugee camps of Dehaisheh, El-Ayda and El-Azeh, and thousands of residents living near the Ta’amarah Bedouin tribe. These boundary modifications created sweeping changes in the demographic balance of Bethlehem.

Muslims were persuaded to move from Hebron to Bethlehem where large-scale Muslim housing was  planned.

In 1990, Christians comprised 60 percent of the population of Bethlehem. By 2001 they were 20 percent of the population, resulting in a significant effect on local elections.  As a result, PA chairman  Arafat appointed a Muslim as Governor for the Bethlehem District, and the bureaucratic, security and political apparatus was purged of Christians.

Muslims boycotted Christian businesses in Bethlehem’s Nativity Square forcing many of them out of business.  Approximately ten percent remained by paying extortion money to Muslim terrorists. When a Christian owner of a café in Manger Square refused, he was charged with collaborating with the Israelis,  later shot in the eye, and fled after having lived in Bethlehem for 30 years.  Refusal to pay was often fatal.

At the PA-controlled Voice of Palestine, Christian names are not permitted to be mentioned in the obituaries read on air.  Those who sell land to Jews are subject to the death penalty according to the Palestinian Land Law, a clear violation of international rulings.

Christians have considerable trouble buying land or selling their own property to other Christians, as there is a perception that selling to any non-Muslim is prohibited. The PA does not recognize Christian property rights, including holy sites. As early as 1997, the PA Ministry of Information claimed that the Palestinian people “have assumed their natural right to of controlling parts of the Palestinian land, the most important of which under Palestinian national sovereignty is in the Palestinian city of the birthplace of Jesus Christ—Bethlehem.”

Palestinian protection means little when Christian cemeteries and symbols are desecrated, property wrecked, monasteries robbed of gold and precious objects, and parishioners hindered from attending services.

Of all the abuses Christians are forced to endure, the treatment of their women is the most egregious. They are subjected to verbal sexual harassment and rape and compounding the problem is that in the Middle East, a female who has been violated is regarded as “unfit for marriage.” Raping a Christian woman often has fewer consequences than raping a Muslim one. The rapist knows that under a Muslim- controlled PA there is a greater chance of not being prosecuted. If the victim is Muslim, the perpetrator has to contend with members of her extended family,  who are obligated to obtain compensation or revenge and do not turn to government agencies.

Christian women are forced to marry Muslim men in violation of Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states, “Marriage shall be entered in only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.”

Those who speak out openly about this are subjected to death threats. Samir Qumsiyeh documented 160 attacks against Christians, including physical harassment, home robberies, and illegal seizure of land during the past several years and spoke publicly about it. His home was fire-bombed.

The 3,000 Christians living in Gaza among 1.2 million Muslims are also anxious about their future. Archimandrite Artemios, the Greek Orthodox priest who heads the St. Porphyrius church in Gaza, observed that Christians never felt so “endangered” as they do now. He

did not know whether they were still “part” of the Gaza community.

On February 15, 2008, a library managed by the Young Men’s Christian Association was firebombed, resulting in the destruction of 10,000 books.  A Christian bookstore owner was kidnapped and murdered, his shop bombed twice. A Catholic church and a school were vandalized in August 2007. These incidents led Artemios to conclude, “the edifice of tolerance is crashing down over our heads.” Before dawn on May 16, 2008 a bomb exploded outside the Zahwa Rosary School, a Christian school in Gaza city, operated by nuns primarily for Muslim students.

Writing in the London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, Hussein Shubakshi, a Saudi columnist complains about Christian emigration from the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, Sudan and Syria which “has reached astonishing proportions.” In Gaza and the West Bank, there is “a plan to eradicate the entire deeply-rooted Christian presence from its territories.” There are 70,000 Palestinian Christian émigrés living in Chile, particularly in Santiago, the capital others emigrate to Europe, Australia, the U.S. and Canada.

They are “openly and collectively” leaving by the thousands from Arab countries out of “fear, worry” and “society’s failures,” he asserts, adding that failure to address the spread of extremism will be costly to all.

What is particularly discouraging is that many church leaders throughout the world are aware of the human rights abuses perpetrated by the PA against the Christian Arabs, according to Justus Reid Weiner.

Despite the beatings, theft of land, kidnappings, torture, firebombing of churches, forced marriages, rape, extortion, and sexual harassment, these church leaders “remain silent.”  Others, “rather than identify the true Palestinian perpetrators of crimes against their people, take the politically correct path” by accusing Israel of being responsible. They do not concede or criticize Muslim aggression.

The Western Christian leaders involved in this anti-Israel activity are from the American Episcopalian and Presbyterian movements. Those taking comfort in evangelical backing for the Jewish state should know that Jim Fletcher, publisher of the pro-Israel Balfour Books and an evangelical Christian, observes that there is an increasing erosion of evangelical support for Israel influenced by the constant attacks against Israel in the Western media. Until there is a concerted effort to counter the lies and distortions within the Christian community, this erosion will continue.

Click here for previous post detailing Christian Persecution Under the Palestinian Authority.

I have been following this sad story and am putting this on the blog, so that if you read this post you might have a quick prayer for Akmal Shaikh.

I read earlier in the week that this guy is thought to suffer from Bipolar disorder and to be frank, reading about some of his exploits and behaviour patterns in the national newspapers, he is most certainly not a well guy mentally. He travelled somewhere abroad with the dream of starting an airline, even though he didn’t have much in the way of cash or any experience. He went to China to try to become a pop star even though he has no singing experience and somewhere along the way, seems to have been duped by drug smugglers.

I also read that he would send his family incoherent and grandiose letters, and to me all of this really does seem to indicate, that the family are right and this guy is not well mentally and should most certainly not be facing execution.

Please do pray that the Chinese authorities would have compassion on this poor fellow:-

BBC

A Briton facing execution in China does not yet know he is to be killed later this week and will only find out 24 hours in advance, it has emerged.

Akmal Shaikh, 53, from London, is due to be executed on 29 December after he was convicted of smuggling heroin.

Legal charity Reprieve said the lack of notice “raises obvious concerns” and hopes the authorities “show clemency”.

Mr Shaikh’s supporters say he is mentally ill and Gordon Brown has asked Chinese authorities for clemency.

Two of his cousins, Soohail and Nasir Shaikh, are in China and plan to deliver a last-ditch plea for mercy on his behalf to President Hu Jintao.

British consular staff have also flown to the Chinese region of Xinjiang to see the condemned Briton and discuss his case with local officials.

According to Reprieve, Chinese authorities have said knowledge of his execution is being withheld from the prisoner on “humanitarian grounds”.

Clive Stafford Smith, the charity’s director, said: “We hope that the Chinese authorities have kept him in the dark that his execution is only hours away because they are going to show clemency.

“Only then would it truly be humanitarian for him to be the only person in the world not allowed to know.”

The man’s relatives intend to deliver petitions seeking a legal review to China’s Supreme People’s Court and to the local court in the north-western city of Urumqi where Mr Shaikh was arrested in September 2007.

Reprieve said the men, who are brothers, also planned to appeal to China’s president and to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, which is responsible for considering petitions for pardon or clemency.

Bipolar disorder

Mr Shaikh has had no contact with his family for two years, but the cousins hope they may be granted a prison visit with him.

The Briton has denied all knowledge of the 4kg of heroin found in his possession.

His family say he has bipolar disorder and was duped by a criminal gang into unwittingly carrying drugs for them.

The BBC’s Quentin Sommerville said Mr Shaikh’s relatives want to explain that he had “suffered from long-term mental illness” and travelled to China to pursue a “fantasy” belief in a possible career as a pop star.

“They believe he was not responsible for himself and certainly not responsible for drug trafficking,” said our correspondent.

He added that the situation was getting “very desperate” for the Briton because the Chinese authorities do not have a reputation for leniency.

‘Devastating blow’

Soohail Shaikh says in his petition: “We plead for his life, asking that a full mental health evaluation be conducted to assess the impact of his mental illness, and that recognition be made that he is not as culpable as those who might, under Chinese law, be eligible for the death penalty.”

Mr Stafford Smith said the Chinese Embassy authorities had been “kind” and opened on 26 December to facilitate a visa for this visit, “recognising the devastating blow that this execution date has inflicted on the entire family”.

“We very much hope that this compassionate approach continues to the point of granting Akmal a reprieve,” he said.

So far China has resisted calls to stop the execution, despite the case being raised by the UK 10 times during the last six months at senior diplomatic levels.

The prime minister has also written to China’s leaders to express his dismay after Mr Shaikh’s sentence was upheld by the Supreme People’s Court.

If the sentence is carried out, it would be the first time an EU national has been executed in China for 50 years.

It always morbidly fascinates me to note the reciprocal [non] freedoms given to Christians in Muslim lands:-

Jerusalem Post

The Vatican’s top cleric in the heart of Muslim Arabia tends to a flock of 2 million Christians spread around six desert nations. But he has to do it quietly: Most of them must still pray in secret and are forbidden to display crosses and other symbols of their faith.

From his base in the emirate of Abu Dhabi on the Persian Gulf, Archbishop Paul Hinder travels the Arabian Peninsula, even slipping in and out of Saudi Arabia – the birthplace of Islam, where restrictions on Christians are the toughest.

“We are tolerated, but not popular here,” Hinder said in an interview in the archbishop’s living quarters inside a Christian compound inAbu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.

He spoke wearing the traditional hooded robe of his Capuchin order. The white garb blends in just fine with the Arab robes worn by men in the region, so he wears it in public – but without a cross around his neck or the belt of three knots that also mark the order.

“People here know who I am, although I never wear a cross when I go outside out of respect for local conditions,” said Hinter, a Swiss citizen.

Still, he says, there are signs of slow change, even in Saudi Arabia, where small groups who in the past would have been punished or deported if caught practicing the Christian services are now left in peace to pray privately.

The UAE and the neighboring Gulf nations of Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman have taken greater steps. They have allowed churches to be built on land donated by the countries’ rulers, though there are no outward signs that the buildings are houses of worship.

On Thursday night, Hinder led a midnight Christmas Eve Mass for several thousand the faithful at St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Abu Dhabi. Reflecting the diversity of the community, more than a dozen Christmas Day services will be held for 10,000 worshippers in at least eight different languages.

The cathedral is in a downtown compound that’s also home to Anglican, Greek Orthodox and Egyptian Coptic churches. Crucifixes, icons, rosaries and other religious symbols are allowed within the walled compound. But the buildings’ exteriors are spare and flat-roofed, avoiding any church-like architecture.

Besides Saudi Arabia, Hinder also oversees the needs of Catholics in Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Yemen, and Qatar. The vast majority of the region’s Christians are migrants from the Philippines, India and other Asian nations, many of whom work as maids, civil servants or in lower management positions at banks and businesses.

Yemen is the only country under his purview that had indigenous Christians. Except for two priests, however, all of Yemen’s 10,000 Christians, most of whom lived around the southern port city of Aden, were driven out during communist rule in South Yemen in the 1960s.

Four old churches are slowly being restored there, though it is not clear how many indigenous Christians have returned, if any.

The first Catholic church in the Gulf was opened in Bahrain’s capital, Manama, in 1939. Now there are seven in the UAE, four in Oman, three in Kuwait and one in Qatar, where five churches of other Christian denominations are under construction.

With no indigenous Christians, Gulf nations have long been the toughest in the Middle East in restricting Christian and other non-Muslim religious practices, though they rarely cross the line into outright persecution. In other Arab nations, Christians practice openly – though in Egypt, with the largest Christian minority, they often complain of discrimination at the hands of the Muslim majority.

Hinter said he is careful not to do anything that could be construed as proselytizing or seeking conversions – a major taboo in Islam.

Hinter, who has been in his post for seven years, says members of his flock are tested in areas beyond religion, particularly exploitation by their employers and fear of losing their jobs in the recession. Some are not allowed to attend a church service at all by their employers, who often strictly control the lives of their maids, gardeners, cooks, drivers and nannies.

“Their struggles are enormous,” Hinder said. “They are often exploited and sometimes treated as human beings of second class.”

The biggest congregation – about 1.4 million Christians – live and work in Saudi Arabia, which is home of Islam’s holiest cities, Mecca and Medina, and is ruled under the strict version of Sunni Islam known as Wahhabism. Hard-core Wahhabis vehemently resist any practice of Christianity or other religions in what they see as the heartland of Islam.

Hinder travels there several times a year, but only as a private citizen, not as an archbishop.

Bibles and crucifixes – and all non-Muslim religious symbols – are illegal and are confiscated at the border. The low-key Christian services that do take place cannot be led by ordained priests, so Catholics cannot attend a Mass or confess their sins.

Still, Hinter said conditions improved somewhat after Saudi King Abdullah visited the Vatican in 2007 and met with Pope Benedict XVI.

Christians now can gather in private houses in small groups for prayer, led by an unordained “community leader,” he said.

“The climate is changing, but that does not mean there will be churches in Saudi Arabia tomorrow,” he said.

Church leaders and the BNP having a verbal ‘punch up’ seems to be quite a common occurance of late. The major irony with the BNP and Christianity is that counter to the BNP claims that immigration is favouring Islam, it isn’t, it’s favouring Christianity:-

According to the IPPR’s “faith map” of the immigrant population, around 4.5 million of the UK’s foreign-born residents claim to have a religious affiliation. Of these, around a quarter are Muslims while more than half are Christian

The ‘black’ church is among the fastest-growing groups in the UK currently.

WalesOnline by David Williamson

ARCHBISHOP of Wales Barry Morgan has become embroiled in a furious war of words with the BNP over the far-right party’s claim to represent “Christian values”.

Cardiff-based Dr Morgan denounced comments by Nick Griffin linking the party and Christianity and claiming it stood in the tradition of crusader knights who fought Muslim armies.

The Anglican leader, whose comments were echoed by other leaders of Christian faith groups in Wales, said: “I really do object to their claim to represent Christian cultural values. Unless you’re white and Anglo-Saxon you don’t seem to count for very much.

“That runs totally against any Christian understanding of humanity where we believe each person is made in the image of God.”

But his remarks have led to a furious response from party officials.

BNP deputy leader Simon Darby said: “If these church leaders are not prepared to defend Christianity themselves, they should not complain when someone else does just that.

“It’s all very well people like the Archbishop talking about defending Christian values but at the end of the day they are not prepared to do anything about it. He should probably be prosecuted under the Trade Descriptions Act.

“Whole swathes of London, for example, are no longer Christian, and people like the Archbishop have been quite happy to stand by and see churches turned into mosques.

“If someone doesn’t stand up for real Christian values it won’t be a Christian country for very much longer but an Islamic republic.”

Dr Morgan’s comments, which coincide with his traditional Christmas sermon in Llandaff Cathedral yesterday, were made in an interview in which he also spoke out in support of the families of troops serving in Afghanistan.

He described the fear experienced by families who have loved ones in a war-zone and acknowledged the cost in human life of recent conflicts.

Dr Morgan said: “Whatever one thinks of whether we ought to be in [Afghanistan], the fact is these decisions have been made whether they were right or wrong.That’s not the fault of soldiers.

“They go because that’s what they are required to do. The families left behind are at times worried sick.

“If you are in the middle of a conflict you get on with the job and you don’t always think about the dangers [whereas] families at home are just dreading the knock on the door or the ring of the telephone.”

Support for the families of members of the armed forces has become an important pastoral task in churches throughout Wales.

I must admit that I don’t often have much positive to say about the BBC, but I was genuinely pleasantly surprised to see them covering the plight of Christian Copts in Egypt (even though in my opinion this report is somewhat sanitised), who are going through a terrible time of persecution right now.

BBC

In the grounds of one of the city’s oldest Christian churches, Girgis Gabriel Girgis is tattooing a baby girl.

She is very young, only about three years old, and branding the blue cross onto the girl’s inside wrist brings a piercing shrill scream.

But for these parents, this is a proud moment. The tattoo symbolises community and identity.

Others queue patiently as Girgis wipes away the dye to reveal a tiny Coptic cross.

They all shout “Allah!”, which is the Arabic for God whether you’re Christian or Muslim.

There are plenty more who want to be inscribed indelibly as Coptic Christians.

“The tattoo was once used to identify Christian orphans whose parents had been killed in war,” said Girgis. “So they wouldn’t be brought up as Muslims!”

Ayman Raafat Zaki, 22, also bears a cross.

He has been a member of St Michael’s church in Cairo for nine years and he is now an altar boy.

Every Sunday, dressed in his white robes, he helps lead a large Christian congregation.

He chants readings from the Bible, as the young boys circle the church, spreading thick plumes of fragrant incense.

And yet Ayman’s overt spirituality – and his tattoo – are not enough to convince the state he is a Christian.

Ayman’s father converted to Islam so he could divorce his wife when Ayman was just five months old.

Ayman’s mother took her only child and fled the family’s village for Cairo.

In Islam, the father determines the religion of his children.

And now – even as an adult – Ayman is denied by the state the Christian identity card he craves.

“Since the age of 16, I have been living an anonymous life,” he said.

“In the eyes of the I state, I don’t exist. They are trying to force me to become a Muslim by accepting a Muslim identity card. But it was my father’s decision to convert. Not mine.”

“I’d rather die than accept a Muslim identity card. It is plainly obvious to anyone here I am a practising Christian,” he says.

Christians in Egypt comprise about 10% of the country’s 80 million people.

But in a predominantly Islamic society, the Copts say they are are being increasingly marginalised.

Forced conversion claims

Identity cards carrying details of a person’s religion are required by law in Egypt for employment, education, and access to any public services.

International rights groups say they are also used to discriminate in areas such as employment.

There are other cases involving claims of violent, forced conversion to Islam.

Nahla, whose identity we have protected, says she left home to escape her abusive family.

She moved in with her sister, who had converted to Islam in order to marry a Muslim man.

Within a month of moving in, Nahla’s brother-in-law announced he had found her a Muslim husband and pressured her to convert.

After she refused to submit, her brother-in-law reported her to the police and they took her to a police station where she was beaten, she alleges.

Nahla eventually ran away from her Muslim husband, and has now remarried a Christian.

Her children are Christian, she is a regular at her Coptic church, yet she is refused a identity card that says she is Christian by the state.

“You need a card for everything in Egypt, even to be buried,” she says.

“Where will they put me when I die? I don’t want to be put in a Muslim grave.”

In this country, the allegations of forced conversion are hugely divisive, even explosive.

In villages where Christians and Muslims live together, there have been riots over the issue.

Last month, a new report by Christian Solidarity International and the Coptic Foundation for Human Rights documented 25 cases of alleged forced conversion – and criticised the government for ignoring the cases.

But the report has many detractors who argue that it fails to grasp the realities on the ground.

Youssef Sidhoum, the editor of a well-respected Christian newspaper, says the allegations are always difficult to prove.

Often, he says, they are love stories that have gone wrong.

Very often they are not kidnapping or forced conversions, but relationships between Christian girls and Muslim boys.

Sometimes it is their parents who say they have been kidnapped in order to hide their shame, when in fact the girl has married a Muslim of her own choice.

“They tend to exaggerate the cases,” he said.

“We have investigated lots of cases, again and again. This is an important issue to us and we go wherever the cases are.

“But I don’t recall since 1997 more than three definite cases where we had clear evidence that there was kidnap and forced conversion.”

But despite the complexities of alleged forced conversion cases, he and other Christians believe anyone wanting to change their official identity back from Muslim to Christian should be able to do so freely.

‘Two choices’

There are cases where the Egyptian government plays a direct hand, forcing people to retain a Muslim identity against their wishes.

Lawyer Peter Ramses Al Nagar says he is now representing 3,200 Christians who are forced to live under a Muslim identity.

“The law says when a person becomes 16 years old, when they must get an identity card, he or she has the right to take papers from the church to prove they are Christian.

“But there are people who have taken these papers to the interior ministry and they have been told they have two choices.

“Either they take a Muslim identity card or they live without an identity card, which is a major, major problem.”

There have been cases where people in the same position as Ayman and Nahla have successfully challenged the state in court, but very often the interior ministry simply ignores the ruling.

And more recently, courts have tended to take the side of government lawyers, who argue that a return to Christianity is apostasy.

Under some interpretations of Islamic law, apostasy – conversion from Islam – is punishable by death.

According to Human Rights Watch, such conversions are not banned under Egyptian law, but the courts have viewed rulings that would be perceived as sanctioning them as potential offences against public order.

The BBC did ask the interior ministry for a response to our investigation, but after three weeks we have had no answer.

No government representative has been put forward for comment.

No big surprise to those of us following the story of the martyrdom of Father Daniil Sysoyev, but at least the Islamic militants have openly admitted the slaying of a defenseless priest in his own church.

Philippines News

Islamist militants from the North Caucasus have claimed responsibility for the murder of a Russian Orthodox priest.

Militants linked to Chechen rebels have released a website statement to say the priest, Daniil Sysoyev, had been killed by a man who had sworn loyalty to Doku Umarov.

Umarov is the self-proclaimed leader of a group that has sought to unite militant Islamist groups in Russia’s North Caucasus and establish Islamic Sharia law in the region.

Sysoyev had been an outspoken critic of Islam.

He was was shot dead in his church in Moscow by an unknown assailant last month.

By Sammy Ketz (AFP)

BAGHDAD — A senior Iraqi priest in his Christmas sermon on Friday urged Christians not to be intimidated by a string of deadly attacks against the minority community but warned they should not linger near churches.

Bishop Shlemon Warduni’s message to worshippers came as security forces ramped up their presence in cities with significant Christian populations in a bid to prevent violence.

“Do not be afraid,” said Warduni, the second-most-senior Chaldean bishop in Iraq.

“If we are alive, God is with us, and if they take away our lives, we will have eternal life. We must be brave, take fear from our hearts, and work and go on as before.”

He added, however, “I ask you not to gather in front of the church, but to go home.”

Warduni’s Church of Our Lady of Sacred Heart in the capital’s Al-Mohandiseen district, east Baghdad, was itself hit by a suicide car bomb on July 12 that killed four and wounded 21.

In the past six weeks, four Christians and three Muslims have been killed in a series of attacks against churches in the northern city of Mosul, where Iraq’s Christian minority have long been concentrated.

Though violence has dropped across the country, attacks remain frequent in Mosul, 350 kilometres (220 miles) north of the capital.

“If Baghdad seems safer the Mosul, it is just as dangerous to come here, but we cannot abandon our church during Christmas,” said Aamer Gurial, a 45-year-old microbiologist, at the Sacred Heart church.

Retired agricultural engineer Meero Barakat added that he had not wanted to attend the sermon out of fear, but his daughter had insisted.

“It is a sad Christmas because they attacked the house of God,” he said, standing in the still-damaged church.

“We are living in fear.”

Policemen stood guard at the entrance to the church and women’s bags were inspected as they walked in.

Baghdad’s Christian population has halved since the US-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein in 2003 and Barakat said, if he had the means, he too would have left the country.

Since the invasion, hundreds of Iraqi Christians have been killed and several churches attacked.

Around 800,000 Christians lived in Iraq in 2003, but their number has since shrunk by a third or more as members of the community have fled abroad, according to Christian leaders.

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“And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people
a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of
marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.”Isaiah 25:6

WE have nearly arrived at the great merry-making season of the year. On
Christmas-day we shall find all the world in England enjoying themselves
with all the good cheer which they can afford. Servants of God, you who
have the largest share in the person of him who was born at Bethlehem, I
invite you to the best of all Christmas fare-to nobler food than makes the
table groan-bread from heaven, food for your spirit. Behold, how rich and
how abundant are the provisions, which God has made for the high festival
which he would have his servants keep, not now and then, but all the days
of their lives!

God, in the verse before us, has been pleased to describe the provisions of
the gospel of Jesus Christ. Although many other interpretations have been
suggested for this verse, they are all fiat and stale, and utterly unworthy of
such expressions as those before us. When we behold the person of our
Lord Jesus Christ, whose flesh is meat indeed, and whose blood is drink
indeed-when we see him offered up upon the chosen mountain, we then
discover a fullness of meaning in these gracious words of sacred
hospitality, “The Lord shall make a feast of fat things, of fat things full of
marrow.” Our Lord himself was very fond of describing his gospel under
the selfsame image as that which is here employed. He spoke of the
marriage-supper of the king, who said “My oxen and my fatlings are killed,
and all things are ready;” and it did not seem as if he could even complete
the beauty of the parable of the prodigal son without the killing of the fat
calf and the feasting and the music and dancing. As a festival on earth is
looked forward to and looked hack upon as an oasis and a desert of time,
so the gospel of Jesus Christ is to the soul its sweet release from bondage
and distress, its mirth and joy. Upon this subject we intend to speak this
morning, hoping to he helped by the great Master of the feast.
Our first head will be the feast; the second will be the banqueting hail in
this mountain; “the third will be the Host-”The Lord shall make a feast; and
the fourth shall be the guests-he shall make it “unto all people.”

I. First, then, we have to consider THE FEAST.

It is described as consisting of viands of the best, nay, of the best of the
best. They are fat things, bat they are also fat things fall of marrow. Wines
are provided of the most delicious and invigorating kind, wines on the lees,
which retain their aroma, their strength, and their flavour; but these are
most ancient and rare, having been so long kept that they have become
well refined; by long standing they have purified, clarified themselves, and
brought themselves to the highest degree of brightness and excellence. The
best of the best God has provided in the gospel for the sons of men.
Let us attentively survey the blessings of the gospel, and observe that they
are fat things, and fat things full of marrow.

One of the first gospel blessings is that of complete justification. A sinner,
though guilty in himself, no sooner believes in Jesus than all his sins are
pardoned. The righteousness of Christ becomes his righteousness, and he is
accepted in the Beloved. Now, this is a delicious dish indeed. Here is
something for the soul to feed upon. To think that I, though a deeply guilty
one, am absolved of God, and set free from the bondage of the law! To
think that I, though once an heir of wrath, am now as accepted before God
as Adam was when he walked in the Garden without a sin; nay, more
accepted still, for the divine righteousness of Christ belongs to me, and I
stand complete in him, beloved in the Beloved, and accepted in him too!
Beloved, this is such a precious truth, that when the soul feeds on it, it
experiences a quiet peace, a deep and heavenly calm, to be found nowhere
on earth besides. This is a kind of honey which never cloys, to be assured
by the word of God, and by the witness of the Holy Ghost within you, that
you are reconciled and brought nigh by the blood and the righteousness of
Jesus Christ. This is a choice mercy. This is a fat thing indeed; but this is
not all, it is a fat thing full of marrow too. There is an inner lusciousness in
it when you reach the heart and soul of the matter, transcendent in
richness; for remember that this righteousness, this acceptance, this
justification, becomes ours in a perfectly legal way, one against which
Satan himself cannot raise a demurrer, for our Substitute has paid our debt,
therefore are we righteously discharged. Christ has fulfilled the law, and
made it honorable for us, and therefore are we justly accepted and beloved.
Here is marrow indeed when we perceive the truth and reality of the
substitution of Jesus, and grasp with heart and soul the fact of our great
Surety standing in our stead at the bar of justice, that we might stand in his
stead in the place of honor and love. What bliss it is to cry with the apostle,
“Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that
justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that
is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh
intercession for us.” Come hither, all ye whose spiritual tastes are purified
by grace, and feed upon this choice provision, which shall be sweet to your
taste, sweeter, also, than honey and the honeycomb.

Meditate upon a second blessing of the covenant of grace, namely, that of
adoption. It is plainly revealed to us, that as many as have believed in
Christ Jesus unto the salvation of their souls, are the sons of God.
“Beloved, now are we the sons of God.” Here, indeed, is a fat thing. What,
shall a worm of the dust become a child of God? A rebel be adopted into
the heavenly family? A condemned criminal not only forgiven, but actually
made a child of God? Wonder of wonders! “Behold what manner of love
the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of
God!” To which of the kings and princes of this earth did he ever say,
“Thou art my son”? He has not spoken thus to the great ones and to the
mighty, but God hath chosen the base things of this world and things that
are despised, yea, and things that are not, and made these to be of the seed
royal. The wise and prudent are passed over, but babes receive the
revelation of his love. Lord, whence is this to me? What am I and what is
my father’s house, that thou shouldst speak of making me thy child? This
gloriously fat thing is also “full of marrow.” There is an inner richness in
adoption, for, “if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with
Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified
together.” Well does the apostle remind us that if children, then heirs, for
we are thus assured of our blessed heritage. “All things are yours; whether
Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things
present or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is
God’s.” “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all,
how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” Here are royal
dainties of which the Word has said most truly, “They shall be abundantly
satisfied with the fatness of thy house.”

Passing on from the blessing of adoption, let us remember that every child
of God is the object of eternal love without beginning and without end.
This is one of the fat things fall of marrow. Is it so, that I, a believer in
Jesus, unworthy as I am, am the object of the eternal love of God? What
transport lies in that thought! Long before the Lord began to create the
world, he had thought of me. Long ere Adam fell or Christ was born, and
the angels sung their first choral over Bethlehem’s miracle, the eye and the
heart of God were towards his elect people’. He never began to love them,
they were always “a people near unto him.” Is it not so written, “I have
loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore, with loving-kindness have I
drawn thee”? Some kick at the doctrine of election, but they are ill advised,
since they labor to overturn one of the noblest dishes of the feast; they
would dam up one of the coolest streams that flow from Lebanon; they
would cover over with rubbish one of the richest veins of golden ore that
make rich the people of God. For this doctrine of a love that hath no
Commencement, is the best wine of our Beloved, and “that goeth down
sweetly, causing the lips of them that are asleep to speak.” How joyously
doth the heart exult and leap for very joy when this truth is brought home
by the witness of the Spirit of God! then the soul is satisfied with favor,
and full with the blessing of the Lord.

Equally delightful is the corresponding reflection that this love which had
no beginning shall have no end. He is a God that changeth not. “The gifts
and calling of God are without repentance.” Where he has once set his
heart of love upon a man, he never turns away from doing him good. He
saith by the mouth of his servant the prophet, that he hateth putting away.
Though we sin against him often, and provoke him to jealousy, yet still, as
the waters of Noah, so is his covenant to us; for as the waters of Noah
shall no more go over the earth, so he swears that he will not be wroth
with us nor rebuke us. “The mountains shall depart, and the hills be
removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the
covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.”
“I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not
consumed.” “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not
have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I
not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands;
thy walls are continually before me.” Why, beloved, this indeed is a fat
thing; and I may add that it is full of marrow when you remember that not
merely has the Lord thought of you from everlasting, but loved you. Oh!
the depth of that word “love,” as it applies to the infinite Jehovah, whose
name, whose essence, whose nature is love! He has loved you with all the
immutable intensity of his heart, never more and never less; loved you so
much that he gave his only begotten Son for you; loved you so well that
nothing could content him but making you to be conformed into the image
of his dear Son, and causing you to partake of his glory that you may be
with him where he is! Come, feed on this, ye heirs of eternal life, for here
are fat things fall of marrow.

We should not, beloved, have completed this list if we had omitted one
precious doctrine, which needs a refined taste perhaps, but which, when a
man hath once learned to feed on it, seemeth to him to be best of all-I mean
the great truth of union to Christ. We are plainly taught in the word of God
that as many as have believed are one with Christ: they are married to him,
there is a conjugal union based upon mutual affection. The union is closer
still, for there is a vital union between Christ and his saints. They are in him
as the branches are in the vine; they are members of the body of which he is
the head. They are one with Jesus in such a true and real sense that with
him they died, with him they have been buried, with him they are risen,
with him they are raised up together and made to sit together in heavenly
places. There is an indissoluble union between Christ and all his people: “I
in them and they in me.” Thus the union may be described:-Christ is in his
people the hope of glory, and they are dead and their life is hid with Christ
in God. This is a union of the most wonderful kind, which figures may
faintly set forth, but which it were impossible for language completely to
explain. Oneness to Jesus is one of the fat things fall of marrow. For if it be
so, indeed, that we are one with Christ, then because he lives we must live
also; because he was punished for sin, we also have borne the wrath of
God in him; because he was justified by his resurrection, we also are
justified in him; because he is rewarded and for ever sits down at his
Father’s right hand, we also have obtained the inheritance in him and by
faith grasp it now, and enjoy its earnest. Oh, can it be that this aching head
already has a right to a celestial crown That this palpitating heart has a
claim to the rest which remaineth for the people of God! That these weary
feet have a title to tread the sacred halls of the New Jerusalem! It is so, for
if we are one with Christ, then all he has belongs to us, and it is but a
matter of time, and of gracious arrangement when we shall come into the
full enjoyment thereof. Truly, in meditation upon this topic, we may each
of us exclaim, “My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and
my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips.”

I cannot bring forth all the courses of my Lord’s banquet; one serving man
cannot bear before you the riches of such a surpassing feast; but I would
remind you of one more, and that is the doctrine of resurrection and
everlasting life. This poor world dimly guessed at the immortality of the
soul, but it knew nothing of the resurrection of the body: the gospel of
Jesus has brought life and immortality to light and lie himself has declared
to us of Jesus, that he that believeth in him shall never die. “He that
believeth in me, though he were dead, yet should he live.” Jesus is the
resurrection and the life. Not the soul only, but the body also shall partake
of immortality, for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised
incorruptible, and we shall be changed. We expect to die, but we are
assured of living again. If the Lord come not, we know that our bodies
shall see corruption; but here is our comfort, we dread no annihilation, that
dark shadow never crosses our spirits; we dread no hell, no purgatory, no
judgment-Christ hath perfected for ever them that are set apart; none can
condemn whom he absolves. The saints shall judge the angels, and sit with
their Lord in the day of the great assize. To us the coming of Christ will be
a day of joy and of rejoicing: we shall be caught up together with him; his
reign shall be our reign, his glory our glory. Wherefore comfort one
another with these words, and as ye see your brethren and your sisters
departing one by one from among you, sorrow not as those that are
without hope, but say unto each other, “They are not lost, but they have
gone before,” for,” blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from
henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and
their works do follow them.” Here are fat things full of marrow, for ours is
a glorious hope, and full of immortality. Our expected immortality is not
that of mere existence, it is not the barren privilege of life without bliss,
existence without happiness-it is full of glory; for “we shall be like him
when we shalt see him as he is;” we shall be with God, at whose right hand
there is fullness of joy and pleasures for evermore. He shall make us to
drink of the river of his pleasures; songs and everlasting joy shall be upon
our heads, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

“Oh, for the no more weeping,
Within that land of love!
The endless joy of keeping
The bridal feast above!
Oh, for the hour of seeing
My Savior face to face!
The hope of ever being
In that sweet meeting-place.”

Thus I have set before you a few of the fat things full of marrow which the
King of kings has set before his guests at the wedding feast of his love.
Changing the run of the thought, and yet really keeping to the same
subject, let me now bring before you the goblets of wine. “Wines on the
lees-wines on the lees well refined.” These we shall consider as symbolizing
the joys of the gospel. What are these? I can only speak of those which I
have myself been permitted to sip at. One of the dearest joys of the
Christian life is a sense of perfect peace with God. Oh, I tell you when one
is quiet for awhile, and the din and noise of business is out of one’s ears, it
is one of the most delicious things in all the world to meditate upon God,
and to feel he is no enemy to me, and I am no enemy to him. It is beyond
comparison cheering, amusingly to feel, I love him. If there be anything
that I can do to serve him, I will do it. If there be any suffering which
would honor him, if he would give me the strength to endure it, it should
be my happiness, though it caused me to die a martyr’s death a thousand
times. If I could but honor my God, my Father, and my Friend, all should
be acceptable to me. There is nothing between the Lord and me by way of
difference or alienation; I am brought nigh through the blood of his dear
and only begotten Son. He is my God, my Father, and my all, and I am his
child. Some of us have tried the imaginary happiness of laughter; we have
mixed with the giddy throng, and tasted the wines of the house of carnal
merriment, but our honest experience is that one single draught from the
cup of salvation is worth rivers of worldly mirth.

“Solid joys and lasting pleasures
Only Zion’s children know.”

A quiet heart, resting in the love of God, dwelling in perfect peace, hath a
royalty about it which cannot for a moment be matched by the fleeting joys
of this world.

Our joy sometimes flashes with a brighter light, but even then it is not less
pure and safe. You may look upon this wine when it is red, when it
sparkles in the cup, when it moveth itself aright, for there is no woe, no
redness of the eyes reserved for those who drink even to inebriation of this
sacred wine. This sacred exhilaration is caused by a sense of security. A
child of God, when he has looked well to his Redeemer, and seen the merit
of the precious blood, and the power of the never-ceasing plea, feels
himself safe, perfectly safe. I do not understand the child o God reading his
Bible and yet being afraid of being cast into hell. I can understand that the
fear may cross his mind lest after all he should prove a castaway; but as he
approaches once again to the foot of the cross, and looks up to Jesus, he
feels that it cannot be. None were ever cast away who stood at the cross
foot; for it is written, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” A
child of God, with no hope but what he finds in Christ, has no cause to
think his eternal state to be insecure. All are safe who are in Christ, even as
all were safe who were in Noah’s ark. No flood, no storm could hurt the
man of whom it was said, “The Lord shut him in.” The Lord has shut in all
his people in Christ, and they are eternally safe in Christ. When the spirit
knows that “there is, therefore, now no condemnation to them that are in
Christ Jesus,” then is it replenished with delight. When one feels that live or
die, or work or suffer, all is well, how free from care is the heart! How
divinely joyful to know that if one should lose all his earthly substance, the
Lord will provide; that if one should be tempted, tempted greatly, yet with
the temptation the way of escape shall be made! here is assurance rich with
consolation. When one feels that all is safe, all safe eternally, for life or
death all secured, I tell you that this is wine on the lees, wine on the lees
well refined, and he who wins a draught thereof need not envy the angels
their celestial banquets.

This joy of ours will sometimes rise to an elevation yet more sublime, when
it is caused by communion with God. Believers, while engaged in prayer
and praise, in service and in suffering, are enabled by the Holy Spirit to
hold high converse with their Lord. Do not imagine that Abraham’s speech
with God was an unusual privilege. The father of the faithful did but enjoy
what all the faithful ones participate in according to the grace given them.
We tell to God our grief’s; discoursing upon our sorrows not in fiction, but
declaring them in real conversation, as when a man speaketh with his
neighbor: meanwhile the Lord’s Spirit whispers to us with the still small
voice of the promise, such words as calm our minds and guide our feet.
Yes, and when our Beloved takes us into the banqueting-house of real
conscious fellowship with himself, and waves the love-banner over us, our
holy joy is as much superior to all merely human mirth, as the heavens are
above the earth. Then do we speak and sing with sacred zest, and feel as if
we could weep for very joy of heart, for our Beloved is ours and we are
his. His left hand is under our head, and his right hand doth embrace us,
and our only fear is lest anything should grieve our Beloved and cause him
to withdraw himself from us; for it is heaven on earth, and the fair antepast
of heaven above to see his face, to taste his love. Communion with Christ
is as the wine on the lees well refined.

We will place on the table one goblet more, of which you may drink as
much as you will. We have provided for us the pleasures of hope, a hope
most sure and steadfast, most bright and glorious-the hope that what we
know to-day shall be outdone by what we shall know to-morrow; the hope
that by-and-by what we now see, as in a glass darkly, shall be seen face to
face. We shall say, as in heaven, as the Queen of Sheba did in Jerusalem,
“The half hath not been told us.” We are looking forward to a speedy day
when we shall be unburdened of this creaking tabernacle, and being absent
from the body shall be present with the Lord. Our hope of future bliss is
elevated and confident. Oh, the vision of his face! Oh, the sight of Jesus in
his exaltation! Oh, the kiss of his lips-the word,” Well done, good and
faithful servant” from that dear mouth and then for ever to lie in his bosom.
Begone, ye cares, begone, ye sorrows; if heaven be so near, ye shall not
molest us. The inn may be a rough and poverty-stricken one, but we are
only travelers, not tenants upon lease. This is not our place of resting; we
are on our journey home! Beloved, in the prospect of the quiet restingplaces
in the land, which floweth with milk and honey, you have wines on
the lees well refined.

If we were not limited to time this morning, as, alas! we are, I should have
reminded you that these joys of the believer are ancient in their origin, for
that is shown in the text. Old wines are intended by “wines well refined;”
they have stood long on the lees, have drawn out all the virtue from them,
and have been cleared of all the coarser material. In the East, wine will be
improved by keeping even more than the wines of the West! and even so
the mercies of God are the sweeter to our meditations because of their
antiquity. From old eternity, or ever the earth was, the covenant
engagements of everlasting love have been resting like wines on the lees,
and to-day they bring to us the utmost riches of all the attributes of God. I
should also have reminded you of the fatness of their excellence, because
the wine on the lees holds its flavour, and retains its aroma; and there is a
fullness and richness about the blessings of divine grace which endears
them to our hearts. The joys of grace are not fantastical emotions, or
transient flashes of a meteoric excitement, they are based on substantial
truth; are reasonable, fit, and proper. They belong not to the superficial and
frothy emotions of mere feeling, but are deep, solemn, earnest motions,
justified by the clearest judgment. Our bliss is not of the foam and the
surge, it dwells in the innermost caverns of our heart. I would also remind
you of their refined nature. No sin mingled with the joys of the gospel and
the delights of communion-they are well refined. Gospel joys are elevating,
they make men like angels. As in the gospel God comes down to men, so
by the gospel men go up to God. I might also have shown you how
absolutely peerless are the provisions of grace. There is no feast like that of
the gospel, no meat like the flesh of Jesus, no drink like his blood, no joys
like that which crowns the gospel feast.

II. I can say no more the table is before you, and now we must pass on
with great brevity to notice THE BANQUETING-HALL.

“In this mountain.” There is a reference here to three things-the same
symbol bearing three interpretations. First, literally, the mountain upon
which Jerusalem is built. I do not doubt that the reference is here to the hilt
of the Lord upon which Jerusalem stood; the great transaction which was
fulfilled at Jerusalem upon Calvary hath made to all nations a great feast. It
was there where that center cross bore upon it One who joined earth and
heaven in mysterious union; it was there where amidst thick darkness the
Son of God was made a curse for men; it was there where sorrow
culminated that joy was consummated. On that very mountain where Jews
and Gentiles met together, and with clamorous wrath cried, “Let him be
crucified” it was there in the giving up of the Only-begotten, whose flesh is
meat indeed, and whose blood is drink indeed, that the Lord made a feast
of things. Everything I have spoken of this morning is found in Christ. He
is the resurrection and the life: in him we are justified, adopted, and made
secure; every drop of joy we drink streams from his flowing veins.
A second meaning is the church. Frequently Jerusalem is used as the
symbol of the church of God, and it is within the pale of the church that the
great feast of the Lord is made unto all nations. I am in the truest sense a
very sound churchman. I am indeed a high churchman; a most determined
stickler for the church. I do not believe in salvation outside of the pale of
the church. I believe that the salvation of God is confined to the church,
and to the church alone. “But,” says one, “what church?” Ay! that’s the
question: God forbid I should mean by that either the Baptist church, or
the Independent church, or the Episcopalian church, or the Presbyterian, or
any other-I mean the church of Jesus Christ, the company of God’s chosen,
the fellowship of the blood-bought, the family of believers, be they where
they may, for them is provided the feast of fat things. Whatever outward
and visible church they may have associated themselves with, they shall
drink of the wines on the lees well refined; but the feast is only to be found
where they are found who put their trust in Jesus. There is but one church
in heaven and earth, composed of men called by the Holy Ghost, and made
to live anew by his quickening power; and it is through the ministry of this
church that an abundant feast is spread for all nations, a feast to which the
nations are summoned by chosen herald, whom God calls to proclaim the
good news of salvation by Jesus Christ.

But, brethren, the mountain sometimes means the church of God exalted to
its latter-day glory. This mountain is to be exalted above the hills, and all
nations shall flow unto it. This text will have its grandest fulfillment in the
day of the appearing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Then shall the
glory of the gospel be unveiled more clearly than at this present. Men shall
have a fuller perception of the glory of the Lord, and a deeper enjoyment
of his grace; while happiness and peace shall reign with unmolested quiet.
Soon shall come the golden age, which has been so long foretold, for
which we cry with unceasing expectation. The Lord send it speedily, and
his be the praise.

III. Thirdly, let us think of THE HOST of the feast.

“In this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat
things.” Mark well the truth that in the gospel banquet there is not a single
dish brought by man. The Lord makes it, and he makes it all. I know some
would like to bring a little with them to the banquet, something at least by
way of trimming and adornment, so that they might have a share of the
honor; but it must not be, the Lord of hosts makes the feast, and he will
not even permit the guests to bring their own wedding garments-they must
stop at the door and put on the robe which the Lord has provided, for
salvation is all grace from first to last, and all of him who is wondrous in
working, and who doeth all things according to the counsels of his will.
Out of all the precious truths which I spoke of at the beginning of this
sermon, there is not one which comes from any source but a divine one;
and of all the joys which I tried feebly to picture there is not one which
takes its rise from earth’s springs; they all flow from the eternal fount. The
Lord makes the feast; and, observe, he does it, too, as Lord of hosts, as a
sovereign, as a ruler, doing as he wills amongst the sons of men, preparing
what he wills for the good of his creatures, and constraining whom he wills
to come to the marriage-feast. The Lord provides sovereignly as Lord of
hosts, and all-sufficiently as Jehovah. It needed the all-sufficiency of God
to provide a feast for hungry sinners. No other than the infinite “I AM”
could provide a feast substantial enough to supply the wants of immortal
spirits; but he has done it, and you may guess of the value of the viands by
the nature of our entertainer. If God spread the feast it is not to be
despised; if the Lord has put forth all the omnipotence of his eternal power
and Godhead in preparing the banquet for the multitude of the sons of men,
then depend upon it it is a banquet worthy of him, one to which they may
come with confidence, for it must be such a banquet as their souls require,
and such as the world never saw before. O my soul, rejoice thou in thy
God and King. If he provides the feast, let him have all the glory of it. “Not
unto us, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory.” O King immortal,
eternal, invisible, thou feddest thy children in the wilderness with manna
which dropped from heaven, and with water that flowed out of the flinty
rock, and they gave thanks unto thy name; but now thou fillest us with
nobler food. They did eat manna and are dead, but we live on the immortal
bread, even Jesus, and therefore we can never die. They drank of the water
which flowed from the rock, and yet they thirsted again, but we shall never
thirst, but for ever abide near to thyself, while the Lamb that is in the midst
of the throne shall feed us, and lead us unto living fountains of water.
Therefore, blessed by thy name, yea, a thousand times blessed be thy name,
O thou Most High! Let all heaven say “Amen” to the praises of our hearts,
and let the multitude of thy children here on earth, for whom this feast is
spread, laud and magnify and bless thy name from the rising of the sun unto
the going down of the same.

IV. Lastly, a word or two upon THE GUESTS.

The Lord has made this banquet “for all people.” What a precious word
this is! “For all people.” Then this includes not merely the chosen people,
the Jews, whose were the oracles, but it encompasses the poor
uncircumcised Gentiles, who by Jesus are brought nigh. The barbarian is
invited to this feast; the Scythian is not rejected. The polished Greek finds
an open door; the hardy Roman shall meet with an equal welcome.
Caesar’s household, if they come, shall receive a portion, and so shall the
beggar’s brethren. Blessed be God for that word, “unto all people,” for it
permits missionary enterprise in every land; however degraded a race may
be, we have here provision made for it. This feast of fat things is made as
much for the Sudra as for the Brahmin; the gospel is as much to be
preached to the degraded Bushman as to the civilized Chinese. Dwell on
that word, “all people,” and you will see it includes the rich, for there is a
feast of fat things for them, such as their gold could never buy; and it
includes the poor, for they being rich in faith shall have fellowship with
God. “All people.” This takes in the man of enlarged intelligence and
extensive knowledge; but it equally encompasses the illiterate man who
cannot read. The Lord makes this feast “for all people;” for you old people,
if you come to Jesus you shall find that he is suitable to you; for you young
men and maidens, and you little children, if you put your trust in God’s
appointed Savior, there shall be much joy and happiness for you- “For all
people”? Methinks, if I were now seeking and had not laid hold on Christ,
this word, “all people” would be a great comfort to me, because it gives
hope to all who desire to come. None have ever been rejected of all who
have ever come to Christ and asked for mercy. Still is it true, “Him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” Some very odd people have come
to him, some very wicked people, some very hardened people, but the door
was never, closed in any one’s face. Why should Jesus begin hard dealings
with you? He cannot, because he cannot change. If he says, “Him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out,” make one of the “hims” that
come, and he cannot cast you out. There is another thought, namely, that
between the covers of the Bible there is no mention made of one person
who may not come. There is no description given of a person who is
forbidden to trust Christ. I should like you to look the book through, you
who dream that Jesus will reject you, and find where it is said, “ Such a one
I will reject; such a one I will refuse.” When you find such a rejecting
clause, then you will have a right to be unbelieving, but till you do I
beseech you do not needlessly torment yourself. Why needlessly sow
doubts and fears? There will be enough of them without your making them
for yourself. Do not limit what the Lord does not limit I know he has an
elect people; I rejoice in it-I hope you will rejoice in it too one day; and I
know that his people have this marrow and fatness provided for them and
for them alone; but still this does not at all conflict with the other precious
truth that whosoever believeth in the Son of God hath everlasting life. If
you believe in Jesus Christ, all these things are yours. Come, poor trembler,
the silver trumpet soundeth, and this is the note it rings, “Come and
welcome, come and welcome, come and welcome.” The harsher trumpet of
the law, which waxed exceedingly loud and long at Sinai had this for its
note, “Set bounds about the mount: let none touch it lest they die.” But the
trumpet for Calvary sounds with the opposite note; it is, “Come and
welcome, come and welcome, sinner, come! Come as you are, sinful as you
are, hardened as you are, careless as you think you are, and having no
good thing whatsoever, come to your God in Christ!” O may you come to
him who gave his Son to bleed in the sinner’s stead, and casting yourself
on what Christ has done, may you resolve, “If I perish, I will trust in him; if
I be cast away, I will rely on him.” You shall not perish, but for you there
shall be the feast of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well
refined. The Lord bless you very richly, for his name’s sake. Amen.