Cylchgronau Cymru

THE £Tra Vol. III. New Series. APRIL, 1907. No. 4. Can We Believe ? By REV. D. J. WILLIAMS, B.D., BANGOR. HE hindrances to the acceptance of Christ as Saviour are of two extreme types. The first is, that many men, experiencing no need, are content without Him, for only the hungry come for the Bread of Life. The other, that some who are fully alive to their need, fear that it cannot be* met, that the mes¬ sage is too good to be true. This fear may arise from different causes. For instance, there is the conscience-stricken penitent, pierced by a sense of guilt, who needs mercy and prays earnestly for it. The old familiar story of reconciliation through Christ is told: the man would respond to it were he not numbed by remorse. He believes the message to be true—for others, for the dying thief, Mary Magdalen, and Peter: but he himself is beyond recovery or hope. This is an ancient enemy of f adth, as the prophets and apostles knew. Isaiah fought it: "'though your sins be as scarlet, they shall he as white as snow : though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." John fought it: "if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." These are weapons of tried steel, and there are no better. All others, to be effective, must be of the same metal and after the same pattern. "Q " tells of a man who was in this case of supposing the ■message of forgiveness did not apply to him, and was taken in hand by an old Cornish fisherman, Daddo. "Man! what have I to do with your paltry sins," thundered Daddo: "heap "em up and make what molehill you can of 'em. Do you reckon that, though you sinned every sin in Christendom, you can vie with the mercy of God? Christ died . . . ." There is, however, another difficulty of more recent growth which arises from the discovery of the vastness of the physical world. Never at any time, probably, have men had so vivid a conception of the extent of space as to-day. The Earth is no longer thought to be near the centre of the stars