OUR SUNDAY CIRCLE

North Otago Times, Volume CIV, Issue 13795, 3 February 1917, Page 3

OUR SUNDAY CIRCLE

I —,— WHAT THE CHURCHES ARE DOING

Eiuope and said: 'Boll up that map; it is ten years before it will be wanted again,' It is not simply our maps that this war is sending to the scrap heap, Hoary traditions, ancient custome, ideals of thcsChurch, ideals of the, State, eveiything>is in tke 4melting,pot now, and the wisest man amongst us cannot forecast in what new shapes they will one day re-emerge. " 'Trial,':said a great French teacher,'never stops until its work is done; that is why it hardly ever stops. 'Purge from the. sin,' but"never from the pain' is a hard prayer for flesh and blood.to-praji - But... remember these are the balanc.es..in .which 'Gpd weighs together ( the things that men call sin and pain, -'Did I not cast nations bound into .the fire? Lb, I see them'loose, walking,' " When' God sees' and; says that, '"perchance-.then, and perchanco.-.iiot. till then,,,will He sum-, mon us. to como forth out of the midst ,of the fire, "Judge of the nation's, spare us yet, ' Lest we forget'! : ' Lest we forget!" Dean luge, presiding'at a meeting of the Christian Evidence Society at Sibri College, said -that the atheist could seldom be refuted by argument;' itv'was generally the-' experience of life which refuted him. . Very .few atheists lived to be seventy, without avowing, some hind of theism before their' death. That had been the ease with some wellknown authors,. The society's 'report emphasised the truth that the-fight-was between a materialistic-and a< spiritual, outlook upon existence. • It.-was. the contemplation of the things not- seen which would help people most to' do their duty and to reform the conditions' of life. He was glad that th.o .societywas working hard'in the cause of'purity. Christianity, was .fighting a„win-, ning battle against intemperance, but he feared that the battle against impurity was a losing one. The latter was going'-to'be one of-the great "issues of' the next century, and there were many influences which would make the contest very difficult and arduous. There might, the Dean thought, be some truth in the statement that the churches .Jiadjiailed, and. thfiv-would'fail so long as they substituted loyalty to a.corporation for loyalty to the teaching of .Christ. * * * ■■■■ Bishop Weldon.said that tb<j war .was. .'••■• ■''','■" ' , ','"''v '*->''' no argument against Christianity, awl did not create any religious problems which were not existent before. It merely intensified them. If Christianity could be said to have failed because of : the war, much more could that bo alleged against science and "education, seeing that tho forces which had,built up 'the.world were now bidding fair to destroy it, and this he illustrated by the case of Germany. '-. The Bishop of London says that the girls who have learned the joy "of service are not going back to a life of idleness. "I want to see one brotherhood throughout this country," the Bishop declared. "I don't believe it is necessary to have all this bitterness between capital and labour. It is perfectly monstrous that nation should fight against nation and class against class because we have made such a miserable hash in distributing God's gift." ■ • ' • ■",'■•■ The Bev. J. H, Chaseling," rector of St. "Peter's Church, Neutral Bay, Sydney, is one of those rare clergymen whom organists, choir masters, and everyone who loves church music appreciate and , reverence. Musical clergymen are. numerous enough, but there are few parsons, especially in Australia, who 'fully realise the import l ■ ance.of music, in'.its relation to church services, its power, as an aid to devotion, its elevating influence, and the exquisite art form that is erected in its alliance with ceremonial. With most of the good men who look after our spiritual well-being anything, or next to nothing, will suffice in music in the church.. But.Mr.Chaseling.has a love 'for'the aesthetic side of religion, and has developed a fine sense of the symbolical poetry which is found in the alliance of music with rites and : 'ceremonies.: ■ '-.(T00.r-busy-.vwith -'.other things," says the average parson when :taxed..:with. the poorness of the choir and- its music in his church. Mr Chaseling is evidently not "too busy"

COLLECT. , FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY.' o 'Lord, we beseech Thee to keep Thy church, and household \ in Thy true religion; that they who do lean only upon the, hope of Thy heavenly grace may oycrnlore bo defended by Thy mighty' power; through Jesus Christ our Lord, —Amen, ; ■ ~...■,, ,'. ']_.,.. INTERNATIONAL SUNDAY SCHOOL ; . LESSON. :, ,': FEBRUARY 4, "Jesus the Saviour of the World.—' John ; iii.,"' 1.21." • Golden Text: '.'God-so- loved the ' world that He gave His only begotten Sou that, whosoever bclievctli on Him should not perish, but'have everlasting lifc."-Jolin iiL.'Hi,' '■'■'■ : "THE TALENT IN A NAPKIN," ' !lr A. Glutton Brock, .writing pn "The Talent in a Napkin'' in The Tiiiios' Educational 'Supplement, says: "On one.point the German and the rest of. the' wor)d ; have been mistaken •about us. They thought that we were weak when .we were only lazy, and, timid when we were only-sceptical.- We have been sceptical about all things; because we' could hot persuade ourselves that there was nothing worth having but material success; and yet we could not: clearly conceive of something better worth having, We could not make up our minds to serve either God or Mammon, because we, did not | much like Mammon, and we were not very sure of God's existence, "That has been the attitude of the ordinary decent Englishman for a generation or more, whatever class he may belong to, He has been a little out of conceit-with-the modern'world and not in conceit with anything else. He has, as it were, suspended judgment on all things, and meanwhile he has tried to satisfy himself with being decent, and' with liking other decent people. He has fried to do his duty, but lie has not thought it possible that 'any (Juty might become a passion to him. So he has seemed to himself to •begiving in a slack.tide of;tjnie, ; l)e- . tweert a past that' he cannot believe in and a future that has not declared itself; and, meanwhile,.the German has thought that the 'future was .his and that he could make it as ugly as he chose. . "And the world has believed more and more that the future is the German 's. Before the war we were losing our prestige even among nations that liked us, No one looked to us for ideas; no one asked even what was doing in England, for it was assumed that nothing was doing. We were supposed to thiuk of nothing but being gentlemen and sportsmen, We. had the secret, it was thought, of living very agreeably on our own past; and the Kaiser came over here and enjoyed the English holiday-life much as English noblemen in the eighteenth century enjoyed the holiday life in Venice, "Certainly we had hid our talent very dangerously in a napkin; and for this reason the German and the pacifist alike say that the present war is our fault.. We had no right to seem so much more frivolous, aud lazy and weak than we were; and now we and the Germans and all the world are paying for the mistake they made about ns. They/have convinced-us at'least that the, war against them is worth waging; We ,(lo not suspend judgment on that point.- That future which seemed to us so 'vague and distant has rushed in upon its, and whether we will or not wo have to play our part in making it. '"ln two iiew.agQ,seems : tO:. have begun; aiid we hardly know ourselves; since we, too. are a part of it. There- is a real good and a real evil, a real Mammon an a real, God; and for,both men wll give their'lives ■ "We have to learn the technique, at least, of war; we, the- nation of amateurs, have to face the nation of professionals; aud if we were beaten we could iiot flatter ourselves that we were right not to have- our hearts, in' the". game.,. It is quite clear to \u now that something is serious, that we must serve someone,' but is it to be God or Maiunion? That is still the question before, us, and success k the war will not. settle it for us. m i'he Germans set-to work with immense industry and seriousness to make what they believed to bo civilisation; can we, with;the same,industry and seriousness, now try'to make what we belie,vq. to be civilisation?"

to attend to' the proper and reverent ,rendition of the services in-his church. He finds time to undertake the buildin;,' of a new organ, even though lie has'been'twice to the front as chaplain, and js, at au eaily date, due again to leave his cd seivnes and cubauge the sound of the statel} double ihauts and pealing oigau foi the tumult of battle, the thunder of gieat guns and the loai and ciask ot bursting shells * * » Tlie death, in Mesopotamia, of the Rev R H Pultoul, lepoited last week is a seveie blow to the Chunk ot Eirg land's Men's Society in New Zealand (state* H conleniporaij) Mr Tillfoul's consciousness of ki s duty as chaplain to Empire and soldieis "was pionounced, (jtheiwise he might now be alive and well, peifoiming useful and needed a oik m the dominion In the last quaiteil) issue of the "Men's Maga7ii/e," wntten bcfoie Mi Ful lord's end. appeals the > passage:— "Once again New Zealand hns boon dis appointed about getting its seeietai\, buj; tor a most honouial)lo leason The Rev. B H Fultoid, who liad been selected, has been acting as" chaplain to the forces, first at home then in Gallipot], m& then in Egypt, li

NEWS A3TO NOTES.

Rev, Geoige Jackson, pi etching at Brixton taul: 'Toi all ot «s tins is the question: What is the fne doing foi us? Om statesmen anil journalists, and all soits ot people, aic tolling us, until uo foiiiPtJinps get wean of lie.uing them, (hat flhpn this war on is \\\\\ he a (liflpipnt llngland \\'c\\, mil it be n ln'ttei hngland? "When nens leatlieil Wijham Pitt of anothci of Napoleon's lesounding victories, he pointed to the map of

At of his term lie/felt lie ought not toire'sign, "but to finish his task, and, with ihe sanction of the New Zealand Council, he is still scrying, we believe,, at the present moment in Mesopotamia,"* . .',--;- : *'" ■ ■ *:.'■'''.■ ■'" ■*■■' ''.The workers who . .cpinposo.t the mass of the people, and; especially ;; their distrust' ■ the; ('Qhurcli,'.';, isaid Bishop Gore,/preaching recently in Westminster Abbey, "They .think that it has been, on the whole, on the : side of Capital against Labour, even 1 complaints of Labour have ! been .legitimate. They think that it ~. has /.administered charity rather; than ' ephteijded for justice. They note the seating ; arrangements in our churches ' as savouring of injustice, and they are 1 scandalised by tho ■ contrast's? and. in-? equalities which exist in 'the -salaries ofc .the clergy. They do not.look to the 1 Church to represent'; their point of ' vieWi*'At notable moments in history it 1 has, jn fact, been ranged against them. 1 Very Jrarely has it stood out corporately.'against bad wages or deficient houses, against the lack .of .opportunity.. 1 and reasonable, independence for the ';. workers, or against an organisation .of ' industry which-treats- men as 'hands-' 1 rather; than persons, or as mere instru- ' ments in the-production of wealth. '•■ -Cliurch organisations, though vigorous '. and excellent,; have had in them too much of the element of patronage and control of the poor by the rich—not enough of the. spirit of brotherhood, or ' sisterhood, ..All this has.produced in. !" .the 'democracy ■■ a'spirit -of ■•distrust,." ••