ON SABBATH EYE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11957, 2 February 1901, Page 2

ON SABBATH EYE.

A COLUMN OV RELIGIOUS READING.

(Conducted by the Rev. F. W. Eop.ehau.)

ONE DAY AT A TIME.

I One clay at a time! That's all it can be;

No faster than that is the hardest fate; And days have their limits, however we Begin them too early and stretch them too late.

One day at a time! It's n wholesome rhyme! A good one to live by, A day at a time.

Ore day at a time! Every heart that aches, Knowing only too well how long they can seem; But it's never to-day which the spirit breaksIt's the darkened future without n gleam.

| One clay at a time! When joy is at height— U Such joy as the heart enn never forget— g And pulses are throbbing with wild delight, | How hard to remember that suns must set.

[ii One day at a time! But a single day, | Whatever its load,, whatever its length; jj And there's.a bit of prccious Scripture to say, | That according to each shall be our strength.

One day at it time! 'Tis the whole of life; Alii sorrow, all joy, are assured therein; The bound of our purpose, our noblest strife The one only countersign sure to win!

One day at a time! It's a wholesome rliyme! A good one to live by, A day at a time.

Helen Hunt Jacksos,

FORGETTING GOD.

A One-minute Seiuion by the Rev. C. H.

Pakkiittrst.

j It is tlio tendency of the heart to forget | God, and tho more sunshiny things are, the | more likely is that tendency to be realised. 13 Our thoughts and regards are continually slipping away from Him. Our eyes droop from God to some representation of Him, and We become idolaters; from God to some theories of Him, and we become philosophers; from God to the gifts He confers, and «in cur fulness we fondle the gift' and ignore | the Giver. Tho benefit monopoliser the eye, j and the tree in the garden comes between | Adam and the Lord God. "Ho gave them ] their request," said,the Psalmist, "but sent * leanness into their soul." Agur appreciated | our tendencies when he prayed: " Feed me 15 with food convenient for me, lest I be full and deny thee." Whatever effects wo happen to have,—culture, wealth, beauty, possession of any kind,—our energies and loves tend to soak into them, as the sand drinks in the rain. We are all tho while slipping toward the surface, working out from the core to tho peel. ■ The plough has to bo continually ! pressed, or the share will slip out on to J file turf. It takes much besides still weather Ito make tilings flourish and mature. SomeI one lias said: " The lightnings take part with j the dews in tlie growth of the world.' 1 Sun- | shine is not the only parent of the harvest. | Men fell in Paradise. Angels fell in heaven. i] Lord Roscberv closed his recent address in A Scotland with an expansion of Shakespeare's j thrilling words: (j This precious stone set in the silver sea, I This blessed spot, this earth, this realm, this » England. n" And yet," continued the orator, | that was only the source and | centro of what we now behold, which has ] | soared so far beyond whatever Shakespeare I I can have conceived. How marvellous it all 1 | is! Built by.the'work of men's hands; ce- j | mcnted with a world of tears; welded by the ; | best brains of centuries past; not without the ! | taint and reproach incidental to all human ! jj work, but constructed on tho whole with !

1 splendid propose. Human, and yet not J wholly human—for the most heedless and the | most cynical- must seo the finger of the Di-

le vino. Growing as trees grow, while others A slept; fed by the faults of others as well Os a by the character of our fathers; reaching ir with the ripple of a resistless tide over tracts m and islands and continents, until our little e- Britain woke up to find herself the fosterZ ™ 0 . of and the source of united '« fcmpires. De we not hail in this less the ■ energy and fortune of a race than the supreme = direction of the Almighty? Shall we not, n _ i wlnle we adore the blessing, acknowledge the responsibility? And while we see, far away it mi- il. honzons > growing generations fnire ill ing the promise, do wo not own with reic , f™' angled with awe'the honourable le cluty incumbent on ourselves? Shall we then r, f « ltot °r fail? The answer is not doubtful. t- «o will rather pray.that strength may be a- Riven us, adequate and abundant, to shrink ,e from no sacrifice in the fulfilment of our mis--0 sion; that we may he true to the high tradiof tion of cur forefathers; and that we may in .transmit their bequest to our children; aye, ■k ' and. Please God, to theirTemote descendants, ;i- enriched and undented, this blessed and splenr- did dominion. i- .Mr Robert Arthington, the Leeds million- . aire, has just died, leaving £1,000,000. He '» ; bequeaths £100,000 to his relatives; and • £900,000 is to be divided between the Baptist " Missionary Society and the London MissionJ ary Society. Mr Arthington directs " that, lt ; if practicable, the money shall be spent in l 0 Riving to every tribe of mankind that has them not, and which speaks a language apart s _ from all others, accurate copies of at least the R Gospels of St. John and St. Luke, and tho ie Book' of the Acts of the Apostles printed in n the tribe's language, and in teaching at least 10 or a dozen persons of such tribe to read, d ] If possible a converted tribe shall be urged ;s Ito evangelise others." In brief, the general ous testator desires that the heathen in the is 1 remotest parts of the earth shall bo givon n j "prompt" facilities for acquiring a knowis 5 ledge of the Gospels. J - | When tho last mail left England Dr Parker >4 j had undertaken the editorial direction of the [" j Sun for'ono week commencing December i.7. . j He ha? undertaken not only to direct it, but c " Jto control it. It is of the essence of the c [J arrangement, says tho editor, that Dr Parker ! I "is to have a free hand. The spirit it will ' breathe will bo his spirit; the voice his | voice;.tho fervour hi 3 fervour; tho faith his !_ ! faith; the gospel his gospel. He will Show tho British journalist and the British public i. ; how, in his opinion, a newspaper should bo .. • conducted in order to effect the grpatest good B ; within the scope of its activities. I have sugr ! (rested no ' line' whatever to Dr Parker, exd | cept that he shall translate the hones and b < wishes of many religious teachers,and social t i reformers into the sphere of vigorous aotuf i alily. For a week they are to have, not an b i 'ideal newspaper' in the Sheldonian sense. • I perhaps—not a newspaper which shuts out j the dark and sad happenings of life because • , they are unpleasant—but a newspaper which 1 I touches life at all points, and which, above '• all, touches life as the man of, God, striving 3 ! towards high purpose and conscious of high endeavour, would touch it." ■ .An exceedingly interesting and novel lecj ; ture on " Slum-land " was given on Wednes- . i day, December 12. in connection with the j Upper Norwood Missionary Society, by Mr P ' Herbert Beecroft, of the Crystal Palace. The . i attraction of the Lightning Cartoonist has 1 I always been recognised by the music halls; i, i and in this instance graphic descriptions of s i Slum-life from personal observation .were fhr- | ther heightened by coloured sketches made be--1 j fore the audience. The faces sketched were 5 1 full of expression and character—one of the > [ most telling items being a picture, rapidly l \ drawn, depicting n haggard woman at work • l by the light of a candle in a gloomy attio; ' | this was appropriately followed by the recita--l tion of Tom Hood's "Song of the' Shirt." 1 5 The lecturer pointed out how the housing • | problem affected the Temperance question, ' S and gave some striking incidents of the evils I' a of child labour in ths slums, urging the opening of the "People's Drawing-rooms." creches and children's playgrounds. Two solos were effectively rendered during l the evening b'v Miss Raynor. The chair was taken by Mr Calton. of Fore«t Hill. The National Library in Paris has acquired a manuscript containing a considerable part of St. Matthew's Gospel, which has excited much interest among Biblical arrhseoloffists, and is likely to take a very important posiij. tion among New Testament codices. The a text is inscribed in exquisite golden' uncials | upon purple parchment, and several of the | pages arc illuminated by beautiful miniatures | depicting scenes in the life of Christ. At J the sides of these are portraits of the ProS nhets, bearing scrolls representing their i Messianic prophetic books. Mi 'Joseph | Offord, the delegate of the Society of Biblical | Arcbxolney, has had an opportunity, of ine specting this beautiful manuscript, which he I believes to be unique. It was obtained in B Asia Minor, and is ascribed by M. Omont, of | the Bibliotheque Nationale, to the time, of | Justinian—in the sixth century. S A pitiful storv of the sufferings and death 1 of a Chinese Christian is told by Dr Hart- • well. The man was a preacher, and quite I elderly. On his way home he stopped over | night at a neighbouring town, and casually I mentioned that he was an evangelist. The | next morning he wbf followed and brought | back to the town, where his travelling bag was searched. He wa3 a sort of doctor, and the drugs found in it were said to be foreign medicine for poisoning the wells and the pills to be Wood for smearing. The man's hands were tied hohind him, he was hung up by them, and a heavy stone was tied to his feet to increase his agony. He died from the effect of his tortures.