ON SABBATH EVE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13187, 21 January 1905, Page 2

ON SABBATH EVE.

A COLUMN OF RELIGIOUS - HEADING.' : . (Conducted by the Rev. F. W. Bosihau.) TOO LATE. . What silences we keep year after year' With those who are most near to us and dear! We live beside each other day by day, - - And apeak of myriad things, but seldom -say.. Ulie full sweet word tlmt lies just in our reach Beneath tho commonplace of common speech. Then out of sight and out of reach they go—. Those close, familiar friends who loved us so;, And sitting in the shadow they have left> Alone with loneliness ami sore bereft, Wo think with vain regret of some" fond word that once we might Save said and they have heard. For weak and poor the love that yi. expressed l Now seems beside the sad. sweet unexpressed, And slight tho deeds we did to those undone, And small the service spent to treasure won, And undeserved the praise for word or deed That Bhcu'.d have overflowed the simple need. This is tiie cruel fault of life—to be Full visiotted only when the ministry Of death lias been fulfilled, ilnd in the place Of some idear presence is but empty space. What recollected services can then Give consolation for the " might have been?" THE DISCIPLINE! OF TEMPTATION. A One-iniuuto Sermon by the late Rev. A, D.D. Every temptation resisted in our direct experience of the world is the preparation for a larger, nobler living. The Divine force's by which wo nro begirded and iu : spired are only realised in actual oonflict. We have ono kind of faith when, ill the study, wo mai'k how tlie Gospel commends itself to tho judgment, elevates the imagination, enlarges and purities our hopes; another, a far stronger and more assured faith, when we use it to sustain obedience. The prompt response of faith is another result of the cxpericnce of temptation. Wo have faith as we have knowledge, as wc have wit, as we have words, which secin to lurk in obscure corners of tho mind, and are not forthcoming wtien required. Aptitude comes ; not from solitary self-prepara-tion, but from association with men. It is exactly hero that many a mail feam that ho shall fail to acquit himsolf well in spiritual oonflict. Tho world, the flesh, and the devil may take him unawares. " The day of tho Lord so cometli as a thief iirt.be night." 0, could we be always ready I Constant readiness is one of the choicest fruits of actual victory; wo pass from strugglo to struggle, and our fear dies away. We rise to a large confidence iii tho Spirit of God, who helps our infirmities. It. is not wc who sjwak, but tho spirit of our lfathcr who speaketh in us. JOTTINGS. The Welsh revival still holds its- position as the leading subject of religious thought at Home, The outburst of religious fervour shows iio signs of diminution, but rather increases and spreads. Mr Evan Roberts was confined in his room one day with a chill, but the meetings at Cilfynydd wont 011 without hint with unabated enthusiasm. Business was at a standstill in the place, and on tho Saturday the 3COO workmen at the collieries were granted a holiday to attend tho gatherings. Mr Roberts, looking still very unwell, was present. Soon after the beginning of tho afternoon meeting 110 addressed the crowded congregation in Bethel Chapel for an hour, riveting their attention. Many ministers from all parts of South Wales were present. 111 tho evening; not only at Bethel, but also at tho other chapels in tho place, there were crowded congregations, and there was a marvellous scene wlisn Mr Roberts drew his whole audience to. its feet in united declaration of devotion to Christ. From this Pontypridd district, from the lihondda and Garw valleys, from Bridgend, from Cardiff, from all parts of South Wales oomo reports of a profound religious upheaval and of many hundreds Iwing added to the churches. Cases of religious hysteria and mania have occurred, and a deacon of Johnstown Methodist Chapel, Ruabon, North Wales, has been removed to Denbigh Lunatio Asylum. At sonifi of the collieries the men, Ijoth of the day and the night shift, hold a short prayor meeting down below before beginning work. Both Anglicans 011 the ono hand, and Unitarians on the other, speak sympathetically of the movement.

Mr Evan Roberts, ihe Welsh revivalist, has in his possession a Bible which he values above anything else he has belonging to him. It is 11 Bible slightly scorchcd in a, colliery explosion. When tho revivalist was working in a colliery he used to take his Bible with him, and while at work would put it away in somo convenient liolo or nook near his working place, ready to his hand when ho could snatch a moment or two to scan his beloved pages. A serjotis explosion occurred one day. Tho future Welsh revivalist escaped practically unhurt, but the leaves of his liib'.e were scorched by tile fiery blast. "Evan Roberts's scorchcd Bible" is a familiar phrase among his friends at- Loughor. Itev. W. Jl Dawsou lias reached England after his preaching and lecturing tour in America. Mr Dawson looks well in spite of his severe programme in tho Stales, and declares that Ihe voyage home has taken off all tho " tiredness." lie returns with tho pleasantest recollections pf. his tour. Everywhere ho prcached and lectured lie iiad hearty welcomes and overflowing audiences. The week's ovar.goli.stic mission at Plymouth Oiitirch, Brooklyn, was the culmination of a most delightful experience. Since the Dcs Moines meetings of tho Triennial Congregational Counoil, wiiL-ro Mr Dawson spoke on evangelistic work, 70 requests for missions liavo been sent Io Dr Hillis, Mr Dawson might have stayed in America conducting missions in ill tho great cities for the next two years. The statement that be has received, or is iikeiy Io receive. a.n inviiation to Clinton Avenuo Church, Brooklyn, is inaccurate. Mr Dawson has had 110 communication with tho church. Nor has h-?, received a doctor's degree, though tho newspapers and American ministers persisted ill calling him J-'r Dawson.

Dr Ben. G. Broughton, who occupied tho pulpit of Westminster Chapel, London, in September, and spoke at several of the autumnal meetings, has been enthmisstically. welcomed bark to Atlanta, U.S.A. The huge 'JMisrnaole, of which he is pastor, was crowded two hours before the v/elcomo meeting began. Over 5000 people joined in tho ovation, and almost as many were turned from the doors.

The Rov. William Ilader, of San Francisco, oontrihutes to tho Chicago Advance an interesting estimate of the Rev. R. J.. Ciunp'c'sll. He describes Hie minister .of tlio City Temple as "at once the greatest and poorest preachcr in London." "A sermon," says Mr Rador, " is a message, plus a real live man who has been with (tod. I saw Mr Campbell give one sermon. Scarcely a word did I hear. I do not recall the text, or the thought; in fact, his voico-was so low that I could hear neither, but, somehow I went, away feeling that I had been in a divino presence." 3Jr Racier makes a bold reference to Mr Campbell's physical appearance, which, ho says, was the reflce■tion of his inner life and tiio outward garb of bis personality. "Did he cut his white hair close, and change his dark eyebrows into the colour of his hair, and raise' a beard, and i remove his gown, he would," says Mr Rador, " reduce his power 50 per cent."

All early tradition, variously explained in tlie different prefaces to the Vulgate, preserves the belief that Mark the Evangelist had a certain physical peculiarity. Either his fingers iVgl'o supposed to have been short, or at least one of them to have been much shorter than the otheis. Heneo not infrequently there is attached to his namo a distinguishing adjcctive, which means, literally, "stumpy-fingered." Hitherto there has boon a disposition to interpret this term'physically; and even Swcte regards i|; na referring to "a personal peculiarity which had impressed' itself on the memory of the Honiitn Ohnrch." Very few writers 60CH1 to have felt that in serious literature a standing reference to the shortness of "a man's fingers is no inoro iti place than would bo ft recurrent allusion to Oliver Cromwell's wart in tho official reporta'.of the proceedings of Parliament.' Wo are indebted (says tho Recorder)' to Dr Vernon Bartlet for a quotation from Hippolyhis, which makes it alniost certain- that the epithet was originally applied, to tho' work of the Evangelist, and not to his person, It is his Gospel that is curtailed or "curtflngeted." alike at its beginning and its end. That fact helps to explain the Ion? fight thai took place in tho course of its canonisation, and tho strength of the historioa! tradition of St. Mark's as-ociaiion with St. Peter. Oripnnafly a, local Gospel book of, the Roman Church, the so-called "Peter's Memoirs *' slowly won their v.-ay ;to r ?erteral recognition, but finco. then eom"; : plaints of their meajrenesv'have' rarely passed into assaults on their historicity.

— To encourage working people to establish homes of their own, Norway has founded a bank for working men. It lends money at and 4 per cent., and gives the borrower 42 years in which to pay the loan. The total OQEt of tlio bouse must riot exceed £160, and the area of- land must not be more than five acres. ' • •