THE SUNDAY CIRCLE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13876, 13 April 1907, Page 4

THE SUNDAY CIRCLE.

DEVOTIONAL. Thy Wim, be Doxn! I cannot always sec the way that leads To heights above; I sometimes quite forget He leads mo 011 With hand of love; But yet I know the path must lead me to Immanucl's land, And when I reach life's summit I shall know

And understand. I cannot always trace tho onward course

Mv ship must take; But, looking backward,- I behold afar

Its shining wake, I Illuminated with God's light of love, and so ' I onward go In perfect trust that Ho Who holds the • helm : The course must know. I cannot always see the plan on which He builds my life, For oft tho sound of hammers, blow on blow, The noise of strife, Confuse me, till I quite, forget He knows And oversees, And that in all details with His good plan My life agrees. I cannot always know and understand The Master's rule; I cannot, always do tho task He gives In life's hard school; But I am learning, with liis help', to solve The n one by one, And when I cannot understand, to sav " Thy will be done." - Gertrude B. Curtis. Meditation. THE TRIALS OF LIFE. Life is not entirely made up of great evils 01' heavy trials; but the perpetual recurrence of petty trials and small trials in Hip ordinary and appointed exercises of the Christian graces. To hear with the failing of those about us—with their infirmities. their bad judgment, their ill-brecd-mg. their perverse tempers; to endure neglect when we feci wo deserve attention, and ingratitude when we expected thanks; toi bear with the company of disagreeable people whom Providence has placed in our way. and whom He .has provided or purposed for the trial of our virtue; these best exercises of patience and selfdenial, and the latter because not. chosen ourselves. To bear with vexation in business, with disappointment in our expectations, with interruptions of our retirement, with folly, instruction, * disturbance—in short, with whatever opposes our will, contradicts our humour,—this habitual acquiescence appears to bo more of the essence . than any little rigours or of _our own imposing. These constant, inevitable, but inferior, evils, properly improved, furnish a good moral dig- 1 cipline, and miplit. in the days of ignorance, nave superceded pilgrimage and penance.— . Hannah Moore. Exhortation. "WHAT IS SIX? Have you noticed how little .Jcsns had to ■ say about sin, as sin V Enough had been said about sin. Our Lord came not to ' describe, hut to remove it Hut two thing* He taught, confirmed in the experience of . the individual soul—(1) that sin is a voluntary breaking away from the Divine order, a conscious and deliberate violation of tho Divine will; and (2) that sin results in a ' certain distortion, a, certain twist in our 1 relationship to the Highest, which evidences ! itself in tho disturbing and maiming sense ; of guilt. A great experimental thinker has said _ that sin the God-resisting dis- ' position in virtue of which man in selfsufficiency and pride opposes himself to 1 God, and I hereby withdraws himself from 1 the aetivo ministry of God's life and love. ' That satisfies my consciousness and ox- ' plains my _ experience. Matthew Arnold "■ tells us that sin is an infirmity to bo got ' rid of, but ho omits to tell .us how. True, ' he go?s on to say that thinking about sin, 1 beyond what is required in a firm effort to 1 rid of it. is a waste of energy. I • Ixdicve that ; but lo make a firm effort to ' get rid of it is just what I cannot do. A < second counsellor of some repute says:— ' "Got rid of sin by healthy developments < in favourable conditions." Yes; but. t again, what aro the favourable conditions t in which tho healthy development will bo ' inevitable ? It cannot bo dene by educa- f tion, Ido not think we aro going to do it by the creation of garden cities. You may diminish crime, but not in one degree t diminish sin. When -you havo re-created c Eden, Adam still waits to bo remade. I ' do not think altruistic and philanthropic t service is going to give us what we re- f Men may give their time for the t commonweal 011 public boards, but find 110 £ emancipation. All this will not- deliver 3 tho soul from the virus of indwelling sin. s Then: *'0 wretched man that I am, who v shall deliver me? I thank God through s Jesus Christ, my Lord." I bring you to ' that, the reality of sin and the realitv of 1 a personal Saviour. I do not want to I speak with' undue or extreme mysticism a about tho matter. I do not think it is r more mystical than anything else we speak f about Through Jesus Christ I "am to i obtain deliverance. It is to bo effected v by t a mutual personal covenant; by tho v union of two; by tho surrender of my life f to the Lord, and the surrender c-f tho Lord's life to me; by tho establishment of a new relationship.—Rev. J. 11. Jowett. t EXETER HALL SOLD. v Tim New Y.M.C.A. Building. » Exeter Hall has been sold—for £30.000, it js said—and tho Central Y.M.C.A., * which has occupied it for £6 years, has !' eccured a site for its new home, which will bo erected ns a memorial of the late Sir s George Williams. The site is an " island" with frontages in Tottenham Court road. Great P.usseil street, Bedford avenue, and Caroline street. In this central position a (in,c block of buildings, something (to judge C from the architect's sketch) in the style of a "Waring's" in Oxford street, will ba c erected. It yill be equipped in a fasliio!) worthy of tho London Central Association,, i and will bo worked in accordance with two I main ideas—tho idea of a business man's 1 college, mid tho idea of a residential home, f The educational courses will bo carefully r worked out with tho ideal of turning out a 0 hatter class of commercial man. The resi- a dential portion of the building will accom- f modate about 300 young fellows at 5s per ] week for a small but comfortable room, s with facilities for cheap meals and all the s advantages of a good club. In addition 5 there will bo full equipment for various < .recreative and athletic agencies. j

As_to the future of Exeter Hall nothing definite is settled. Tho purchasers, Messrs Joseph Lyons and Gluokstcin, are well known ns caterers and tobacconists, and perhaps Exeter Hall will bo transformed into a restaurant. The purchasers have, however, decided hot to use it as a place for musical entertainments. There, will bo no change until Midsummer, however, so that the hall will bo available for the present year's May meetings. ABOUT PEOPLE. Mr Charles Alexander, of tho famous Torroy-Alexander partnership, who. together with his wife, is visiting Australia for health reasons, interviewed in Melbourne, characteristically said;—" Say, this isn't any campaign. This is just, a friendly call: I told my wife I had got ecino 15,000 or so friends scattered round here, and I simply must introduce her. It is pretty certain that in tho eoiuse of a year or so we shall be back again in Australia, probably to conduct an eight months' mission right through Australia and Now Zealand." ,

The Rev. Charles M. Sheldon, 1-Tio author if "In His Slops," "The Crucifixion of Philip Strong,"- ond other well-known works', following his engagement with the United Kingdom Alliance to conduct a temperance campaign extending over two months, rlins planned to reach Australia in the earlv - part of .7lily, and will fulfil temperance and other engagements in Australia and New Zealand. He will also visit Honolulu, and reach San Francisco the last week in August. /

Dr AY. ,T. Dawson has lwen conducting an evangelistic mission at Yale University! and " all Yale" is said 1 to have been "stirred by the campaign." Dr Dawson has ns Mr Mercer, the assistant superintendent of the .Terrv M'Aule.v Mission in New York. For two Sundays Dr Dawson was college preacher. lie lectured on London slum life to the sociology students, gave addresses in the Divinity School, and before tho Scientific School Y.M.G'.A. The main note of the Yale mission was Christian service, and quite a number of the undergraduates announced their determination to dedicate themselves to Christian work.

Dr George F. Pentecost, of Northfield, and formerly of Jfarylebone, has just- had the dubious satisfaction ot reading an obituary notice of himself. Tho death of an American Baptist minister named Hugh O. Pentecost evidently led Tho Standi.nl (an American Baptist 'organ) to think thav

RELIGIOUS READING- FOR THE HOME.

GENER AL BOOTH. AKOTHKE WORLD TOUH.

it was the well-known prcachcr and evangelist that had passed away, and a brief but glow in); obituary of Dr Pentecost was published in its columns. English friends of Dr Pentecost will be pleased to hear t"at this was only a mistake ami that Dr Pentecost is well; living at Northficld, and keenly interested in the horsebrcedingj which is now his hobby.

Dr Gronfell, tho Labrador missionary hero, is a. Moody convert, but ho has bce.ll telling a Northficld audience that 110 only saw Moody three times and only spoke to Mm oncc. In 1885, dien a student at tho London Hospital, he heard Moody preach in East London, and received tho impression that' "here is a religion genuine and natural." Then lie hoard Moody preach 0:1 the Thames embankment, and "with t'lio now faith which lie inspired in mo I went to work trying to teach rag-a-muffin boys." When in Boston on business, in 1897, Dr Gronfell approached Moody and spoke to him for tho im-i time, and saw him for the last He told Moody that 14- years before in London ho had given him a now impulse in life, and Moody insisted' on Dr Gronfell telling the story at a mission meeting at Trcmont Temple. Dr Gronfell declares that Moody's fa l th is now to be seen in the men a.nd women all around l the -world whom ho has influenced. "My share in carrying 011 that work which he inspired," says Dr Gronfell, "is to build hospitals along the Labrador coast, to help poor people in selling their furs and their fish, so that they may rise above their poverty, to liclp in the enforcement of tho law, so as to free them from, tho curee of liquor."

Dr Machren has celebrated his eightyfirst birthday at Manchester. On tlio Sunday morning he attended public worship at Union Chapel, Manchester—the scene of his great ministry. He hoped to have attended tho annual congregational meeting of the church, but did not feel quite well that day. and so his intention was abandoned. It is <19 years sinco the doctor's first congregational meetinir. and during that long period ho has been absent three or four times only. , Tlio Rev. John Kolman, who has been recommended by the committee of St. George's Church, Edinburgh, to the congregation for a. call as colleague and successor to Dr Whvte, is to receive tlio D.D. 'degree from Edinburgh University. Mr Kolman has been minister of New North United Free Church, Edinburgh, for 10 yeavs. lie broke up his course of training as a' student at Now College, Edinburgh, by spending three years in seeing Australia, where he worked for a session, at Ormond College, Melbourne, before returning to conclude his course at I-lome and assist. Dr George Adam' Smith in his paatorato at Aberdeen. His remarkable grip as a preacher on young men has been shown net only in Edinburgh, but on his visits south to preach at Mansfield College. As an author Mr Kciman revealed a rare gift- of literary and religious interpretation in his "The Faith'of Robert Louis Stevenson," tho most widely-known of his books.

The Revs. Hugh 'C. Wallace and Dr J. Warsehauer were for the sccond timo "blackballed." at tho London Board of Congregational Ministers. Both ministers arc prominent, New Theologians, and t,hc rejection of their candidature for membership of ;tho board has a sinister aspcct. On settling at, Anerley Mr Wallace and Dr Warsehauer were asked to join tho Minislore' Board_ by its secretary (the Rev, T. Eynon Davios). Tliov wore nominated last autumn, and blackballed in November. At tbo requests of officials of the board, who belic\«l that their failure to secure a thrco-ciuarters majority was aceidcntaij they allowed thorracl ves to be renominated. They were snpooried by the Rev. R. J. Camphell, chairman of the hoard. On Tuesday the blackballs were, 011 a very large poll taken by ballot, sufficiently numerous lo rc-jcct them. The result, which is tho vielory of a minority over a majority, will accentuate the conflicting feelings in the storm centre." Some of the sympathisers with tho Anerlev ministers declare their intention to blackball oven- future candiGale for election—a policy of procedure which will probably smash up the fraternity altogether.

Gipsy Smith has made a great impression • mint ' F. W. Gunsaulus, of Chicago. , He declares that no one in recent years has moro'truly reconstructed tlw instrumentalities of Scriptural evangelism and piven the intensity born of triumph to all of them, than "has Gipsy in tho city of Chicago and in this year of our Lord 1907. During his missionary sojourn in Chicago, Gipsy Smith was invited to nicety the -pro£essors and students of -the University of Chicago "They came together." savs Dr Gunsaulus, by tho graco of God. The truth is the University of Chicago and Gipsy Smith aro both often misjudged. Ginsv Smith is not, ccecntric; neither is the University of Chicago sceptical or unevangelical in spirit. The moment they came together tho cranito was beneath their feet, and Mandcl Hall,' which was built by a Jew, rang with tho praises of Jesus."

A book great interest to nil lovers of the mystics is announced bv Messrs Allenson in a new edition of some further writinnrs of Brother Laurence, who is so well known by his "Practice of tho Prcsenco of God." The new work consists of spiritual maxims, a, character of the author, tmd gathered thoughts. There has been 110 issue of these inspired writings since 1741. , b

With characteristic vitality and optimism General Booth sailed at. the end of February on his tour, or, as he prefers to call it, campaigns in Canada, Japan, and China. _ One of tho general's last, nets before sailing was to ser.ibblo 011 a half sheet of notepaper the following 'message to Japan—a message that contains tho why and wherefore of the persistent passion which dominates General Booth's whole life—viz.:—"l am coming to see the people whom I already love and admire; to publish more fully the royal roa-d to my Heavenly Father's heart; to reveal moro clearly the secret of holy living; to further deepen, the spirit of compassion _ for the outcasts of sooicty; to win recruits for my world-wide objeet, ami to inspire my comrades with moro fiery enthusiasm for tho. triumph of Jehovah and the happinces of mankind." While in Japaji General Booth will, it is understood, study the education question ill relation to the future of tho army and missions generally. It is well known that the leaders of tho army .attach considerablo importance to the training of tlio young Japanese in-the practioal application of the theory 'of Christianity. It is possible that, as one result of this visit, the army may resolve upon the establishment of schools, institutes, and various training colleges. The army has already won tho confidence of the authorities by tho ability and success with which it is handling the intricate question of white slavery, tho development, of which since the close of tho year and the spread of famine is a ghastly feature of life j n Japan, Korea, and China.

rho general's itinerary includes visits to lokio, Yokohama, Nagasaki, Kobe, and other centre. 1 ! of population. Ho cxpccts to ho back in London about, tho end of June, and include 011 the return voyage a flying visit to Peking.

REV. B. J. CAMPBELL'S BOOK. The Rev. R.. .T. Campbell, who lias returned to (lie City Temple after his holiday in Cornwall, has completed the MS. of his book on "The Now Theology." Tho book will consist of nbout 70,000 words, and has been dictated in loss than a month. The manuscript has been revised by Rev. .T. A, Hamilton, of Peiwaiico (author of "The MS. ii> the Red Box"), and the boo"k was announced to appear about Easter. In spite of lia-ri't work, Mr Cr»niph(>ll found time, both in Cornwall and Devon, for rest and excreiM), and his health haa greatly improved Ho is in excellent spirit, and strongly believes that tho publication of hie IxJok will remove many misconceptions as to lug theological opinions. "We understand that, a-full explanation of Mr Camphell's views upon the dcetrinc of sin will !>?. included in (he volume, and that the lurid passages which have been torn from their contexts aild freelj* used in the controversy will bo explained.. An inspired forecast of the contents! of the book appeared in tho Tribune, from which it appears that Mr Campbell is emphatic upon the point that the book expresses his own personal views, and not those of anyone else'more or less con netted with the present theological movement. In addition to the chapters on immanence, sin, arid Semitic origins of ideas of atonement, the book contains chapters on the fundamental unity of God and man, the Incarnation, tho nature of evil, the authority of Scripture, salvation, and judgment, and the Church and the Kingdom. The last chapter discusses the place and value of miracles and pra-yer.

DR LAMB'S THEOLOGY. TO THE EDITOR. n ,Sin, -In liis article in your issue of tlio 23ra of March Dr Lamb continues liis attack on St. Augustine. 111 my last letter I pointed out that (ho really gveat scholars, men like Harvack and Orr, 6peak of Augustine with reverent admiration; ; but since Dr Lamb continues his attack on this great teacher of the Church of I God, I may bo permitted to add the tesfi- ' mony of so great a Church historian as ! Schaff. Schalf's greatness iff* this department of knowledge will nqt be -questioned by anyone capable of giving an opinion. In his Niceno, and Post-Nicene Christianity" (p. 1016) SchalY says; —" Boforo wo take leave of this imposing character, and of the period of Church history in which he shines as the brightest star, we must add some observations respecting the influence of Augustine on tho world sinco his time, and his. position with reference to the great antagonism of Catholicism and Protestantism. All the Church fathers are, indeed, the common inheritance of both ; parties; but no oilier of them has produced so permanent ellocls on both, and no other stands in so high regard with both, as Augustine." Let mo add that Harvack, and SchalT, and Orr, have jiot arrived at their judgment of (lie groat and holy Augustine from snippets of quotations given in a textbook. They have mastered tho field of historical theology, and therefore they reverence Augustine. Dr Orr 6ays:—"lt is therefore a sign of weakness in a theologian to belittle tho significance of tho Western or Augustinian theology in comparison with the Eastern." And in a footnote he adds;—"Tho great, teachers, such as I-Jarvack, do not fall into this mistake." Dr Lamb's letters are another illustration of the truth of Dr Orr's statement; for a weaker discussion of these great themes I have never seen. Of course, 110 modern man would, think of stating the doctrine of the. divine sovereignty in tho exact, form in which Augustine stated it; but to take theso statements and isolate them from their context",""and givo them as if that were the whole of Augustine, is not painting a man. work and all; it. is painting tho work and then representing it to be the man. As Ihe great exponent of the doctrines of sin and grace August ino docs not need to be apologised for, even if some of hie statements were of a kind that wo would not rcadly write in the twentieth century. If Dr "Lamb is unfair to Augustine, one scarcely knows what to say alffl'ut his treatment of the standards of the Church of which ho is a minister. -1 have long ago learned to regard it as a sign of weakness in anyone to talk slightingly of the Westminster" Standards. Creeds and men have to be judged by their fruit. And I know something of what the Shorter Catechism, with its, Calvinism, has done .for Scotland. An honest Agnostic, like Fronde, in his well-known lecturo on Calvinism, has shown how much the modern world owes to that Calvinism which Dr Lamb holds up to obloquy. Even if we would not now state the doctrine of the divine sovereignty in tho form in which it is stated in flic Westminster Standards, we have to admit that that doctrine is taught in the New Testament, both by our Lord and His apostles. And when Dr Lamb quotes some strong statements from the Westminster Confession about the doom of tho lost, i would only add that they are not a whit stronger than many passages of the Now Testament on the same subicct. It would be an easy matter to parallel air the strong passages that Dr Lamb quotes from the Confession of Faith on this solemn question with equally strong statements from tho New Testament on the same subject. But my chief objection to Dr Lamb's (irticlc is that it would lead your readers to suppose that our . Church binds every minister to every jot and tittlo of tha Westminster Standards. No one would suppose from Dr Lamb's articles that tho Presbyterian Church had notified her relation to tho Westminster Confession, and that she now stated these truths in a way that is much loss ofrensve to tho modern man. And yet. such is the casai Out- basis of miioiv states; "That the doctrine of basig of tho said Presbyterian Church-of New Zealand shall be the Holy Scriptures of the Old and Now Testaments, as tho supremo standard, and' tho only rule of faith and practice, and the Westminster Confession of Faitli and Larger and Shorter Catechisms, as interpreted by the Declaratory Act, as subordinate standards, with liberty of opinion in regard to marriage with a deceased wife's'sister." It has to bo observed that we now accent the Westminster documents "as interpreted by tho Declaratory Act," And when we turn to the Declaratory Act wo find that this very doctrine of election, of tho statement of which in the Confession DrLamb makes so much, is fgiven in a form which few of us have any difficulty in accepting. 011 this subject the Declaratory Act says;—" That, in holding and teaching, according to tho Confession, the Divine purpose of grace towards those who are saved, and tho execution of that purpose In time, this Church most er.rncst.ly proclaims, as standing in the forefront of the revelation -of grace, tho love of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to sinners of mankind, manifested especially in the Father's gift of tho Son to be the Saviour of the world, in the coming of the Son to offer Himself a. propitiation for sin, and in the striving of tho Holy Spirit with men to -bring them to repentance. That this Church also holds that all who hear the Gospel are warranted and required to believe to the saving of their souls; and that in the case of such as do not, believe, but perish in their sins, the issue is due to their own rejection of the Gospel call. That this Church does not teach, and doss not regard the Confession as teaching, the fore ordinalion of men t.o death, irrespective .of their sin." And tho Declaratory Act softens down considerably other' statements of tho Confession. This Declaratory Act was avowedly adopied by the Free Church of Scot-land, and afterwards by our Church in New Zealand, to removo difficulties and scruoles in relation to tho acceptance of the Confession. Other Presbyterian churchcs have, in an eciuallv effective way, modified their relation 'to the Confession of Faith. Yot. of all this Dr lamb takes no notice whatever, but writes as if we wore tied down to every statement in the Confession of Faith. In doing this ho jays himself op on to the charge of writing in a. way that, is calculated to mislead your readers. At least; he is guilty of putting up a man of straiV that ho mav ha.v e tho pleasure of knocking him down again. Besides giving a wholly false impression of tho 'relation q£ our Church to those passages 111 the Confession of Faith which ho quotes, Dr Lamb's article »vould give a false impression regarding the Westminster Standards themselves. Of these standards, taken us a whole, intelligent and loyal Presbyterians have good cause to bo proud. The substance of tho larger documents is given in tho Shorter Catechism, and Presbyterians know that well, /and have long lgo come to regard it as one of the finest statements of Divine truth to be found outside the pages of the inspired Word. Our attitude towards it is not one of apology, but of affectionate regard. And when Dr Lamb attacks the standards of the L lurch of which he is a minister, and to which he lias subscribed, atid selects a clause here and a .clause there, and isolates it from, its context so as to give a false impression of tho whole, loyal Presbyterians will not consider that it- is the standards that arc on trial, but Dr Lamb himself. On tho question of infant salvation, Dr Lamb actually misrepresents tho Confession. Ho represents the confession as definitely teaching that some infants arc not Raved. Ho says: "Elect infahts, dying in infancy, are regenerated and saved. . . , Others not elected . . . cannot lie saved." Anyone reading this passage in Bt Lamb'e letter would certainly suppose that the statofnonts that those not elected had reference tp infants. Now one has only to look at the passage in .the Confession to see that is not so. Dr Lamb actually connects by dots passages from two different sections ill tho Confession as if they belonged to tho same passage.

The truth is that the passage about infants is in section 3 of chapter x in tho Confession, and The passage beginning " Otheis not elected " is in section 4, and has no Ycforcnco whatever to infants, as the words which Dr Lamb has left out show. J. j»ive the words which Dr Lamb omits: " Otliefs not oloctod, although they may be called by the ministry of the Word, and may have some common operations of tho Spirit, yet they never truly eame to Christ, and therefore cannot be saved." Not; observe that Dr Lamb actually selects this passage from a. different section from that dealing with infitnts. He then omits all the words that -n-ould show that it lias no reference whatever to infants, and lie connects it by dots with tho passage about infants as if it belonged to that passage and' taught thai; some infants arc not saved. Dr Lamb is here either singularly unfortunate in his method of quotation of worse. In my reply to him in the Outlook I had to say that I would rather not say what I thought of one passage of his letter. The truth l.< I thought it a disingenuous evasion of a difficulty. And now I hr.ve to say that I do not know what to make of Dr Lamb' 6 method of quotation. One tiling is certain: it. gives a wholly false impression of tho teaching of tho Confession, Tho

| Confession never speaks of infants thatbo saved. lr Lamb further says, as if it never Imtl '-jeon questioned, that tho Confession goes 11 the length of distinguishing between elect infants' ami non-clect." He then gives the garbled quotation to which I hr p drawn attention in support of his statement. But the statement is untrue. Tin Confession nowhere speaks of non-elect infants. Anil Dr Lamb should know that i : hc best representatives of Presbyterian ti c o!ogy wholly deny that- the Confession wa: ever meant to teach that .1115' infants dyii£ in infancy are lost. On tho question of infant salvation the Confession is striolv neutral. It gives standing ground to those who believe that all infants dying n infancy aio saved,, and it also leaves room for those who are not. prepared to togmaliso on this point. If Dr Lamb is nu aware of this it reveals a surprising lael; of acquaintance with Presoytcriah ticctegv. Tho interests of truth can never Ijp advanced by misrepresenting cither Saint. Augustine or Presbyterian theology. And surely the Presbyterian Church has a right to expect more loyalty from her sons than to attack her historical standard as Dr Lamb has done, especially as the nloption of the Declaratory Act lias remtved the difficulties that pressed 011 sensi-ive oouscicnccs in relation to tho Confcsson of iail h.—l am, etc.. Isaac Jou,t ralraerston North, March 29.