THE SUNDAY CIRCLE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13996, 31 August 1907, Page 4

THE SUNDAY CIRCLE.

DEVOTIONAL. Gon Knows. Ho knows the bitter, weary way; He knows tho endless striving, day by day, Tho souls that weep, tho souls that pray. Ho knows how hard tho tight hath been, Tho clouds that come our lives between, Tho wounds tho world hatli never seen. Ho knows when faint and worn wo sink, How deep tho pain, how near Hie brink Of dark despair we pause and shrink. I)o'knows! Oh, thought so full of bliss, For though our joy on earth wo miss, Wo still can bear it, feeling this— Ho knows.

Meditation. BIBLE rALJIISTnT.

Here'is a hand, its very appearance makes you shudder. It is diseased in every bono and is dropping joint from joint. 'It is tho grasping hand of Gchazi, tho servant of Elisha. Gehazi's ruling faculty was acquisitiveness. Ho could not bear to lot anything slip by him. Ho could not understand his master's fino contempt for shekels of gold and line raiment. It was tearing his heart out to see Naair.an going away bearing all his wealth with him. His fingers itched to snatch at tho good things his master refusal to touch. Miser lie was! Ho lovod money for its own sake, which is tho most sordid, degrading love that can ever enter a man's soul. 1 belicvo a man had better love drink than money. It is tho eurso of Gehazi's Tace. Jesus knew that, and His most so!o:nn warnings were against laying up treasures 011 earth. Put tesido tho hand of Geiiazi another which fells tho same story and learn for how littlo men will sell 'their soul. Scott and Shakespeare and Dickons liavo all portrayed- for as tho miserly .Tow—lsaac of York, Shylock, and Fagin,—but the most pitiful example is none of these. The awful example of the tragic consequence of tho lovo of money is Judas, and the most pitiful scene in all that terrible tragedy of lost souls is that of tho man who "sold Christ for 30 pieces of silver, going to tho men who had trafficked with him to do his dastardly deed, and with tho hell hounds of remorse at his heels, taking tho money, and with somo blind instinct of making restitutiou, flinging it before them.— Samuel Horton.

' Exhortation. ONLY THINK!

Only think how much may bo achieved in a iittlo while. Tho atonement for a world of perishing sinnors was accomplished between the sixth hour and tho ninth hour on darkened Calvary. That flash of divine electricity from the Holy Spirit which struck Saul of Tarsus to the ground was tho woi'k of an instant, but tho great elcctrio burner of the converted Paul has -blazed over all the world for centuries. A half-hour's faithful preaching of Jesus by an itinerant Methodist exhorter at Colchester brought tho boy Spurgeon to a decision, and launched that mightiest minis try of modern times. Lady Henry Somerset tells us that a few minutes of solemn reflection in a garden decided hor to exchange a life of fashionable frivolity for a fifo of consecrated philanthropy. Why cite moro cases when every Christian can testify that the best decision and deeds of his or hor life turned on the pivot of a fctf minutes? In tho United States Mint they coin eagles out of tho sweepings of gold dust from tho floor. • Brethren, we ought to be misers of our minutes! If im a dying bod they aro.eo precious, why not in tho fuller days of our healthful energies? Said General Mitchell, tho great asfcronomor, to an offioer who apologised for being only a, few minutes behind time: "S9r, I liavo been in tho habit of calculating the tenth part of a sccond."

MOTORING WITH GENERAL BOOTH. General Booth is as modern as his motor ear. Ho is no mere revivalist, striving to put new lifo into tho sickly sentimentality o: tho nineteenth century. Ho is a practical man of affairs. To him usefulness is goodness, and ho is set upon making useful what at present- is harmful and wasteful and rank. " I dread weakness moro than wickedness," ho save, .and it is to put backbone into the poor supine crcaturcs of submerged humanity that he labours continuous.)*. He wants the last pound out of every man. Ho takes tho last ounce out of himself. He js the very antithesis of a visionary, yet is he essentially an evangelist. A little old man jumped from a passing gig, pressed in, and hold 'out his hand. "How do you do, General? I heard you 40 years ago in Cambridge." The General bent down, " Ah. did vou, and did it make your soul right?" Tho old man returned to iits gig thoughtfully. The General went back to tho line of thought ho had been following before the interruption. "I am not afraid of wickcdncss. My wonder is kept evergreen at tho universality of humanity. Poor, half-dninken crcaturcs clutch mo affectionately by tho arm and give me their heart's best greeting. It is their weakness wo have to fight." General Booth is not even saintlike in character. lie has a quick temper, and will brook no opposition to his will, but ho has a master mind, and the master mind has little patience with inefficient implenionts.—Douglas Story, in the Tribune. ABOUT PEOPLE.

Dr J, Wilbur Chapman, tho well-known American evangelist, has just lost his wife under distressing circumstances. While on one of his mission tours both Dr and Mrs Chapman wcro taken ill—Mrs Chapman so seriously that amputation of a limb was necessary. Sho bore the sursical operation, but blood-poisoning sot in and proved fatal'.

Rev. W. L. Watkineon, in presenting tho prizes at Kent College, Canterbury, expressed the belief that U man was more frequently injured in life by success than by faillire. There was a tyranny about succces, and it often captured a man and ho made no further progress. Too manv men failed in life because they reckoned too much on their 'own cleverness. lot a man do his best, and not reckon on luck for it had been wisely said that the chapter of Rccidcnts was tho Bible of the fool.

Two jubilees will be celebrated within tho next fow weeks. The first is that of tho Archdeacon of Worcester, who, in September, will have been in Holy Orders for 50 years. The other is that of Canon F. 'J. Wood, vicar of Headingley, who shortly finishes SO years' continuous work in Lccxls. Movements aro on foot in the respective districts to recognise these occasions, and arrangements are being made for the presentation of gifts to both these veterans. 55 "

Rev. John Gwynn, who, by resigning tho headship of tho Divinity School in Trinity College, Dublin, has placed vfr-in younger—but scarcely more vigorous—hands at_a crisis in its history in which its very existence is threatened, has held the position for almost a quarter of a century. Ho abandoned Fellowship after a tenure of 11 years to wander further into theology. Three of his sons followed him to the Fellows' Common Room in Trinity, and another son is Mr Stephen Gwynn', author of "Highways and Byways in Donegal and Antrim," and the Nationalist M.P. for Galway. Dr Gwynn is succeeded by Dean Bernard. Mr Silas K. Hocking;, having retired from the United Methodist Free Church ministry, received from the Superannuation and Beneficent Fund all the subscriptions ho had paid, but. the novelist returned them for tho benefit of any needv fund. At the Newcastle Assembly." Alderman f. Snapo. of Liverpool, warmly defended his friend Mr Hockinir ajraiiist those who blamed him for " accepting fees for preaching. Mr Snano explained the position thus: "When I, was in the ministry (Mr Hocking argued) I wasn't going to bo a blackleg and. preach for nothing to the disadvantage of my brethren. By putting the price up to a high figure I gave a better chanco to other ministers. But since I have retired from tho ministry I have made no charge whatever." Mr W. IT. Lever. M.P.. who has vindicated his personal honour against the charges of the Daily Mail and emerged from the libel suit at Liverpool, with damages for £50.000 in his favour, is a Congregatioi'.alist by upbringing and conviction. He holds a larrjo share of the capital of the British Congrcgationalist, and has contributed handsomely -to many Congregational causes. Mr Lever is a hard-headed business man—so keen-witted that oven Mr Unfits Isaacs failed to trip him in several hours' cross-examination,— but his personal integrity ha-s always been above all reproach, and his friends in and out of Parliament found it impossible to believe even a modicum of tho Daily Mail's insinuations against him. Even those who djijlifetd the Soan Qojnbipe re-

RELIGIOUS READING FOB THE HOME.

tained then; faith in Mr Level's patent honesty of purpose.

Sr William Smith Grossman, J.P., is n devoted member of tho ' Biblo Christian Methodist Church, Miskiu street,, Cardiff, and is one of tho two superintendents of its Sunday school. Hailing from Tavistoelc, in Devon, he went to Cardiff as a foreman mason in 1884, and worked upon the Roath Dock. Ho became a labour leader in 1892, at I'ho time of the great building trade dispute. As a member of the Conciliation C'ommiteo lie did much ,to bring that strike to a. satisfactory end. His method lias always been that of sweet reasonableness combined with a titan stand on principles, but he is not always spoiling for a. fight. His sincerity and simplicity have not only forwarded the cause of his comrades, but , won for him tho respect and confidence of his opponents. Hi 6 life for tho past 15 years has been entirely devoted 1o labour representation and organisation, but ho is not a inoiiil>er of the I.L.P. As councillor, guardian, and justice of tho peace he has faithfully served his city. He did the honours of his corporation with dignity and grace 011 tho occasion of tho royal visit, and his knighthood, while coming as a surprise, lias greatly delighted the citizens.

Dr Wilbur F. Crafts, superintendent of tho International Reform Bureau, lino been giving a series of 33 addresses in the chief cities of Japan, Korea, and China, and has had audiences also with Viscount Hayashi, Marquis It 0, Count Okuma, Viceroy Yuan Shih Kai, and the Woiwupu, of China, with a view to a world-treaty of tho great civilised Powers for tho, prohibition of the sale of intoxicants andi opium to savages in the South Seas and in Africa. Dr and Mrs Crafts, who are now engaged in similar work in the Philippines, will visit Australia and also spend somo weeks in Great Britain. In Japan Dr Crafts urged, apropos of tho many native expressions of desire for movo effective cthical teaching in tho public 6ohools, that as tho Lord's Prayer was adopted and used daily for 15 days by leaders of all religions at. tho World's Parliament of Religions iii Chicago, under lead, 011 successive days of Buddhists, Con fucians, Jfohammodans, Christians (both Catholic and Protestant), and others, that prayer, with its unsertarian teaching of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, should be used daily as tho first exorcise in all public schools, and that tho Ton Commandments,with or/without harmonious moral precopts of liko nnivorsal and fundamental oharaelcr from tho teachings of Confucius and Buddha, should also bo road with explanation and application every week.

The trustees of St. Luke's, Bedminster, near Bristol, have appointed tho famous amateur orickoter, tho Rev. F. H. Gillingham, to tho benefice. Tho living has a net value of £390 per year. Mr Gillingham was Tdainod seven years ago to the curacy of Leyton Parish Church, adjoining tho County Cricket Ground, and has ever since rendorod yeoman sorvico to tho Essex eleven. His averago in first-class cricket )a6t season was 46, and ho holds tho " rocord " among clerical cricketers for tho 200 Iks knocked up against Middlesex. In 1905 ho became chaplain to tho Forces, first at Bulford, and latterly at, Tidworth, Hampshire. Owing to his duties with the troops ho has been unable to give much assi6tanco to his county since May, but ho took part. in tho match against Yorkshire. Unlike most distinguished amateur cricketers, Mr Gillingham does not hail from Oxford or Cambridge, _ but graduated B.A, at Durham University, having previously studied at tho London College of Divinity. His parishioners at Eadminstor will find their now vicar oven keener as a pariah clergyman than he has been as a cricketer.

Tho Rev. J. H. Jowett, fresh from his holiday in Switzerland, took part in the 'jubilee celebration of Square Congregational Church, Halifax, in which ho was brought up. Ho gave tho meeting some personal reminiscences of his association in his boyhood with Square Church. Ho had (ho said) a vivid remembrance that when Dr David Thomas appeared from behind ; the curtain covering tho entrance from the vestry to the church ho said to himself '■ Pickwick," Dr Thomas was very rotund, and in the pulpit he seemed to his young eyes like an egg in an egg cup. Dr Thomas was in tho habit of using two pairs of spectacles for two different, purposes. Oneo-at Square, when lie bad been preaching about 40 minutes, there was a dead silonco as he took off hie glasses, laid them down, put the other pair on bis face, and after looking round said, "Well, you look very restful; I will go on a little longer." He could not think for a moment that Dr Thomas had his eyes upon him, or ho would certainly have received a very different impression. If Dr Bruce had been present he would have asked him if he remembered proaching at Square Church on the words, "Oh. that I had the wings of a dove." Dr Bruce became so expressive of his desire for tho wings of a dove that the right hand gas globo on tho pulpit was shattered by coming into contact with a waving arm."

A PREACHER IN PINAFORES.

All Yorkshire is agog with curiosity ovor the latest child preaehor—a little girl of 12, who _is said to bo raising such a. wavo of revivalism as Evan Roberts raised in Wales. Frances Bradley Storr is tho daughter of a working-clacs family, her mother being at present a police court missionary at Doncaetor. About year ago the child preached her first 6cnnon, at the age of 11, and since then she has proached almost every Sunday, at times to 1000 or 1600 people. In one week sho spoke to 5000 people.'' She "preaches for concisions," and can point with pride to a good number of what tho Salvation Army calls "trophies." Sho prepares her sermons carefully, but only takes a. few notes into the pulpit, and her ready flow of language is the most wonderful featuro of her preaching. Sho is never at a loss for a word or an illustratibn, although neither words nor illustrations are, of oourse, startlingly original. • At first she only preached near at home, but her sphere of work is now spread over several oounties. Sho is described as ha.ving "a bright and Sunny face, somowhat shy, but always cheerful and free from any hint of priggishncss." During tho week sho learns her lessons at day school liko ordinary little girls. FROM ALL SOURCES. Tho God-given cure for tho terrible overwork, overcrowding, and infant mortality, said tho Bishop of London at the Church Emigration Society's annual meeting, was to send out tho peoplo to tho great fiolds of tho world—givo them a new start in a new country. ,

At the meeting for in connection with the Society of Friends, Mr and Mrs Annett described their visit to the 230 friends scattered over New Zealand, about half in Auckland province and the rest near tho southern towns. A clear scopo for aggressivo work, presenting tho positive sido of Quakerism, is their report.

An American editorial board of tho Hibbert Journal, consisting of 12 well-known scholars, has just been constituted, and will enter upon its duties at onco. It is hoped that by tho co-operation of this board with the British Board tho journal may servo to establish a kind of intellectual allianco between Britain and America in matters of tho highest religious and philosophical thought.

President Hadley, of Yale University, is an insistent preacher of tho principles of ethical religion, and in his recent baccalaureate sermon he declared that to keep tho hands clean and the heart ouro from the subtler forms of evil no code of rules will suffice, but only a great purpose, which looks outside of self to exalt the social standards of truth and honour. "The only men who are safe," he added, "are those whose standards of honour are what tho v.prld calls Quixotic—which really means that they are Christian."

The British Wcslevan Conference held its sessions last month at Wesley's Clwpol, City road, London, the cathedral of Methodism. The remains oi the founder of Methodism, which has now extended to all parts of the world, lie buried there, whilst hi* statue stands in the courtyard facing the chapel. This is the one hundred and sixty-fourrh conference. Tho first was held in the City road, June 15-20, 1747. When Wesley died there were "80, GOO persons in tho societies under iiis care according to the statement on tho Wesley tablet in the chapel. To-day tho numbers are 466,430. If those in America were added, as well as those who ...o offshoots of tho Methodist tree, the totals \T<?vid .W. into several milliops,

A prominent feature of the first draft of the British Wesleyan stations is the largo number of changes 111 tho superintendentships of the Central Missions, to no fewer than 11 of which new superintendents Ikivo boon appointed. The Revs. C. Ensor Walters ami Trevor H. Davjes both go to Sheffield, the former to the Carver street and the latter to the Brunswick Mission. The Rot. J. E, Kattenbury has been appointed to tho West London ilission, and is succeeded at Nottingham by the Rev. H. Maldwyn Hughes.

The complaint that the Irish General Assembly is to a great, extent, ruled bv an alignrchy—tho Belfast Presbytery—ia' confirmed by recent, statistics. Last year tho committees elected by tho Assembly numbered 55. Of the 1461 seats on t.hcso committees 622 fell to tho Belfast Presbytery alono, and 839 to tho remaining 35 Presbyteries. In many cases, however, the sanio person is found 011 several committees, and two members of Belfast Presbytery have each seats on over 30 committees, 'Of the 427 members of committees 146 arc Belfast representatives, and the other Prcsbvteries avprago 8 apiece. Bolfast Presbvtery is two and a-half times larger than tho noxt largest Presbytery, and sixteen times larger than the smallest Presbytery 111 the Church, and yet it lias 18 representatives on the rilling lxxly for each one who represents another Presbytery. Tho matter is the dominant topie just now in Irish Presbyterian circles.

Speaking in Convocation, the Bishop of Bath ajid Wells mentioned that a. largo number of people ha<l asked him what he proposed to do with Glastonbury Abbev whon it became the absolute property o"f tho Church. Ho had already suggested, ho said, that a committco of the Archbishop of Canterbury and other bishops should b formed into a body of trustees, but he could not say what use Iho Church might desire to make of tho,.abbey. Ho was sure, however, that it would be used for tho general good, and would not interfere with any existing institution, of tho Church. With regard to the raising of tho purchase money, ho foresaw the probability of the formation of something in tho nature of a shilling fund, a 6 he was anxious to get tlio remaining £14,000 paid as rapidly as possible, in order to prevent the accruing of interest.

Religious zeal of a certain typo readied its climax the other day when a number of enthusiasts placarded and painted Pike's Peak, the most prominent feature m the mountain scenery of Colorado, witTi Biblical mottoes. It is reported that by tho side of.the whole length of the railway from Colorado Springs may now bo seen a series of texts decorating the successive crags. The polico of tho district are attempting to discover • ilio offenders. Meanwhile, a Now York paper offers the consolation that the case might have been worso. "Ifglaring signs," it ea.ve, "cannot 1m banished from tlio sanctuaries of Nature, wo would far rather bo adjured lo make a choice between two alternatives in oternity than to use somo special brand of collar-button or give up drinking coffee."

THE IDEAL BISHOP.

TRENCHANT CRITICISM BY A VICAR.

The Rev. W. Manning, vicar of St. Andrew's. Leytonstono, apd lion, secretary of tho Churchmen's Union, delivered a remarkable criticism of the episcopacy from his pulpit on a recent Sunday evening. • Proaching in support of the Bishop of St. Alban's appeal for funds for tho establishment of a now dioccso comprising tho County of E®ex, ho said: "In our ago tho bishops liavo fallen on evil days. Sawnod upon by clergy who desiro preferment, surrounded by ecclesiastics who are ''llicials, adored by very 'churchy' laymen and laywomon, tlioy arc out of favour with tho mass of tho people. Their adherence to a quaint style of drcs? is of iteelf a ground for suspicion that they aro out of "sympathy with tie life of * tho age. Their almost unvaried alliance with one political in tho State has given tho democracy somo ground for doubtinp tho oft-proclaimed comprehensiveness of tho National Churoh. Their largo incomes, have been a not quite unjustifiable cuuso of dissatisfaction, and business men have doubted tho statement that theso large incomes are used for the administration rather than for tho private puree, of the bishop, because no account has been published of tho funds thus administered. "Tho rough sense of justice of the English peoplo is undoubtedly sound when it hoars, not without indignation, of 1139 livings with an average stipend of £67 and of bishops with stipends never lower than £3000. Theso things require readjustment, and a committee of clear-lvaded, just business men would put tho matter right in six weeks."

The vicar declared that the bishop of the diocese ought to occupy towards his clergy tho relationship which a great headmaster bears to, his asistant-masters; to be to his clergy what Arnold was to the masters at Rugby; to consider tho thousand clcrgy as his parishioners, for whose spiritual welfare ho is responsible. This conception of the episcopal ofiice would, he believed, have certain assured beneficial results. It would givo the clcrgy tho help of an officer commissioned witji statutory parliamentary power to seo to their interests and to set right 6«ch anomalies as the present iniquitous system of patronage and tho scandal of starving curates. "The only justification for tho presence of bishops in tho House of Lords," he continued "is that they may look after tho interests of the Ohurch. But no bill has yet been brought in by the episcopal bench to reform tho patronage or to remove tho scandal. The conception of the office which I suggest would establish human relationships between tho clcrgy and their, bishops, who now know nothing of their clergy excepting tho rumours of diocesan gossip. What human relationship can be established between the bishop and the clcrgy whon tho bishop most frequently drives from the station to tho church on the rare occasion of his visit, and has a carriage at the church door after the service, and when tho only means of conveying any ininrcesion of tho work and condition of a parish is tho dry bones of statistical returns? The junior clerk sees more of the senior partner than a clergyman docs of his bishop. Some personal relationship between bishop and clergy would do more to increase Church life than all the meetings in duchess's drawing roqms and committees in London that were ever held. We want moro bishops that the bishops-mny do their duty."