SUNDAY CIRCLE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14281, 1 August 1908, Page 4

SUNDAY CIRCLE.

The red dawn gives signal to arm for tho fight. The trumpets of heaven cill; And blest though they be who win through to the night, More blest- shall they bo who fall! Wiith swords, red with blood—if tied shall deem rightThrough the hosts who o'ercame and are walking in white, They shall go their swift, way to the springs of the Light' (For them tho best dawning of all!) Now all may begone, who are counting tho foe, Looking back for the way of retreat'! Not for you comes the joy in the morning's _glov.\ ... No music will stir your feet. Te shall see many dawns! But. ye shall not know < When the light is gone and the tide is low, The cheers' that are heard by the warriors who go With the foe (or with God) to meet, —E. Shillito. SumicATiox. 0 Lord, look upon us as men who want to be better, who take a step forward and then fall back again; who rise up to praise God, and fall down in the cct of doing so; Thou knowest, which, is upper- j most, the feeling that wants to bo right l or the failing that tends towards evil. Thou art a kind and merciful judge-, Thou art' righteous, and yet there are tears in Thine I eyes; Thou dost pronounce woe after'woe upon those who are Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, yet, at the end Thino hesrt breaks in ineffable pathos, for Thou wouklst have gathered the. city that slew the Son of God. Help us to believe in our better solves; may we never blow out the lamp of our hope; may we never despair of the fruition of our faith. Amen. Meditation. NO TIMS TO TRAY. There is many a business man to-day who will tell you he has no time to pray; his business is so pressing that he cannot call his family around him and ask Cod to bless them. He is so busy that he cannot ask God to bless them. He is so busy that ho cannot ask Cod to keep him and them from the temptations of every day. " Business is so pressing." lam reminded of the words of an old Methodist minister.

" If you Jiiive so much business to 'attend to that, ycu have no time to pray, depend upon it you have more business ou hand than God* ever intended you should have." But look at Daniel. He had the whole, or nearly the whole, of the lung's business to attend to, He was Prime Minister, iHacrctary of State, and Secretary of the Treasury all in one. He had to attend to all his own work, and Io give an eye. to the work of lots of other men, and yet he found time to pray; not just now and then, nor one? in a while, not just wh?n he happened to have a few moments to spare, .but " three times a day."—D. L. Moody, Exhortation, the human voice. No invention of man can compare with the human voice, the only perfect, instrument, made by tho Master Hand, and given to man as a holy trust! Since everything that hath breath is commanded to praise the Lord, shall we who possess these God-given voices refuse to employ them in the service of our Creator and Redeemer, and wilfully neglect to train them for the • sacred ministry of song? Let, then, this divine aro receive proper appreciation; let us feel the obligation to train our voices, and fit ourselves to unite in this most delightful part of divine worship. Song is a companion and a delight for those who culticate this, delightful part of divine worship. Somg is a companion and a delight for those who cultivate this noble faculty. To sing! It is to live, to enjoy life, to be a world within yourself! Every/ shade of grief or gladness finds in song its most perfect utterance, The voice can paint in tones as tho brush can in i colours.—Dr Clayton A. Smucker. ABOUT PEOPLE. General Boolh had to ask to be allowed to decline the King's invitation to the garden party, as his motor campaign opened on the same day. The Rev. Dr Gibb, of St. John's Church, Wellington, one of the leading preachers in the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand, who (remarks the Scottish Bovicw of June 18) is at present on a visit to Scotland, officiated at. tho service in tho West United Free Church, Kent road, Glasgow, on Sunday evening. Commissioner Booth-Tucker, ' the exIndian judge, Ccneral Booth's son-in-law, And at present in charge of the Salvation Army's forces in India, has, to a large extent, solved the famine problem in many of the stricken districts of India. By the introduction of the cassava plant—from which -our tapioca is obtained—be has induced the natives to provide an alternative crop to their rice, and by cultivating the children's taste lias shown the Government officials the possibility of fighting famine by means of a plentiful supply of tapioca! The cassava plant defies drought, and will flourish anywhere in India up to a level of 4000 ft. i Dr M'Crie, of Ayr, the ex-Mcderator of the General Assembly of the. United Free Church, took farewell of his congregation in the Ayr West Church on a recent Sunday. Dr M'Crie is retiring from the ministry after 46 years' service, 31 of which have been spent in this charge. In a parting word he urged his congregation to bo earnest, helpful, generous Christians, with the heart to feel, the head to plan, the open hand to give, the willing arm io work for Christ and tho world. _ Dr M'Crie is to take up his rcsidemse in Edinburgh. Dr George F. Pentecost has been taking part, at Kansas in the General Assembly of the American Presbyterian Church. He began the sermon he preached on Sunday morning by saying that 51 years ago he arrived in Kansas City with' 25 cents in his poekel. His first job was soiling type on the Kansas City Journal, and his next was driving a dump-cart used in grading one of the streets. He had not seen Kansas since that visit, and was surprised at the wonderful city that had sprung up since that, time. The great disappointment of the PanAnglican Congress was the absence of Bishop Gore, the foremost intellectual figure in the Anglican world. Ho was laid aside by one of those sudden illnesses which have attacked him several times during recent years, and which the ordinary newspaper reader can account for as Weil as the doctors. The truth is that tho Bishop of Birmingham has never taught himself the art of resting. He " goes at" over)' subject with a fiery energy, and keeps oa working until physical prostration overtakes him. T)r Howie, who earned fame during many years' intimate connection with the United Free Church as an amazing statistician, has again tendered his resignation of the convenorship of the Church Extension Committee. He tendered his resignation a year ago, but was reappointed in hie absence. In his letter to the Presbytery he shows liow entirely out of sympathy he is with the present policy of the committee in its failure to apply Ihe proceeds from disused buildings to church extension in growing districts. The letter of resignation was written from London, and it is. understood that Dr Howie intends to spend a large part of his time for the future in England. Rev. F. B. Meyer has had an especially warm welcome at Bioomfontein, whore his meetings and conferences filled the Town Hall with interested crowds. His books have for many years lrad large circulations in South Africa, and his writings had prepared the way for the great receptions now being given to the man. Tho Bloemfontein Friend, in an enthusiastic leading article, remark's that the part, which Mr Meyer took in the war must be reckoned a further helping factor. " When his dniit-h door used to bang during sermon time upon withdrawing .lingoes, he can have had little notice of the manner in which his then stand for national righteousness was assuring the success of his present mission and enabling him indirectly to become an agent ot reconciliation between sundered peoples." The Friend adds that -Mr Meyer stands "quite remote from, the accepted type of cypgelislj"- ■ '~

RELIGIOUS BEADING FOR THE HOME*

Canon Barnctl's name inevitably suggests all that is sanest and most effective in modern social_ reform. A personal study of his career in Social Service, (lie organ of the Christian Social Son-ice Union, shows how ,his lifa has developed since ho settled, 35 years ago. in Whitecliapel. "We came to East. London," ho says of himself and his equally enthusiastic wife, "attracted by its poverty and anxious to fight, it in its strongest, fortress." Mr 6 Bamett inaugurated the Children's Country Holiday Movement 30 years ago. and in 18S5 Mr Barnett founded a. Christian fortress in Toyubee Hall, named after the young Oxford don whose fiery enthusiasm had consumed his life at. the. age of 31. Then lie starred (lie froo library, and has not censed work ever since. A hundred causes owe their origin br most effectual support to Canon or Mrs Barnett, his principle being that- "self-giving must pre cede money-giving." Ho has followed Professor Jowett's early advice. "As for religious difference.;,' ignore them." The secret, of his power was suggested by a young Oxonian, who said \>t him: "Barnett always makes you do things; lie always makes you think."

Bishop Fyson, of Hokkaido, in the north of Japan, has had a very interesting incident to relate in connection with one of Jus confirmations. He noticed that one of the men-a Japanese-sat with one leg straight out before him, and he learned afterwards that it was an artificial limb. The man's story was a remarkable one. Ho bad been in the .Kusso-Japancsc war, and was shot in the leg. As lie laywounded, the Russians came round, and he expected to be killed. One Russian soldier searched his pockets, and finding a little silver cross, asked him whether ho was a Christian, when he, to save his life, answered "Yes," whereupon tho Russian wrapped (he cross up reverently ami handed it back, took up his rifle and passed on. The cross had been given to the man by ia comrade who had taken two or three 'from the Russian dead, and he was going to lake it back to Japaji as a trophy. * But he was so struck with tho fact that the. cross had practically saved his life that ho determined to learn about the religion of the Cross, and ultimately bceajao a beliovar.

The Rev. Paul B. Bull, naval chaplain, Dcvonport Naval Barracks, has had a mest pleasing reminiscence of tho late Sir Rcdvcrs Buller to relate. The late general's •deep religious convictions were .well known, and he always felt a special interest in tho moral and spiritual wcii'aro of boys. Mr Bull onco wrote to ask for advice in the management, of hoys in connection with tho Church Lads' .Brigade. Sir Redvers answered, strongly recommending that the boys should learn the fifteenth Psalm cud try ami live aip to it. It is the Psalm which Jells of the "presence of God." "This," said the General, "is, what wc hope to attain to,, and wo are promised that Gcd will show us th o way. . . , God, truly ajid huns'bly sought, docs help ami does load." The nifteeiith Psalm was the favourite of Sir Redvers;' it occurs amongst the Pea.hm for the third morning of the month; it was therefore be;:;g read in thousands of churches when his soul was passing away,! All who admired and loved the late Gejiera.l will pray that Iris hope of realising "the fulness of joy in the presence of God" is now being" enjoyed. Mr Joseph TJibby, oilcake maker and preacher,_js the subject of the "character sketch" in the Juno Review of lie-views, li.r Bibby is a successful-manufacturer, who combines business with tho advocacy of a new evangel, compounded of Christian and Buddhist ideals. Bi'bby's Animal, a magazine in which articles on agriculture stand side by side with papers on theoeaphy, is, says the writer, quite a triumph of magazine production. Mr Bibby explains his success in business by tho supposition that in a former incarnation he was a business man, and the efforts lie then put out developed his faculties so that when he. starwd his present life he "rook id business'tike a duck to water," The gospel that this spurts energetic man of 57 preaches with sueli enthusiasm differs only in part from the old -Methodist gospel, with which ho still claims connection. The outstanding point is his assertion that wo are already living the eternal life, and thai, we shall no;, receive any greater justice in any other world than we are getting to-day, for e\ery moment of our.lives wo are entering upon th-a just reward of our own past, and sowing tho seed of our fui.ure happiness or jniscry. The great ideal is to get rid of Self; that was "tho Lord Buddha's" remedy, and Mr Bibby compares it with Christ's' "'Whosoever will lose his life shaltsave it." ,- PRIMITIVE METHODISTS. NEW PRESIDENT ON .THE SPIRITUAL OUTLOOK. « , Rev. J. Pickett, the new president of the Primitive .'Methodists, in his presidential address to the annual conference, which was opened in Wesley's Chapel, City road, London, admitted mat there were signs in all their churches and outside their churches which" were not exhilarating- ' Statistics, he said, were not infallible, especially used as expositors, of moral and spiritual movements, but they were worthy of attention. 1 The great Wesleyan Mctlrcdist Church, from which they had drawn .to much in slatc-manship and inspiration, reported a decrease in membershii) of 7016. -The great Oalvinistio Methodist Church, whioh was almost as large as their own numerically, reported a decrease; for the first time, of 600 members. The groat Presbyterian Church was safe, but only just safe, having added to iis members by 19. The Congregational Cluirch, one of- the most influential in the Empire, showed an incr«i?o of 37 only, while their own Church could report an ijici-ca.se only of 531 -members. Accompanied by this, there were large decreases in the number of teachers and scholars in their soliocls. This gave room not for depression, but for humiliation. They were all Socialists now, lmt it should lx> their oare not to ho secularised by Socialism, but to evangelise it. "ORIENT IN LONDON." Mil CHURCHILL OPENS GREAT MISSIONARY EXHIBITION. '•The Orient in London," the great missionary exhibition in.the Agricultural Hull, Islington, was formally opened to the" public by Mr Winston Churchill. A very picturesque scene was presented in the great hall by the majiy- ( oloured Oriental robes worn by tho missionaries and their attendants. Sir Albeit Spicer, M.P., who presided, was accompanied by « largo gathering of clerical and lay supporters of t.ho exhibition, representative of many denominations. GOVERNMENT AND MISSION*"" WORK. Mr Churchill, declaring the exhibition open, offered his congratulations to the organisers. The attitude of the Archbishop of Canterbury, he said, was another example of the increasing tendency among tho Protestant churches to dwell upon the inclinable treasures which they'possessed, rather than upon those points of difference and divergence which had arisen out of the misapprehensions, misunderstandings, mistakes, and miseries of the past.. There was a time when official authority looked coldly and critically upon missionary enterprise; but speaking, as he could, as one who had been closely concorned in the adininistratjcai of our Colonial Empire for two and a-half. years, he could say that the relations' between Governors and officials of British possessions and missionaries who were working in their midst were improving every year, and that they had never been better than they were today. ' THE GLORY OP THE BRITISH . PEOPLE. The material services which missionary enterprise rendered were great, but the moral services wero much greater. It was argued that charity should begin at home, but nothing was more important in this social age than to cultivate and develop disinterested labour and work on the part of individuals and classes. No lasting treasures would bo secured by any purely selfcentred movements, however grave 'might be the need whicli~promptcd it, however ltarsh might be the conditions which impelled it. Dcmocrar'y must not be selfcentred. His countrymen must not tliink always of theimelves; they must always have room in their hearts for causes; superior to anything that concerned themselves. It had long been the glory of the British people—oven the very poorest among them —that they had always possessed the faculty of enthusiasm for things which did not affect their daily, lives at all.