SUNDAY CIRCLE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17532, 25 January 1919, Page 5

SUNDAY CIRCLE.

A HYMN OF PEACE, By John Gekenieap Whittier. Sound over all wateie, roaoh out from all lands, Tbe chorus of voices, the clasping of hands; Sing hymns that were eung by the stars ol the morn, Sing eangs of the angele when Jesus was born! With glad jubflaticaie bring lope to the nations; The dark night is ending the dawn has begun: Rise, hope of the agee, arise Kko the sun, All speech flow to music, all hearts beat as one. Sing the bri3al of nations I with chorale of love, Sing out the Tver-voltoro and sing in the dovo, Till the hearts of the peoples keep time hi accord, And the voioe of fho -world is the voice of the Lord! ■Cloep Lands of the nations in. strong grafculatioss: The dark night is ending and dawn Iwm begun,: Rise, hope of the ages, arise like the sun, All speech flow to music, all hearts boat as onei Blow, bugles of battle, the marches of peace; Cast, -nest, north, and eoati. let the long quarrel oeaeo: Sing tbe aong of great joy that the angels began, Sing of gloiy to God and a£ good-will to man , I TTarTrl joining in chorus, tbe heavens bend o'er ual She dark night is eat&ng and dawn has begun: Rise, hope of the ages,- arise like the sun, All speech Sow to music, all hearts beat as onot THE KBIt OP ALL PROGRESS. The key of all progress is faith. Faith meets the Kingdom of God half-way, and creates its ovrn opportunity. Men can because they think they can. Tbey fail because they do not believe hi themselves and in others. There is fio greater r>aradox in the Gospel than #iis: "All things are possible to him that believeth." But, etill more wonderful, is the converse true, as it" was experienced by our Lord Himself. "He could do no mighty work there because .of their 'unbelief." Even the impulses of energy of that Divine life were checked and thwarted and restrained by the atmosphere in which He moved. We live in a world of continual revelation, and our business is to watch. "Watch, therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour -when the Son of Man shall come." He is always speaking, bat it is we who do not always listen. Too often we are blind . and deaf, while all the time in tie beauty of the world, in the secret places of our own hearts aind consciences or in fee ebb and flow of the fortunes of mankind He is revealing Himself. Because He is the Christ He must be perpetually giving His own life to the world. And it is the tragedy of religious history, whether in your life and mine or in the wider affairs of national development, that we have rtjot always faith enough to accept Him. We hare no attitude of expectancy. He comes unto His own—there ia no failure on His part—but His own receive Him not The marriage feast is ready, but the invited guests are-not there. —Canon Alexander. CURRENT QUESTIONS. "A current tendency in popular religion," says Rev. Cyril E. Hudson, in an article so entitled in The Nineteenth Century, is "the growing inclination to those types of religion which appeal to the innate pragmatism of our people, and which seem to guarantee quick and easily verifiable results—in response, it must be added, to the minimum expenditure of spiritual effort." He refers to the exploitation of_ the war by Christian Science and spiritualism, and to the "im- . mense impetus" given to "the cult of Reservation of tbe Blessed Sacrament in the Church of England." Christian Science and Spiritualism seem to "work" to those who want a. religion that makes no real spiritual and moral demand on people seeking some immediate assurance, and who do not concern themselves about stioh matters as sin and redemption, _ and the obligations of the Christian conscience. Much the same applies to reservation of the sacrament. It is something to be seen, and people seeing it experience an emotional impres-, sion. But Mr Hudson is dubious iof such . cheap and easy substitutes for a rooted faith. The impression is likely to bo evanescent. Hβ says:— "Teach him—the man, in the street to whom God seems far away, and prayer an effort to induce a reluctant God to attend to his requirements—that God js an everpresent . and all-loving Father; that sin •is an offence not against law, but against krve; that prayer is the means of keening in : constant .touch with Jesus Christ—teach him these things and see what happens." . . . Anyway, these things have been tried for 19 centuries under all sorts of conditions end have never failed to "work" when tried, and their operation and effects are lasting:. What do our men at the front mean when they say "My number's up" or "It's all your luck" ? H. R. Mackintosh considers this question in a very interesting , article in the Contemporary. He speaks of the deep, satisfying peace felt by a man at the future being taken out of his hands and administered oy some unseen Power., It is not sheer superstition or fataEsm, he thinks, that prompts Tommy's words, but a dim, imperfect consciousness of an overruling and oontroDmg Providence. Dr Mackintosh's analysis of fatalism is clear and helpfuL We speak of Mohammedan fatalism, but that is not accurate, for the Moslem believes afl things are under Allah's rule. Fate, m ancient and modern thought, is blind, unconscioas Force, impeffing all persons and things by_ an inevitable necessity to a doom. It implies that there is no mind, no will—above aB, no love—at the heart of things. On the other hand, God means supreme personal control of the world-and of the individual life; God is the moral law alive (whereas Fate is indifferent to'morality), the Father, of spirits, of each and aIL It ia impossible to believe Dr Mackintosh reasons strongly, that when a mother sacrifices herself in love for her child, or when our men. do Vtheir. heroio deeds: at the front —such as going out into No Man's Land to fetch a comrade's body, in spite of the shells—£ha±. Fate or Chance is behind such incidents. Cromwell and Lincoln are quoted to Illustrate how great leaders of humanity have,ever had a , sense of a guidance not their own, -which sustained and strengthened them. A?very.significant passage from. George Fox's journal is quoted,':, telling bow- the Quaker leader recovered from a . temptation to fatalism, and Dr-Mackintosh'comments: "The secret of escape lies not solely in the conviction of a living , God, bat in ' communion with Hun; , H consists, in one word, in Prayer.". Summing up, he says-feat, broadly speaking, man is as much or as little the creature of Fate as he may ohoose> He may drift, becoming , " the idle _ plaything of environment, or he inay' cast himself on God and by the leap of faith grasp unseen realities that lift him clean out of the. sphere -wiiere Fate seems to rule. ■' '■ S .* NEWS ITEMS. A W"OMATT PEESBTTEBIAIf PKEACHTSR. The-war,.-with its long line of women farmers,- conductors, munition makers, yeomen, and chauffeurs, is responsible also for the first woman Presbyterian preacher in the JJnited States. :The Chemung'Presbytery of New ToTk State 'is the valiant pioneer which emashed , all Presbyterian precedents by .licensing Mrs Lflian H. Chapman to preach. She is .the wife of a Presbyterian minister who is abroad on war work. She was asked by the session to supply his pulpit and did so. The presbytery asked to license' her. and ocyisonted' with, only one dissenting vote. SIB DOT/GLAS HAia AT CHURCH. A Northampton Scot has been describing (says the Northampton. Daily Echo) a Scottish service at the' front attended by Sir. Douglas Haig. The Commander-in-Chief arrived at .-file head of a few officers, making altogether' with the privates a congregation of about 60. The chaplain talked with an accent • reminiscent of Sir J. M. Bar'rie.. " I confess," writes lite- Southampton Scot, " t<^- being-'.more interested .in the great soldier.than in the-sermon. Here is the man whom the lads c xtp there' speak of affectionately as 'Doggie,'; and noty he is taking part with us in this very simple , service, hi this very simple church, I begin ; to understand why. A glimpse of the man who is Jhe directing brain of our army, in this quiet church., on this Sabbath morning, far from all the turmoil, looking, as no does, fall of health, and full of hope, makes me realise .that he is a man who i* in. agreement with the preacher in his claim that the aoarce of our strength 13

OAJOH- Spipm ON SIR A. OONAK ROYXB. t .J? 1 rthur Conan Doylo tefle good destories; lot him stick to his lust," said Canon Simpson, at St. Paul's on a recent Sunday afternoon. Of late he had blnnderedjnto fleJds where he -was nota Wheal be wii .«* biddioit bs t^

RELIGIOUS READING FOR THE HOME.

hate Germans he -was telling us that wo could find strength to face the perplexities of life in calling spirits from the "vasty deep. "In which of these occupations he displays the more ethical stupidity," said the α-uion. "I hardly know. If, he and others assert, it can he demonstrated that the departed can communicate with us through the means which so-called spiritualists employ, then they can, and there's an ond on't. The matter will be established or discredited by the evidence that Is advanced. But to confuse the sort of assurance which can bo gained from a seance with what the Christian means by faith is to ignore all that this majestio term has _ ever conveyed, and to claim for spiritualism fee dignity of a new religion displays an entire misapprehereon of what religion is.