THE SUNDAY CIRCLE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17823, 3 January 1920, Page 5

THE SUNDAY CIRCLE.

BELIGIOUS BEADING FOR THE HOME. A RULE OF LIFE. Lord, let me make this rule To think of life as school, And try my best To stand the test, And do my work, And nothing shirk. If weary with my book I oast, a wistful look Where posies grow, 0 let me know That flowers within Are best to win. These lessons Thou dost give To teach me how to live, To do, to bear, To get and share, To work ancj play, And trust alway. Some day the bell will sound, Some day my heart will bound, As with a shout That school is out, And lessons done, 1 homeWard run. Maltbie Baboock. PRAYER. O Lord, help, all Christian people and churches to be faithful to their great function, and bless all those who at home and abroad are working for God and man. Bo near us that we, too, may take our share in the great task which fills the ages and occupies the hands and the heart of tho Redeemer j and that we, too, in our little corners, and according to our poor gifts and powers,, may try to make men better and to spread Christ's name, and all the blessings of His salvation, throughout tho world. Hear us, we pray, receive and accept us with these our petitions, in Thy £reat mercy. Through Jesus Christ our ord. Amen.

THE SPRINGS OF TEARS. " Rivers ol water run down mine eves because they keep not Thy law."—Psalm cxii, 136. Here is a man before whoso eyes the law of the Lord is blazing in incomparable splendour. In this wonderful Psalm, in all its windings of thought and adoration, the law of God is shining in every verse. And just because the law of God was continually shining before him, he was painfully awake to the presence of lawlessness. That is one of the divine ordinances of life. Refinement in one direction implies a corresponding exquisiteness in another. To be very sensitive to harmony involves an equal sensitiveness to discord. To bo alert to the beautiful is also to be startled by the ugly. The great artist has to wear a crown of thorns. To respond to the noble means that one sickens at the shameful. If I glory in the law of the Lord I must necessarily be deeply troubled when the law is broken. This is the. order of life. Fine chords have a two-fold responsiveness: they are the ministers of joy and. they are the ministers of pain. To enter into the joy of the Lord is, in some degree, to enter into the sorrows of Gethsemane. To know the power of Christ's resurrection we ore obliged to share the fellowship of His sufferings. There are light and dark sides to the same shield. Morning and evening make the one day. And therefore I am not surprised that the Psalmist, whose soul is so sensitive to the law of tie Lord, who delights in that law, and meditates upon-it day and night, should weep when he looks round upon the lawlessness of men. And, therefore, "O for a closer walk with God!" That is the preparation for a more vitally human communion. All our spring's are m Him, even the springs of our tears. Our power to weep, with a Crusader's pity, belongs to the manifold porter of the Hoty Spirit. It is only by seeking a rarer spiritual refinement and a more appreciative realisation of the Lord that our' senses will be awake to the sins and sorrows of the world for which He died.—Dr T. H. Jowett.

MR BRYAN CALLS ON THE CHURCHES. In the Commoner William Jennings Bryan prints, an impassioned appeal to the churches of America to devote their religious authority and their social power to mediating between Labour and Capital in the present aggravation of industrial unrest. Mr Bryan's religious earnestness always imparts a powerful intensity to what he says in the fieldof applied Christianity; in this case exceptional force bears witness to unusual feeling. He writes: "Capital and Labour must be brought together. Is there any other basis than the spirit of brotherhood on which to restore harmony? Is not the golden rule the only rule that can be applied with success?-Can the churches neglect this great opportunity •— this great duty? Please reread your commission (Matthew xxviii, 18-20). You are ambassadors of One who has all power; you are sent to all people; you are to teach all he has commanded; he will bo with you always. Can you ask for more or higher authority?" For practical measures in this direction Mr Bryan urges first more preaching of brotherly love from the pulpit, more talking of it in man-to-man conversation, more practice of it in the living of ' Christians. After that he proposes a general movement of Christian citizenship to induce Congress to pass a law creating "a machinery for peace" in industry on the same general

principles that the League of Nations contemplates for the keeping of international peace. Mr Bryan would not forbid strikes, but he would make it a federal crime for a Labour union to call a strike before official conciliators have a chance to investigate the grievance and make a public report on it.

A BIBLE PRESENTED TO THE SHAH. During his visit to London the Chan of Persia granted a personal audience at the Persian Legation to the Rev. Dr J. H. Rit6on, one of the secretaries of the British and Foreign Bible Society, who presented his Majesty, on behalf of the committee, with a magnificent copy of the Bible in Persian. The volume was splendidly bound in scarlet morocco, and stamped on the cover with the royal emblems of Persia. His Majesty accepted the srift with evident pleasure, and' examined the Bible with special care, making: a suitable reply, vhich was translated by his secretary. The Bonk itself, which is one of the soeietv's editions, contains the latest revision of the Persian text: the New Testament beimr based upon He»rv Mwtyn's translation, first mi Wished in 1815, n.nd'the Old Testament beinnr the version prepared by the lote Canon Brace, a veteran C.M.S.* missionarv in Persia. The sociotv his issued 420.C00 copies of the Persian Bible, or some part thereof. COMMUNITY SERVICE ON NEW PLAN. That famous Presbyterian sociologist, Charles Stelzle, has found in Cincinnati a fresh sort of Christian experiment ; n "reaching tho masses" which he likes immensely and is commending to other cities. A report giving more of the working details ia in preparation, and doubtless attempts at imitation should await that more complete diagraming of just what has been done and how. The bos© of the plan, however, consists in a close co-operative alliance—almost an organic union—which was formed more than two years ago to combine tho efforts of all Protestant churches in the Mohawk-Brighton district of Cincinnati—a territory of workiugmon's homes with a largo proportion of foreign speaking families. The organisation is styled the "Cincinnati Social Unit" and its executive council i 3 composed of tho ministers of the constituent, churches. But they agree in counting nothing of community interest alien to the churches, and so they have drawn around thorn co-operating bodies of laymen, chosen from professional, business, and labour groups, to handle matters commonly called secular. These various forces have worked out, following the plans of successful politicians, an organisation represented by a key ' man in every city block within the whole district, and through these committeemen they are able to reach 100 per cent, of the populace with any community idea that they wish to propagate. The churches involved arc doing their special religious work on a single programme and with what amounts to one consolidated force of workers. Each congregation is stimulated by the example of its neighbours and by the sense of common concern with all the rest. Some that have been drawn into intimate working relation by their mutual enterprises now propose to combine permanently in a single church home. One of the pastors engaged in the undertaking declares that the whole community is being Christianised by the realisation that the churches have nothing at heart save the benefit of tho whole community. As a practical answer to the universal demand for the churches to get together, the Cincinnati plan deserves study from all angles. NEWS ITEMS. An old-time minister is quoted as saying: "It is a fearful thing to preach nonsense in the name of tho Lord." The Presbyterian Church in Canada is pushing a "forward movement" with tho motto: "Forward! In Congregational Lifo! in Missions!- in Community Service I"