THE SUNDAY CIRCLE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18353, 17 September 1921, Page 5

THE SUNDAY CIRCLE.

RELIGIOUS READING FOR THE HOME. FAITH. I don’t understand the hills, Or the bounding soa. Or the laughing ■ mountain rills— How they came to bo. In don’t understand tho sun, Or tho twinkling star — How they over were begun, But I know they are. So with faith —its mysteries I can’t analyse. Holding certain verities Too deep for my eyes; But I know this heart of mine Rises from despair Into joy and peace divine, Knowing they are there. —John Kendrick Bangs. A PRAYER. Righteous art Thou, 0 Lord, and upright are Thy judgments. Ihy righteousness and Thy law is truth. Give us understanding according to Thy word. Write Thy law upon our hearts. Grant us the blessedness of those that hunger and thirst after righteousness. Wo arc commanded through Thine only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to bo perfect even as Thou art perfect. It is impossible for us in our own strength to obey this high behest. But Thou hast blotted out for us tho word impossible. Nothing is impossible to us with Thee. With Thee all that we ought to be wo can be. With Thee all that wc ought to do wo can do. Send us forth, Lord, with-this conviction so gripping our hearts that our lives may be clothed with righteousness and that men may see our good works and glorify Thee, In Jesus’ name wo ask it. Amen.

SHALL THE UNITED STATES JOIN WITH GREAT BRITAIN AND JAPAN FOR DISARMAMENT.

A groat question awaits the United States as a nation. Do we favour a universal disarmament or shall Wo continue to build new engines of destruction in the shape of ships of war and be ready for another bloody conflict? Is it not a notorious fact that cannot bo denied that tho three great nations that, fought side by side in the war that ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles are sinking under a tremendous debt, and these nations will have to submit to enormous taxes for a generation yet to come, and perhaps longer. Knowing these facts to be true, some of our antediluvian statesmen in Congress are bent on spending millions of dollars on a new navy that in 10 years will only bo fit for the junk heap. Tho foolish arguments in favour of a big navy arc, the United States must have a bigger navy than Great Britain; Japan is our enemy; we can pay tho bill, as wo, are tho richest country „in the world. What an awful crime to try to waste money on an invincible navy and munitions of war while millions of our fellow being are dying of hunger in China and tho Near East ? What do tho churches of America say about disarmament? I think' if this matter was submitted to the churches of America, they would favour disarmament and a 10-year holiday, in which not a war kcol bo laid.—• John J. Munro, D.D., in tho Presbyterian of Philidclphia. THE HOME OP LOST CAUSES. A well-known Scottish delegate to tho Pan-Presbyterian Council has just sent to a friend in the Old Country nn account of a visit to Princeton Theological College. New Jersey, Judging by photographs, the college, from tho architectural point of view, seems to be a magnificent’ affair, the Madison Hall being a wonderful effort to recapture the secret and reproduce the charm of the Gothic. But frojja tho theological point of view tho visitor’s estimate of tho college is far from favourable. Indeed, he applies to it the famous words in which Matthew Arnold onco characterised Oxford—“tho homo of lost causes.” His point is that the Princeton School, the school of Hodge and his disciples, has so persistently maintained its high orthodoxy that it has lost touch with the thinking of tho new generation. But, taking a more general view, it is undoubtedly the fact that up till, say, 20 years ago the theological standpoint in America was much more conservative than was the case in this country. It was only during the 10 or 15 years before the war, when Gorman theological influence became strong in America, that in the newer colleges work of a really critical nature began to bo done. Amid the rising tide of criticism Princeton stood like a rock, its representative men contesting every view that seemed to impinge on the established position. If it cannot bo said of Princeton that she “whispers from her towers the last enchantments of the Middle Ages,” it must ho admitted that within her precincts wo shall catch echoes of tho stern and unbending Calvinism which meant so much to America in bygone days. DEATH OF DR SCOFIELD. The Rev. Dr Cyrus Ingerson Scofield, of tho American Southern Presbyterian Church, editor of the Scofield Reference Bible, died on July 24, of a general breakdown, at his homo in Douglaston. Long island. Ho was born in Michigan 78 years ago. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1869. Ho served a term in the Kansas Legislature, and for a time was United States Attorney for that State. He fought under Leo in tho Confederate Army during tho American Civil War. In 1879 he was converted to tho Christian religion, and three years later was ordained to the ministry. From then to 1895 ho was pastor of the First Church, Dallas, Texas, leaving to take charge of tho Moody Church at Northlield. Dr Scofield returned to Dallas again for four years, retiring in 1909. Ho lectured extensively in Europe and America. His many writings on religious subjects included “The Doctrine of tho Holy Spirit”' and “Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth.” He was tho founder and secretary of tho Central American Mission. NEWS ITEMS. Open-air meetings conducted on busy corners by representatives of the Laymen’s Evangelistic Union of Detroit Council of Churches are reaching about 10,000 people each week. About 20 meetings are held each week in tho various parks. The noon meetings in Grand Circus Park are particularly well attended. 'Hundreds of copies of tho Gosp’el according to John are given away at each meeting. The “Billy Sunday camp meeting” at Winona Lake, Ind., July 21-24, was closed with three meetings led by Dr Sunday, at which there wore more than 600 “trail hitters.” Tho capacity of tho largo tabernacle was taxed at all the meetings. Collections up to the last day had amounted to little more than 2000 dollars, when Dr Sunday announced that ho and Mrs Sunday would give dollar for dollar in the collection. The result was that more than 6000 dollars were given tho last day.' Thus the tabernacle fund was enriched by mope than 8000 dollars.

The Evangelistic Committee of New York City (Dr Arthur J. Smith secretary), which is conducting outdoor and tent work this summer, reports that one-twelfth of tho population of the United States is included in a circle within a radius of 20 miles of Times Square a total of 0,500,000 persons. If the Jews in New York City should establish a city by themselves, it would bo tho largest Jewish city in the world, and would equal tho population of Philadelphia. Tile negro population of New York is greater than that of any other city in tho world. If every American whose parents wore born in the United States should leave Now York, it would still bo the second largest city on earth. More than half the children have no systematic religious instruction whatever. A largo part of the Evangelistic Committee’s work is for children and young people An American woman elder in a Japanese Presbyterian Church seems almost an anomaly. Yet Miss A. Caroline Macdonald, of London, Ont.. has recently been elected to that position in the Fugirnicho Church of Christ, in Tokyo, the largest Presbyterian church in Japan. At the time of her election to the eldership, seven other women, all Japanese, were also elected elders, along with 16 men. The pastor is the well-known Japanese preacher, Mr Ueinura. Miss Macdonald, who is the only foreign member of the Fugirnicho Church, was national secretary of the Y.W.C.A. in Japan for nearly 15 years, hut is now working as an independent missionary among prisoners. She is supported in part by the .Foreign Mission Board of the Canadian Presbyterian Church.

Fifteen preachers in Philadelphia recently united in a women’s dross reform movement. To put their ideas of female propriety into concrete form they designed a model dress which (hey thought mot all the requirements of taste anti modesty. The result might have been forecast by a better knowledge of female human nature. The dress was submitted to 15 representative women in as many walks of life, and to the surprise and chagrin cf the preachers only four of tho women gave it.the least word of approval. Even tho wives of the minister’s themselves expressed their disapproval.