THE SUNDAY CIRCLE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18547, 6 May 1922, Page 5

THE SUNDAY CIRCLE.

RELIGIOUS READING FOR THE HOME. FAITH. Mon buy and sell by faith j the forges: burn, The drays are laden, countless'mill-wheels turn, Great ships are chartered, trains run to and fro; Though Faith directs them all,’ they scarcely know This spirit of the life of every day. Will sne desert them when they seek to pray f A day—a single day—if faith were dead, No field were sown, no oven fired for bread. Faith is the hand-maid in a toiler’s guise Of all the world of workers. To tired eyes' With solace she appears at close of day To lift their • burdens when they seek to pray. —Laura Bell Everett. A PRAYER., Almighty and most merciful God, who through the sorrow and pain of Jesus Christ Thy Son hast wrought out a great and glorious redemption for men, help us to understand ancf appreciate that wonderful gift of Thine, so that our hearts may bo tilled with joy. May wo realise that Thy gift outweighs all the pains and troubles with which we are daily beset. Grant that we may find this help of Thine mightier than all our griefs, and stronger than all our sin. May we enter by Thy grace upon the joy of our Lord, and so walk in gladness ail day long. And when the trials of life are over, may we have an, abundant entrance into. Thine everlasting - joy. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. WOULD -THIS VISIT BE WELCOME? A deputation to Russia is proposed by the American Federal Council of Chinches. It is the feeling of the council’s Administrative Committee that a company of strong evangelical leaders appearing in that grievously stricken land to tell the people that the church of America are thinking of them and praying for them in brotherly love, would leave on the Russian heart a lasting impression from which untold goodwill might derive in future generations. But it is of course understood that such a commission cannot travel to Russia simply to say to the people: “Be ye warmed and filled. ’ The visit ip unthinkable except the hands of the commissioners are loaded with generous gifts. Many Christian congregations have alreadr contributed through the Federal Council to the fund which the American Relief Administration is disbursing for the starving in Russia. Perhaps many of the.va will wish to give again for aid to be sent by the proposed church delegation. And surely many other Christian organisations will' be minded to assist in the fulfilment of so fraternal a thought. The need for medicines -is almost as serious in Russia as the need for food, and if the commision goes it is quite likely that much of the money given for its outfitting will be put into' rfedical supplies. This certainly will be appropriate baggage for a company going forth in the name of the healing Christ. AMERICAN CHURCH STATISTICS. GAIN OF A MILLION IN A YEAR. Of the total population of the United States 96,338,096 persons are connected with some religious organisation.' Of ..this number 45,997,199 are - officially listed as members of sortie church. The Roman Catholics have 17,885,646 members, but their figures represent church population, including all baptised persons, while the_ Pr - testant bodies count only communicants. On the same basis statisticians estimate the Protestant population as 74,795,226. These figures, compiled' by Df, E. 0. Watson, Washington secretary of the Federal Council, of'the Churches 'of Christ in America, show that the churches are steadily overcoming their 'war losses; The gain of the churches’ for the preceding 12 months is well over a million persons. These figures indicate that 2173 persons joined the churches of America daily during the last five years; During the same time three congregations, have, been organised daily, and the average number of persons joining the ministry has been 4i persons per day. The churches of the country last year spent about £100,000,000. As some of the churches, however, did ‘ not include missionary funds raised, and others did not include local congregational expenses, the actual amount is much greater than the figures indicate. PERSONAL PARAGRAPHS. Dr John R. Mott was to be present at the World Student Christian Conference, to be held in Pekin; also at the China .Mission-ary-Conference, to take place at Shanghai. Following the latter gathering a further conference will probably bo arranged l for in Japan in order to take advantage of Dr Mott’s presence in the Far East’ Meanwhile. preparations are-already in hand for a highly important missionary conference, to be held.in the. Near East under Dr Mott’s chairmanship. For ' the last-mentioned gathering Dr Zwemer has gone to Cairo to initiate plans. In a visit to Toronto Professor Hugh Black delivered"' a series of serrnons at Bloor Street Baptist Church dealing with the claims of religion upon the attention of men to-day. The Sunday sermons were delivered 'in a ‘ neighbouring theatre to audiences of from 2500 to .3000 people. One evening Mr Black spoke on “The Possibility of a World Without (War,”- in the course of which he referred to the Washington Conference, and to the fact that “it w;as man’s ability to get together that had made human society possible, and it was that get-together movernent in which lay the only salvation of the race.” At'the same time, he affirmed that -“whatever politicians may do the task of' the Church is essential. It must apply tho principles of Ohristiariity to recurring problems and to the difficulties oLeach age as they arise.” A great crowd filled Holy Trinity, Sloano street, when the Bishop of London preached for the first time since his illness. If. was ,obvious that the Bishop, who .looked well, but who road his carefully prepared sermon very quietly, had teen deeply affected by the , crisis through which he had’passed. He spoke of the uncertainty of life and to the sudden deaths of well-known men. •Cheerfully, however, he turned to great certainties, which he compared wit,h strong guide-posts-on lonely moors guiding the pilgrim homeward through the storm. He spoke cf the cqrtainty of the love of God! Blank Atheism nad- gone out of fashion, even at the street corners and in the public parks. , There was’ a growing' certainty about Christ. Modernist teaching. Though confined to a comparative handful in Ike church, had brought to the front once more the question,, “What think ye of Christ?” With deep .earnestness the Bishop expressed his own convictions, based on the words .of Jesus Himself. Referring to the certainty of the future life, he confessed that he had no belief in “messages front the other side,” and added emphatically, “I ant quite certain that numbers who spend hours of their lives at eeknees would bo more usefully employed in the service of their fellowmen.” NEWS ITEMS. “Those of us who live another decade are likely to witness a growth of public opinion which will make nations more concerned with living.to the fulfilment of God’s high intent than with the agencies of w-ar-faro and destruction,” President Hardihg told the Conference on the Limitation, of Armament when it ended with the signing of five’ treaties. Kansas City, Missouri, has been selected as tho place for tho sixteenth International Sabbath School Convention, which will be held Juno 21 to 27, 1922. This convention meets every four years. The obligation of tho tithe was stressed by tho last Zionist Congress. It declared that “every Zionist is obligated to give the tithe, otherwise he loses the right to hold any office or honorary position with the movement.” One-tenth will be asked, not only from the. income of the individual, but from his'complete capital. Fifteen thousand Hungarian members of tho Hungarian Reformed Church have been received in a body into the Protestant Episcopal Church. TRfeir ministers have consented to re reordained with the stipulation that this does not repudiate their previous ordination. The baptism and confirrtiation of the lay members will riot be questioned by the bishops. The Episcopal leaders are "neatly pleased over this demonstration of their method of churph unity. The, Seventh Day Adventists are said to have greatly 1 profited by the war in the building up of rnembersnio. They bifterly opposed the entrance of the United States into the war, and many united with their church in oVcler To escape the draft. The recent report of fhe denomination announces that its contributions increased from 8,577,050.86 . dollars in 1919 to 11.854.404.23 dollars in 1920—a gain of over 3,000.000 dollars in a single year. The denominational membership is now 185,450. The sale of denominational literature was greater than any previous year. Their per capita of giving was 63.92 dollars. Boston Unitarians have arranged to pay their Sunday school teachers. A training school has been opened to prepare teachers for prospective work. This is part of the groat forward movement ia that church.