THE SUNDAY CIRCLE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18720, 25 November 1922, Page 18

THE SUNDAY CIRCLE

RELIGIOUS READING FOR THE HOME. LIFE’S HOUR; GLASS. I close my hand upon life— The fickle moments escape Like handfuls of slippery sand From the fingers of children at play. The tighter I clutch, like sand, The faster tho minutes flow. I dare not loosen my hold To see how many be loft For fear I should lose them all. And yet, if I stumble not, Or if Fate unkind forbear To palsy my grip betimes, I know I’ve enough and to spare To weary me quite of tho game. So I lay me down to sleep; Why care how the hour glass runs? God will keep count of the sands. —E. D, Schonberger in tho Christian Century. A PRAYER. 0 God, Almighty and Most Merciful Father, we adore Thee for Thy goodness; we bow in reverence before the majesty of Thy Law; we praise Thee for tho beauty of Thy ways and the faithfulness of Thy love. We marvel at Thy mindfulness of weak and ignorant men and women, forgetful and wayward children. Wo pray Thee to so fill us with tho remembrance of Thy holiness and of Thy love revealed unto us in Christ Jesus that we may set Thee ever before us. Day by day may we call to mind the story of Thy wondrous doings and Thy faithful promises. May the memory of our blessed Lord keep us from evil and guide us info the life eternal. In Jesus name wo ask it. Amen. BISHOP QUAYLE’S NEVERS. Bishop William A. Quaylo has a long fist of “Novers” for preachers, which it may be well to lay to heart. (1) Never scold. (2) count noses in meeting, for that tends to put the emphasis on the wrong place. The important thing is not the number present, but what the preacher does with those who are there. (3) Never say things to evoke a cheer. (4) Never “stew” or work up perspiring enthusiasm. (5). Never fret. (6) Never talk about the size of tho crowd. (7) Never . be nettled when a meeting is disturbed, when persons rise and go out, or when children make noises. (8) Never preach at people, preach to them. (9) Never emphasise points of antagonism between you and your audience; find the points on which you agree with the people. (10) Never grow hysterical or slushy; do not scream at wrongs. (11) Never abuse your members. (12) Never allow a visiting evangelist or preacher in your pulpit to abuse your members. (13) Never combat science. (14) Never bo afraid to tell the truth. (IS) Never give the chief seat in the synagogue to some minor matter. (16) Never use tho editorial “we” in preaching; make the message personal. (17) Never forget to pray for your people by name. Praying is a part of tho preacher’s task. CAN’T LOSE THE ANTI-UNIONIST. To unite all Methodists in England is the object at which numerous leaders of tile Wesleyan Methodist Church are working diligently and carefully (says the Continent). The two bodies with which un/oci would have to be effected in order to bring all English Methodists into one denominntipn are the United Methodist Church (itself a combination of three previous bodies) and the Primitive Methodist Church. Inasmuch as the doctrinal standards of the three denominations axe identical and their governmental differences are merely variations in custom-—sanctified “red tape'’—it might be supposed that everybody would be for union. Especially in the Wesleyan branch, which by 50 per cent. . exceeds the combined numerical strength of tho other two, and which therefore will dominate whatever union is formed, it would be naturally anticipated that every voice would speak for so obviously reasonable a consolidation. But the yirus of denominationalism is subtle, and where there is not superlative grace present to immunise the followers of an old de- ' nominational name, the poison of nntgotherly and unselfish feeling breaks out in amazing epidemic even among tho moat pious. Thus the Wesleyan _ conference of the present summer, meeting at Sheffield to hear the report of its Union Committee, found-itself confronted with papers of protest signed by 800 ministers and 1000 laymen, all of whom, judging the case beforehand, .announced their invincible prejudice against any union movement or any sort whatever. And there were men of supposed light mid leading who on the floor of the conference urged ns a serious objection to the thought of increased Christian unity the intolerable prospect of losing the name of their separate denomination. Fortunately there wore other strong men of broader 'temper at hand to expose the cheapness of such objections, and in the end the conference showed itself amenable tp the. nobler ideal. A resolution condemning the project of union w-as defeated by 349 to 163, and a resolution remitting the question to the local congregations with a request for the expression of their opinion was carried by 464 to 60. Of course, the union will be effected. So good . a move for religion as that cannot be permanently frustrated. The only question is how far short-sighted and small-minded opposition can delay it. , • NEWS ITEMS. The fourteenth annual convention will bo held at Pounamea from Saturday evening, December 23, and until noon of December 28. Tho convention is undenominational, and is conducted on tho lines of the Keswick Convention in the Old Country. The speakers arranged for are the Revs. Beattie, Simpson, and Smith, Air and Mrs Powell, of the China Inland Mission. Tho Rev. C. G. Willcox, of Awatea, will make arrangements for /accommodation. The Y.W.O.A. at Rio do Janeiro, Brazil, is not yet two years old, bub has more than 1000 members, representing 27. nationalities, 19 religious, beliefs, and 57 different occupations. Methodists have xmrehased nearly 50 acres on the summit of one of the highest hills overlooking Rome, and propose to erect there a college for boys, to accommodate 1500 pupils. Religious interest is reported from Belgium, especially in Bible reading. One col* porteur reports selling 3400 Now Testaments in 12 weeks. During June, in one district, 800 New Testaments and 23 Bibles were sold. A congregation in a small town of Ontario recently became vacant by the resignation of its minister. Within a few weeks of declaring the pulpit vacant 60 applications had been received from candidates for a hearing. The. first man who preached on trial was rejected because his >Blll3 were bagged at the knees. It would be interesting to learn the grounds on which others were passed by in the final choice of a minister. One of the latest uses to which the radio is being put is that of giving tho Bible and Biblical instruction to the people. At the radio broadcasting station of the Westinghouse Company in Newark, New Jersey, daily readings are scheduled by P. Whitewell Wilson, author of “The Christ We Forget” and other religious books, and correspondent of tho London Daily News. A sermon is also preached each Sabbath. It is estimated that over 1,000,000 listen to these services. The messages are heard as far west as tho Pacific coast and ICOO miles at sea. Mormon missionaries do not find friendly audiences everywhere. In Edinburgh, Scotland, recently students from the University raided a Mormon meeting, and treated some of the leaders to a coat of tar and feathers. Four .students were arrested. The World’s Student Christian Federation was organised through the efforts of John, R. Mott in 1895. It now includes 2500 organisations, with a membership of 200,000 students ami professors. The Y.M.C.A. in Poland is said to reach 250,000 young men a month, and publishes a paper with the largest circulation of any in "Poland. It employs 60 natives as secretaries. and 600 other native men are working for the association. While ecclesiastical leaders in England are talking about Christian reunion, ecclesiastical leaders in Italy are taking practical steps . towards it. An inter-denominational committee has now published a common hymn book, and all Italian Protestants are agreed in accepting it—the “Innnrio Cristiano.” It contains 330 hymns, the first step towards a united Protestant Church for united Italy. Dr Yen, acting-Primo Minister of tho Chinese Republic, is tho son of a Christian Chinese clergyman and a graduate' of the University of Virginia. He was Chinese minister to Germany at the outbreak of the war, and then went to Denmark, whence he was recalled in 1920 to become Minister oL Foreign Affairs. Among the evidences of a new spirit in Germany is a quarterly magazine very ably edited £>v Dr Seigmund Scbultze in tho interests "of a brotherhood of nations. The last number contains a striking article by Dr Friedrich Ourtius, of Heidleberg, on the part which the Church must take in the reconstruction of the world on a moral basis. ’ In reply to the question at the head of the I’ What can the churches do?” Dr Ourtius says: “The churches cannot carry on a political propaganda; theirs is a

spiritual task. That task is none other than an assertion of the Christian ideal which belongs to a humanity united in its Redeemer’s Name. The universal Church alone is the true Church. In proportion as the various ecclesiastical organisations hold firm to this confession and act in accordance with its tenets, they will bo able to work for international reconciliation in those • circles which are Christian in mind and heart. Bernard Shaw is a firm believer in the necessity of the Church, though his ideas of what, the Church should be are somewhat radical. lie believes that the closing of all the churches -would soon provoke irresistible demand for the re-establishment of the Chinch, which would then start again without the superstitions that make it so impossible to-day. “At present the Church has to make itself cheap in all sorts of ways to induce people to attend its services; the cheaper it makes itself the loss people attend. If the people found themselves without churches and rituals, so many of them would find that they had been deprived of a necessity of life that the want would have to be supplied; and there would .presently bo more churches than ever, and fuller ones. The only people who can do without churches are the simple materialists on the one hand, and on the other those who have no use for institutional worship because their churches are their own souls.”

Life and Work, the organ of the Church of Scotland, speaks with great satisfaction of the changed attitude of the press towardsreligions questions. “There was a time,” says Life and Work, “within living memory, when such topics were met with indifference—and often with mockcrv. The great journals are now understanding and sympathetic. Tiro Saturday articles in Tho Times on matters of religion are as capable intellectually as they are beautiful and helpful spiritually. Our Scottish newspapers, with almost no exception, have taken tho same attitude. A genial jibe is sometimes delivered at tho vagaries of some minister; but religion itself is ’treated respectfully. Any noticeable movement, such as the recent revival in the fishing villages, receives abundant advertisement. The Assemblies are well reported. Leading articles on matters of religious interest often appear. Tho directors of these journals are not blind to the fact that at the back of the mind of the great educated public which they address are serious thoughts which the commercial and agricultural rep oils fail altogether to satisfy.”