THE SUNDAY CIRCLE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18802, 3 March 1923, Page 18

THE SUNDAY CIRCLE

RELIGIOUS READING FOR THE HOME. HUMILITY. My little taper of desire 1 fain would light at thy groat fire; And whore tho grandier flames are wrought. Oh, kindly Sayiour, quench it not. My little ciro of faith I bring To fill at ttie eternal spring; With many vessels lifted up — Oh 1 Josus. take this little cup. A PRAYER. O God, our Heavenly Father, who in Thine infinite love and mercy didst send Jesus to seek anil to save us lost men and women, grant that wo may bo filled with His gentle spirit of loving kindness. Make us burden bearers with Him in lifting the world’s great load of guilt and woe. Send us forth oven us Thou didat send Him to work the works of love and righteousness. Save us from spiritual pride and arrogance. When wo are tempted to deal harshly with our brother’s faults, turn our eyes to the Cross that we may remember what Thou host suffered on our behalf. As we meet our fellows may we over remember that they, like us, are men for whom Christ died. And may we glorify Thy Holy Name through lives of loving patience and kindly service toward our follow men. We ask these things with the forgiveness of our sins in Jesus’ Name. Amen. DEATH OF PROFESSOR COOPER. AN EMINENT SCOTTISH CHURCHMAN. "In the death of the Very Rev. James Cooper, D.D., D.Litt., D.C.L., EmeritusProfessor of Church History in tho University of Glasgow, there had passed away an eminent Scottish Churchman who was one of the most widely known outside his own Church and his own country. Loyal and patriotic Scot as ho was, Dr Cooper had sympathies and affinities with England and the English Church which made him a peculiarly interesting figure on both sides of the Border. He was in many ways unique. We havo had no one quite like him in our recent ecclesiastical history, and ho has left no successor of the same type. Dr Cooper was 76. but when ho recently retired from the duties of his professorship and removed to Elgin it was hoped that he might still have years of leisure to follow, in the quiet seclusion of his native place, the many congenial pursuits on which his heart yras set. Unfortunately, that hope has not been realised, and the autobiography on which he was engaged has been left unfinished. Tho career of Dr Cooper was one of the most striking in the Scottish Church of his time. From being in his earlier years the object of a sort of heresy hunt, he ultimately rose to the Moderators!!ip of the General Assembly and to a position of universal confidence and good-will. This was not because ho ever modified his views, or even because they came to be generally accepted. It was rather due to tho Impression made by tho man himself, by .lie transparency of his character, and tho singular devotion of his service. It was during his ministry in Aberdeen that Dr Cooper first revealed his power and proved his mettle. He had succeeded to tho pulpit formerly adorned by men like Professor Flint and Principal Marshall Long, and before he had been very long in the charge 11 of his elders petitioned the Presbytery against him because of his alleged High Church tendencies. The petition was unsuccessful, and Dr Cooper went on his way and, in course of time, by the sheer power of his consecrated personality he won the hearts even of those who could not endorse all his i’iev/8. It was characteristic of the man thai he insisted on living in tho very heart of the East End in order to be among tho people of the parish. IDEAS AND IDEALS. THE NATION BANKRUPT IN NEITHER. Reviewing the past year and endeavoring to estimate the possibilities of the future, Canon Barnes, in Westminster Abbey on a recent Sunday afternoon, said that among ourselves there was a large and continuous output of books dealing with political social, economic, and religious ideals, in which there was creative, constructive thought, and suoh thought, when tested and strengthened, would enter into tho life of the nation. Reflecting upon tho quantity and quality of such literature wo need not fear that we were at the end of our resources. By ideas and ideals men live, and •wo were bankrupt of neither. When now knowledge changed our outlook upon the world, Canon Barnes continued, the way in which we reasoned about our beliefs —our theology—must change. Even before English modernism had become an object of suspicion to churchgoers, the intellectual appeal of our religion had been gravely weakened. In 1906 Professor Peake—both a theologian of eminence and an acute religious observer —deplored the widespread breakdown of belief. _ In point of fact, the science and scholarship of the 19th century had made some of the old theology seem incredible to educated people, and reconstruction had become imperative. These who were loosely called “Modernists” were lundertalcing this urgently necessary work and wore, it seemed to him, preparing the way for a religions revival in the future. He believed that from their work within a generation, a new enthusiastic confidence in Christianity would arise. The essentials ol faith in Christ would not change, but wo should be rid of theological old clothes which had too long dimmed the splendour of our Lord’s message. SUNDAY IN AMERICA. The churches of Washington are just now (engaged in a controversy in some respects similar to the recent agitation in London about Sunday games in the parks. With the consent and approval of the local Board of Education, the Washington Music Association has been organising a series of popular Sunday evening concerts —"community sings, they are called—in the fine auditorium, of the Central High School. A protest against tho use of that building for such entertainments has been made to the board by representatives of the Pastors’ Federation and of the Washington Federation of Clinches, who attacked them as a first step toward tho introduction of a Continfntal Sunday. The concerts, it was elated, were not only damaging tho congregations in the churches, but depicting their choirs. On the other hand, tho Assotion pointed out that Sunday night was the only suitable time for such concerts, because it was the only time when families could come together. There wore 300,000 white persons in tho city who attended no church service on Sunday evenings, and the audiences were drawn from the “movies” and the theatres rather than from tho churches. After hearing both sides, the Board of Education has decided to allow the concerts to be continued. A DISCOURSE ON DEACONS. NOT MERE ORGANISERS. At St. James’s Congregational Church, Newcastle, on a recent Sunday morning, Rev. Alfred A. Lee took ns his theme tho sacredness and significance of the office of deacon. To many, he said, the deacons were merely officials of the church, elected to serve as a kind of committee of management, which would get things done. There must be a very much higher ideal than that. The qualifications of a deacon were not those of a mere organiser or business man. For a Congregational Church it was all important that those who led should not only bo useful men. but men of the finest spirit. It did not matter what their worldly possessions were, or what was their influence in society; it did matter supremely that tney should cultivate the mind of Jesus Christ. If deacons were only thought of as managers tho Church would be satisfied to pay its way and keep afloat as a goint concern, with no higher aim than to have” a good balance sheet, so that it ceased to be a church and became an institution. The Church must always aim at. something more than its own existence; it lived to give life. Mr Lee added that in spite of all the cheap gibes, cynical criticisms, satirical references, and mild impeachments levelled against the diaconate, almost without exception, as he had known them, they had been men loyal in friendship, generous in spirit, wise in counsel, giving lavishly of time, sendee, and money. When he thought of the deacons of their Church ho felt tho least that could be said was: I’hov that use the office of a deacon will purchase to themiselves a good degree.