THE SUNDAY CIRCLE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18825, 31 March 1923, Page 5

THE SUNDAY CIRCLE

religious reading for the HOME. A RANSOM FOR MANY. He is risen ! He is risen ! Seek ye not among the dead! ill' hath burst Ills hands asunder And liiitb risen as He said; Risen over death victorious, 1 Angels rolled the stono away, I And Me went forth in the brightness I Of the glorious Faster day. I Me is risen! He is risen! Not. within the empty tomb, Bill among the living seek Him. In your hearts prepare Him room; Hasten on your way to meet Him! Haste to bear the living word ! Lo, ho comes in shining raiment’Tis indeed your risen Ford! He is risen ! He is risen ! ('cist aside your doubt and fears. For the light, of resurrection Shall illumine all the years; By His wonderful atonement, He redeemed a world from sin. Thro’ the life He gave in ransom Ye again may live in Him. —A. L. Read. A PRAYFII. 0 Lord Most High, Who art not ihe Rod of the dead hut of the living, we bless and thank Thee for the great persuasion in our hearts and minds that life is ever Lord of death and that love can never lose its own. In the Son of .Man we sec onr humanity raised and glorified. In Him Thou hast brought nigh to onr earthly darkness Ihe" glory of the heavenly life; the veil of flesh is rent in twain : and we arc persuaded that neither things present nor thing!; to come can separate ns from life and love. Keep ns. we pray Thee. in His confidence, and by continually mortifying onr corrupt affections and seeking ever to do r lby holy will, may we rise through death into a higher and diviner life. Amen. EASTKR JOY. The great truth for which F.aster stands is witnessed not by a single day in the whole year but by every recurring habbath. It is well that this should be so in view of the tremendous significance and far extending implications of this truth. We have only to try to conceive what the world would be to ns and what our patlook on life, if the great fact of which Easter is a perpetual witness should come to be discredited and the hope of Easter Wot led out of our sky, to realise'the full significance of the festival which the t.hnslinn Church has so long observed. Especially in the tragic years through which we have come and the dark forebodings by which so many minds are still oppressed, is the great event which we commemorate at this season fitted to allay onr fears and give poise and strength to our life. “Now is Christ risen.” There was One who lived on earth and over whom death had no power. Because He lives and reigns we know- that all is well. ihe dominant feeling of the first Easter was joy. The news of the resurrection seemed even to the disciples to be too good to he true. And we cannot wonder at their unbelief, so was the miracle and so unspeakable its issues to them ami to all mankind. The story is so old and ofl repented that like many of li.es grandest mysteries it has lost its impressiveness for the unthinking multitude, yet the joy which filled the hearts of the first believers will continue to be the heritage of all who put their trust in the risen Lord. And this joy followed_ closely upon an overwhelming sorrow. “The saddest day and (lie gladdest day wore but one day apart.” So it is in the life of the Christian to-dav. “Ye shall he sorrowful. but your sorrow shall he turned into joy.” Death itself will bring to ns the greatest surprise of all. for then onr joy shall be full. And like the joy of the first Easier it will seem but a brief day removed from the darkness and sorrow which filled onr soul. The man who lias a real Christian experience back of his profession needs no arguments or demonstration of any kind to convince him of the realitv of the resurrection of Jesus. He lias the witness of the living Christ in his own life. He can say with Paul, “Have I not seen Jesus Christ?" A fellowship us real as any on earth has been established between him and the Master whom having not seen he loves. He has entered into the joy of his Lord, and no sophistry however subtle ran ever discredit this experience. So, let darkness and sorrow and even death mine; because Ho lives wo shall live also. This is the Easter faith, the Easter hope, the Easter joy. DR GLOVER AND THE LITER.MdSTS. We are sorry to notice a disposition to attack Dr T. R. Glover because, in his Saturday articles in the Daily News, he has pointed out that the cause ol _ religion is injured by those Biblical literulists who shut their e’y'S to facts that all Christian scholars of repute now accept, (says the Christian World). Dr Glover is rather to be congratulaleji because ho has found a pulpit from which he can reach so many who do not go to church and are sadly ignorant of enlightened Christian teaching to-day. Great numbers of intelligent outsiders are apt to pass the Christian religion by ns irrational because they have been told that it is hound up with the view that every word of the Bible was literally dictated by God. Biblical literalists make unbelievers by propagating this view. Dr Glover shows that the Bible is not a handbook of geology or astronomy or h,o- % tory. but a handbook of religion. Its value is in its religious teaching growing more and more clear until it roaches its fullness in Jesus Christ. He shows that (ho difficulties many intelligent readers have found in the Bible air sry.lnjned by modern scholarship, which recognises that, it contians a Divine revelation, given through men who, though inspired, were neither infallible nor omniscient. Dr Glover’s evangelical orthodoxy is known to the world, ami he should have the encouragement, of all good Christians in his attempt to show the reasonableness of Christianity to the man in the street. AMERICAN METHODIST UNION. ? PROGRESS IN TWO GREAI * CHURCHES. 1 The movement for the re-nnion of American Methodism is making satisfactory progress. At their last conferences the .Methodist Episcopal Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church South —which separated over the slavery question 79 years ago severally appointed commissions to negotiate . on the subject A joint session of these two commissions, just held at (’iiicinnat i, has approved an outline plan submitted by a “Committee of ten,” and a •'committee of sixteen” has been appointed to work out die details and report, to a further joint session of the commissions. The “committee of sixteen” will be composed of two bishops, three ministers, and three laymen from each of the two churches. The report of the' "committee of ten” declares that the M.E, Church and the M.K. Church Soul I; | are essentially one church in origin, in spirit in belief, in polity, in ministry, and in pmpose, and urges that, (hey should become n.m in name, in ritual, in conditions of men. ; hership, and in admini.-l ra t ion of litei; various activities in home and foreign field.'. 'lhe next stage will be reached when t!.„ enlarged committee meets at St. Louis on ' March 27, under the chairmanship o' Bishop W. F. Anderson If its report fi approved by a Iwo-thirds vole of the joint commission it will he sent on to the annual conferences of each division of Methodism, and, in dm event of their endorsement, will he presented to the two general conferences for final action. NEWS ITEMS “There are many people," said Dr ( harles Brown in (lie course of a mm tnon at. Forme Park Glmrclt. London. who aro alraid of modern thought. I am nut. Bbal ! am more afraid of is modem thoughi m.-Mie-s. So many put out their thinking to he done by their newspaper; they act ’mire from prejudice or passion than as the result, of thought, anil thinking. 1 lie call to repent, is the call to think -and think again. Repentance is not, simply a matter of the emotions; it is a matter of the mind." In it lucent sermon.. Dr Percy Slicktley ('fanl, (he "heretic" rector of (lie I’rotestioit Episcopal ('inm-h of (lie Ascension, New iork. roundly denounced the practice of the formal consecration of churches, which ho described as inherited from the age of witchcraft, magic, and taheo. Strictly interpreted. consecration meant that something had happened to the rimrc!t that could not he explained under otdtnarv formulas of intelligence or action; that God dwelt in (lie church ns nowhere else, except n; similar churches ; and that ;n; x - thing outside acts of worship, or sti.i’i-ir .acts, which might lake place in the m.i-ivii i were hlasnhemons and a blow to I lie in- i 1 dwelling Deity. The power of the p -is j to perform such an gef, with suc.it t use- - quoncos Wins duo to tin- theory Ii ■ , j through what was called the apostolic . m ; . j cession, the clergy and priesthood o' tlm. H present day had received uiiru. ' juh I I