THE SUNDAY CIRCLE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19198, 14 June 1924, Page 5

THE SUNDAY CIRCLE

RELIGIOUS READING FOR THE HOME. “LIVING, BUSY, SERVING, WAITING.” " In my Father’s House there arc many rooms.”— John M: 2. No, not cold beneath the grasses, Not close-walled within the tomb; Rather, in my Father’s mansion. Living in another room. Living, like the one who loves mo, Like, my child with cheeks abloom. . Out of sight, at desk or schoolbook. Busy in another room. Nearer than my son whom fortune Beckons where the strange lands loom; Jus) behind the hanging curtain, Serving in another room. Shall I doubt my Father’s mercy? Shall 1 think of death aa doom, Or the stepping o'er the threshold To a bigger, brighter room? Shall I blame my Father’s wisdom? Shall I sit enswalhed in gloom. When I know my loves are happy, Waiting in the other room? —Robert Freeman, in The Continent. A PRAYER. Our heavenly Father, Who orderest all things by Thy goodwill, we acknowledge and confess before Thee that we walk with darkened and uncomprehending souls amid hto perplexing events of our time. . We are all too easily discouraged, and are quick to despair of good. Open our eyes and give us the illumination of Thy Spirit, that wo may see Thy thronging chariots and all the chivalry of heaven fighting on the side of the good. Disclose to us tho mighty power of the things and tho people we despise. And if it ho Thy will, 0 Father, use even such poor creatures as we know ourselves to be, so that through our weak hands the towers of evil may be razed, and tho altar of God established on the earth. Give us more faith, that, with unfaltering courage, we may follow tho Captain of our salvation, and share in His glorious victory. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. “CODEC’S” MESSAGE To THE WORLD. Tho following message has been issued by the Bishop of Manchester, who presided at the recent conference on Christian Politics, Economics, and Citizenship: The experience of tho conference ha.s been profound and uplifting. We have been knit together in a spiritual fellowship of amazing depth and closeness. From a quite early stage in our proceedings we have been conscious of one spirit pervading our gatherings and guiding all our minds; and none of us doubts that this has been in very truth God the Holy Spirit Himself. In this fellowship of the Spirit we have had a vision of tho Church of Christ and of God’s purpose for it, more vivid, more rich, more glorious than over before. We have received a fuller apprebesnion of the meaning of the salvation offered to dm world in the redeeming love of the Lord Jesus Christ. All of this has come to our souls and consciences in relation to man’s need as a whole, and also in direct relation to those urgent problems which baffle our minds and threaten our cilivisation at this time. Wo claim the attention of all Christian people tor tho reports presented to the conference and for the resolutions adopted by it. But in particular we have felt the burden of four most urgent needs. Wo have realised with a fresh intensity the scandal to our civilisation and religion involved in the fact that thousands of our tellow-countrymen are without decent homes, are without work, are without 'lie education that would develop their faculties to the full ; and all these crying evils wo have seen thrown into prominence against the background of profound anxiety concerning the peace of the world. Alike, for those evils and for that anxiety we believe that Jesus Christ offers remedy and redemption. But Fie offers these through our obedience. Ho has entrusted His purpose to His Body, tho Church: He waits till we are ready to act and suffer in His Name. This conference, therefore, calls upon Christian people to do all in their power to find and apply the remedy for recurrent unemployment, to press vigorously for the launching of efficient housing schemes, whether centrally or locally, and to secure an immediate extension of educational facilities, especially for the unemployed adolescents, whose case is perhaps the most deplorable of all tho deplorable features of our social life to-day. Both for their sake, and with a view to creating more places for adults in the industrial system, we urge the immediate raising of the school-leaving age to 16, and tho diminution as rapidly aa possible of the maximum size of classes. Together with effort to remedy these diseases of our life at home all Christian people must dedicate themselves to the cause of international peace, seeking to destroy tho passions of envy, fear, and suspicion ‘that lead to war, and supporting all endeavours to unite tho nations in mutual understanding ’and good will. To this end, we specially urge support of the World Alliance for international friendship through the Churches and the League af Notions’ Union. We have realise with a peculiar pofgnuncy the international obligation to promote throughout the world a wholesome standard of social and economic life, and we desire to urge tho importance of all Christian people doing their utmost to prevent the introduction into Asiatic or African countries of the evils of our own industrialism. Alike for the the sake of those people and for our own. it is essential that a truly human and Christian world-standard of life shall be maintained. More is needed than agitation. There must ho readiness for real sacrifice. In particular, there must bo the sacrifice of time, involved in personal service, as for example, in the promotion of public utility societies for dealing with the supply of houses; and there must be sacrifices of money in the most prosaic, and therefore mast testing, form of increased rates and taxes for such purposes as have been named, readily voted and readily paid. Let no one think this unspiritual. It calls for little devotion of spirit to give generously when imagination is fired or feelings are touched; it takes a deeper dedication to lead us gladly to vote for an increase of public expenditure over which our personal control is slight and indirect. It is true that such expenditure is true economy, the money so spent is more than compensated by the human values secured. Where vital human needs are in question wo must be ready for financial sacrifice. We have seen afresh tho meaning of Christ’s Passion. He reigns from the Tree. But Ho so reigns by winning the allegiance of our hearts that His love ha.s softened. While our hearts remain hard, He still suffers, but His Kingdom is not yet. In tho fellowship of the Spirit that has been ours wo have heard the call to tho Fellowship of the Cross; and we have been given a fresh certainty that if, in solfdodication, wo seek to apply the principles of Christ, Ilia power is sufficient, however inadequate our resources may be, and His Kingdom will come on earth as it is in Heaven. FROM ALL SOURCES. When Ghandi was sentenced to prison, a loading newspaper in India compared his trial and punishment to that of Jesus Christ. Tho comparison aroused an intense interest among tho millions of India who had never rend the New Testament nor heard the gospel. They began to inquire who this Christ was, and what did He teach. The result was an immense demand for the New Testament, and multitudes who had never heard the story of Christ read it for themselves. In Dean Inge’s new hook, ‘‘Personal Religion and the Life of Devotion,” there occurs The following passage: “I think that those who have to bear (bis sorrow will agree with me that bereavement is the deepest initiation into the mysteries of human life, an initiation more searching and profound than even happy love. Love remembered and consecrated by grief belongs, more clearly than the happy intercourse of friends, to the eternal world; it has proved itself stronger than death.” During the year 1923 eight hundred thousand copies of the Scriptures, in 65 languages, wore distributed by the New York Bible Society. This exceeds by 309,0C0 volumes the distribution cf any other year in its history. Most of the distribution was free, and the balance was at or under cost. Over 82.000 volumes were distributed to immigrants at Ellis Island, and 70,000 to sailors from all parts of the world. 'The American Jewish Year-book contains some interesting facts about Yiddish. 'This mongrel longue was not long ago the common speech of more than ten million Jews. It is now rapidly passing. 'There is a decided reaction against it over most of the Jewish world, but in education and literaturn. The adult masses, whoso native speech it is, still cling to it. hut the young are deserting it for the ancient Hebrew, or for the language of the nation in which they live. America is the only land in which it scorns to have any vitality In Palestine, which is tho arbiter of Jewish matters. 04 per cent, uso Hebrew instead of Yiddish in thoir homes.