THE SUNDAY CIRCLE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20312, 21 January 1928, Page 5

THE SUNDAY CIRCLE.

RELIGIOUS READING FOR THE HOME. A NEW LITANY. Oh, hr Thy Cross and Passion, by Thy Pain, Thy Resurrection and Eternal Reign, From blindness of the soul whose certain doom Is death, ere yet we moulder in the tomb. Deliver us i From love that cannot see beyond the grave, However tender, or however brave. But would—as if this pilgrimage were all— The ointment bring, the winding-sheet, the pall, Deliver us! Remember not, wo pray, our foolish ways. The fear, the doubt that move us still to raise Walls around Thee who loved the hungry crowds But shame us with Thine own discarded shrouds, O Lamb of God ! Life, Life and ever more abundant Life ! Bread of Thy flesh to man us in the strife. Wine of Thy blood and fervour of Thy flame Give .15 to dream, dare, triumph in Thy Name O Lamb of God 1 PRAYER. (From the Persian) He prayed, but to his prayer no answer came And cuoked within him sank his ardour’s flame, No more he prayed, no more the knee he bent, While round him darkened doubt and discontent; Till in Iris room on e eve there shone a light And no oeheld an angel-presence bright. Who said. r ' 0 faint-heart, why hast thou resigned Praying, as though thy God were deaf and blind?” “I prayed,” he said, “but nothing won by prayer, . Long disappointment has induced despair.” “ Fool! ” cried the angel, “ every prayer of thine Of God’s immense compassion was a sign; Each cry of thine, ‘ O Lord 1 ’ itself contains The answer, ‘ Here am I’; thy very pains, Ardour and love and longing and each tear ~ Are His attraction, prove Him very near.” The cloud dispersed; once more the suppliant prayed, Nor ever failed to find the promised aid. C. F.

A WORD FROM F>R W. T. GRENFELL. My first aid to retaining faith was a determination to keep it. I determined that it intellectual difficulties arose, I would wait till, like Henry Drummond’s unanswered letters, they answered themselves. And if they never did, well, I would wait till the mystery of life itself was solyed. As a rule I found on that principle that in a week or two I forgot- all about them. The fact was I had a lot of medical work to do. Towards God the use of faith is unquestioning trust and submission. Towards man it means to ccaso arguing, and disputing and to begin to echo that love which Christ himself evinced for all mankind, good, bad, or indifferent. Ho who loveth best, servoth best, and will readiest overlook wrongs done himself. Unlike Mrs Grundy, the Master was not everlastingly scenting errors and exposing the sins of others. The Master said hard fillings about hypocrisy and much about want of faith, but very little about the Magdalene and the man who stole his brother’s share of the property.

DR HERBERT GRAY ON PARSONS. Both Dr Herbert Gray and his hearers had a great time when he opened a debate at the Christ Church Literary Society, Crouch End, London, on “That tno modern novel does not portray modem life.’’ Dr Gray said he would hate to think that foreigners judged English life from English novels. He dealt with “the strong, silent man,” with sex and marriage, and with parsons. As to the last-mentioned he declared: “ I don’t like parsons; very few parsons do. Wo find them portrayed in novels as pompous, tyrannical, absent-minded, stupid. Parsons are not like that; they are hard-working, industrious men—even if they are a bit stupid! The type of parson whom I cannot believe in is ‘ the hero and saint,’ who always has a halo glittering round his head. Parsons are different from that.” Dr Gray said that in novels quite 80 per cent, of the marriages go wrong. They turn out unsuccessfully—some within the first 12 months, the vast majority within 20 years. Even the best of novels seemed to give the impression that married life meant just jogging along—a kind of tolerance. He knew of many marriages like that, but, after having had charge of four large congregations, he had come to the conclusion that most marriages were a wonderful success. Certainly, considering the temperaments of some of the couples they were an extraordinary success! One usually found that one unhappy couple made much more noise than many happy ones. In fact, the happy married people are the backbone of our domestic and national life. Yet nearly ail our writers have a kink which causes them deal marriage which has 1 gone wrong.’ NEWS ITEMS. Nearly 60.000 copies of Rev. H. R. L. Sheppard’s book, “The Impatience of a Parson,” have been sold, and a new edition of 10,000 copies is in the press. Dr Selbie gave an amusing reply to 4 a speaker at the meeting of the Protestant Dissenting Deputies, who urged Nonconformists to' follow in the path of their forefathers and urge Parliament to reject the Prayer Book Measure. It is no earthly use talking about our forefathers,” said Dr Selbie. “If you are going back to your forefathers, you have got to swallow a mighty lot.” After an interval of more than two years, the Church of the Divine Paternity New York, has found a successor to Dr Joseph Fort Newton in the Rev. Charles Francis Potter, Its new pastor, who is in his forty-third year, has been successively a Baptist and a Unitarian minister. His last charge was the West Side Unitarian Church, New York, whose pulpit he filled from 1919 to 1925. During that period he came into prominence through the ability he showed in public debates with Dr John Roach Straton m Carnegie Hall. He afterward assisted the defence in the Scopes trial at Dayton in the capacity of Biblical expert. He has lately been Professor of Comparative Religion at Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio. Dr Jason Noble Pierce, pastor of the First Congregational Church, Washington, which President Coolidge regularly attends, is about to try a bold experiment. He is turning the church building during the week into a cinema. He does not intend to enter into competition with the ordinary “ movie ” theatres, but will show high-grade pictures, blending comedy, drama, and history with the religious note. No entrance fee will be charged, but admission will bo by card and anyone who wishes to do so will have an opportunity of making a freewill offering on going out. . Dr George Jackson, writing in tlie Manchester Guardian on “ The Conduct of Worship,” describes appreciatively the form of service in use at Purlcy Congregational Church, where ftc recently preached. “ The whole service, ho says, “ had evidently been carefully thought out; it was orderly and well balanced, yet without a touch of the formal and [rigid, ministering in each part of it to the spirit of true and reverent worship. Including the sermon and the talk to the children it only occupied about and hour and a-quartor. I do not remember when I have joined in a Free Church service which, from this point of view, lias seemed so wholly satisfying and helpful. Dr Jackson was specially pleased with the absence of “ announcements, and the elevation of the offertory to a recognised and proper part of the whole act of worship, instead of “ an ugly by unavoidable intrusion whose presence must somehow or other be disguised.” There was a spirited debate at the meeting of the Literary Society at Rich-mond-hill fhurch, Bournemouth. The principal debater, Mr John Walton, said he liked going to church, but there were many good, decent people who did not go to church, and their life was quite as good as his own. He was not going to pass judgment on them. The Church had no monopoly of Jesus Christ, who was bigger than the Church could ever bn. Literature, the drama aiid music were Christian agencies, and the whole Masonic movement tended to promote the brotherhood of man. People who went to church ought to be better than

those who didn’t go, but who was going to say that they were? Other speakers declared that they did not want to go hack to the Victorian days of Sunday gloom. There was nothing wrong at all in games on Sunday. Dr J. D. Jones, who presided over the debate, said that no Christian minister based Sunday observance on the Mosaic law. There was no difference in days. If they could play games on Sunday without any qualms of conscience, he was not going to say that they were wrong; but if they had any conscientious doubt about it, then it was wrong.