THE SUNDAY CIRCLE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20318, 28 January 1928, Page 5

THE SUNDAY CIRCLE.

RELIGIOUS READING FOR THE HOME. THE GOLDEN YEAR. We sleep and wake and sleep, but all things move; The Sun flies forward to his brother Sun; The dark Earth follows, wheeled in her ellipse; And human things, returning on themselves, Move onward, leading up the Golden Year. Ah I though the times, when some now thought can bud, Are but as poets’ .seasons when they flower, Yet seas, that daily gain upon the shore, Have ebb and flow conditioning their march, And slow and sure comes up the Golden Year. Fly, happy, happy sail?, and bear tho Press; Fly, nappy with the mission of the Cross; Knit land" to land, and blowing heavenward With silks, and fruits, and spices, clear of toil Enrich the markets of the Golden Year. But we grow old. Ah! when shall all men’s good Be each man’s rule, and universal Peace Lie like a shaft of light across the land, And like a lane of beams athwart the sea, Througli all the circle of the Golden Years. —Tennyson. A PRAYER AT THE NEW YEAR. Do I grow more like Thee, my Master—more With zeal like Thine for self-less service fired; Unmindful of reward, of blame; unhired; Spending myself for those neglected poor Whom Thou, beside the Galilean shore Didst seek to save—unsought for, undesirod; Hands soiled with labour; feet with toiling tired; Foll'wing the Way that Thou has trod before? Or doth Thine image in my soul grow dim, My heart to more of pride and mammon yield; My timid service in Thy harvest field Proclaim like Peter’s words, “ I know not Him ” ? O Lord and Master, through the coming year, Wean me away from selfishness and fear ! —S.S. Times. THE RIVERS OF GOD. Copious and unfailing rivers run just beneath the burning desolations of the Sahara. Twenty or 30 feet under the sanddrifts there is an impervious sheet of rock J which prevents the escape of the collected j rain-waters. It is easy to see the oasis, but not so easy to track the windings of the hidden river. The skilled engineer can ' get at the river, bring it up through his wells, and change the desert into an earthly paradise. Society at large is not the dreary, all-devouring, illimitable, ethical waste wo often imagine. The rivers of God flow under natures we call reprobate, and create penitential moods which are the earnest of a coming righteousness. It is easy to map out the strips of moral fruitfulness which appear here and there in the world, but not so easy to find the deep secret contrition of those who are often classed as abandoned outcasts. The Saviour of the world has an insight into character which enables Him to see promise where men less sympathetic and discerning see the black marks of reprobation; and the angels share the visions of the Lord on whom they wait. It is by His art, as the Prophet of coming good, that the desert is made to bloom.—Rev. Thomas G. Selby. STRIKING STATEMENT BY DR J. R. MOTT. In my 35 and more years of work among the nations, never has the missionary undertaking seemed to me to be so difficult as at present. Never have our Christian forces seemed to be so inadequati for the task. In my judgment, the next 15 years will be the most difficult in the history of Christian religion. Not localise of the forces which oppose us; nor because we are called on to deal with so many great issues simultaneously; nor because of the stern challenges that are souncing in the ears of the churches of all lands; but principally for the encouraging reason that never before have so many Christians awakened to the awful implications of the Christian Gospel. Thank God, we have come to a time when large numbers of followers of Jesus Christ seem to think that He meant what He said, and believe with depth of conviction that He must be Lord of all or not at all, and are dominated by the vision of the kingdoms of this world becoming the Kingdom of our Lord. At such a time, we need to utilise the united wisdom and experience and the sacrificial devotion of Christians of every name. UNITED CHURCH FOR CHINA. Whatever may be the outcome of the long-drawn-out civil war, it is evident that a great change will emerge in connection with Christian work. A unified Evangelical Church for China haa just been initiated at Shanghai, when a conference of 94 Chinese delegates, representing 16 denominations (Congregational and Presbyterian predominating), voted in favour of dissolving former ecclesiastical connections and forming a Church of Christ in China. Dr Cheng Ching Y r i was elected first moderator of the new church, which claims to include 1000 congregations in 16 provinces which contain about one-third of all Chinese Protestant Christians, and have 1200 missionaries working within that area. We understand that the missionaries have offered no opposition to the new church, from which all foreigners will be excluded save as advisers. NEWS ITEMS. “ I believe," said Dean Ingai, in a sermon in St. Paul’s Cathedral, “ that the habit of private prayer will (to more than anything elge to keep *at bay that fatty degeneration of character which often seto in about the age of 60.”' At a church service held at Ryhope (England) on Armistice Day a remarkable incident occurred. As the vicar was offering a prayer a white dove alighted on the memorial. After a moment it rose and circled the memorial twice or thrice, and again alighted, to remain there for the rest of the service, which was being listened to by 5000 people. Dr John R. Mott, chairman of the International Missionary Council, who was very unwell in»Switzerland at the close of the Faith and Order Conference in August, had to undergo an operation on his return to the United States. He has since, however, been resting quietly in the hills of Colorado, and is now back at work. He expects to be passing through London in February on nis way to Palestine for the Jerusalem meeting of the International Missionary Council. The man was blind (said Dr F. W. Norwood in a sermon at Sefton Park Presbyterian Church, Liverpool, on a recent Sunday evening) who did not know there was a revolution going on in Great Britain. There was not a single institution remaining as it was, and some people did not know what was happening. If another war came there would almost inevitablv be a genera] strike. “ Militarism cannot” stand for ever. _ The militaristic system is tottering to its fall. It will fall. Its days are numbered. The minds and the consciences of the better half of humanity have moved on.” The Rev. James Reid, of Eastbourne, in his speech at Bournemouth at the Richmond Hill anniversary, suggested that Congregationalists and Presbyterians are getting into such close relationship that one day they might discuss the question of marriage. Sir Reid urged his hearers nof to lend themselves too easily to any- despairing thoughts about the state of religion in"tlici country, nor on the other hand to be complacent about it. The religious articles in the daily press were evidence that the world never needed churches more than now, and a great deal of the criticism of the Church was proceeding from a deep wistfulness and a shade of disappointment from a world that was looking eagerly for guidance and help from the Church, hut for want of it was beginning to realise that civilisation could not carry on its own business. Pere Sanson, the Roman Catholic priest whose eloquent preaching has drawn vast congregations to Notre Dame, Paris, during'’ Lent for the last three years, has resigned his post, and is going to Geneva to deliver addresses there. He lias been accused of unorthodoxy, and a heresy charge was to be directed against him.