THE SUNDAY CIRCLE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20644, 16 February 1929, Page 5

THE SUNDAY CIRCLE.

RELIGIOUS READING FOR THE HOME.

THE TIDE IS SURE TO WIN. On the far reef the breakers Recoil in shattered foam, But still the sea behind them Urges its forces home. Its song of triumph surges O’er all the thunderous din; The wave may break in failure, But the tide is sure to win. The reef is strong and cruel. Upon its jagged wall One. wave, a score, a hundred. Broken and beaten fall. Yet in defeat they conquer, The sea comes crowding in; The wave may be defeated. But the tide ia sure to win. 0 mighty sea, thy message In clanging spray .s cast, Within God’s plan of progress It matters not at last How wide the shores of evil, How strong the reefs of sin; The wave may break in failure, But the tide is : sure to win. —Selected.

PRAYER. O Thou, who preparest for us, in Thy fatherly compassion, the quiet shelter of the night, giving us rest from our labours and renewal of Strength; give ua rest this day, we pray Thee, from all undue cares and wearying burdens; that we may, with joyfulness of heart, and neace and refreshment of mind, spend its hours in communion of spirit with each other and with Three. May our inward strength he renewed, and our hearts be made pure to receive the light of Thine eternal wisdom. Thy perfect holiness and unchanging love. And vhon, on the morrow, we return to our Jaily work, may we strive to be true to the holier purposes and higher aims to which we have devoted ourselves this day in our prayers and meditation. And grant, 0 God of peace, that we may find, not only on our day of rest, but in all our labour and conflict, and in every experience of our mortal life, the peace which Thou alone canst give, the repose of faith and trust in Thee, through Jcsua Christ our Lord. Amen.

A TREND OF THE TIMES. That there is a current setting in strongly, and not altogether silently, towards the union of all the Christian denominations seems too plain to be denied, although its ultimate result may be questioned and its strength minified. Yet there are symptoms which are undeniable and to us they _ seem very significant. There is a growing impatience with the divisions which separate the churches and an increasing desire to,bridge them. Some would stop short of organic union and be content with what they term a federal union, but union in some form, ahd real union at that, is certainly in the air. We suppose some of our Baptist friends would rather object to ha-e the Rev. Harry Fosdick speak for them, yet his remarks are worth considering when he says, “There isn’t a single live issue between the various Protestant sects. I am a Baptist, but there isn’t any difference worth any intelligent man’s consideration between the beliefs of my sect and those of the various other Protestant denominations. The various sects may possibly continue for ever, because traditional sentiment, coherence, memory, and emotion, will serve to bind them. However, there isn’t a rational reason for their continuance.” And to emphasise this fact wc understand that on the new church which is shortly to house the congregation to which he ministers, there will appear simply the title, “ The Riverdale Church.” the term, “Baptist,” being eliminated. We are certain that not all Baptists would agree with Dr Fosdick, but it is reasonably sure that there are not a few who are looking in that direction, even though they may not have travelled nearly so far as the doctor.

Almost as outspoken was the utterance of Canon Garfield Williams, at the recent church congress held at Cheltenham, England. Speaking of the efforts to secure intercommunion in the mission fields, he said, “All I can say is that if I were a Moslem, a Hindu, or a Confucian, or a Buddhist, and heard that the Christians refused to eat together at their Lord’s table in the sacramental meal, I should be certain, either that they were casteridden. or that they had feuds. There would be no other alternative to the Eastern mind. In any case, their refusal thus to have their sacramental meal together could by no stretch of imagination actively suggest that they loved one another.” The thought naturally comes, “ How long can men go on thinking and speaking in this way before they actually dare to do what they see clearly ought to be done? ” —The New Outlook.

AND SO THEY SAY “ I think of the church of the future aa that great seer. Sir Thomas More, s aw it: as a mighty catlredral round whose nave many chapels are found. In each we may worship as we think best; Roman Catholic, Greek, Anglican, Presbyterian, Quaker, and th e rest; but at times we shall all unite in a great act of worship in the nave that is open to all.” —Maude Hoyden. • Bishop C. P. Anderson, of Chicago, said in a recent sermon: “It is one thing to bring party politics and economic theories into the range of church activity. It is a vastly different thing to bring the force of religious conviction’and experience into action in our social aud political life. . . . It is the business 0 vi?® ohurch to insist that business and politics are not outside the realm of morality and religion.” Commenting on the invitation given by the American Board (Congregationalist) “ Bcv. A. Stanley Jones, D.D., of the Methodist Episcopal Mission Board to preach the annual board, sermon at Bridgeport, Conn., the Congregationalist says: ihe board has chosen a missionary rather than a pastor to preach tire convention sermon on the opening night and has not hesitated to go outside of its own denomination. But Stanley Jones, of India, belongs now to all the world. The man himself is even more inspiring than his books and *tbose who hear him will understand why he is Ind' ” 3 best-beloved missionary ‘of

■ .... news items. Sir Wilfrid Grenfell, in a speech -at Manchester, told his hearers that a man T? et * Il be a eissie because he was a vlinstiaii, and he need not any longer think he was behind' modern science. Modern science, which was characterised by its modesty, told us that absolutely no man could-ever know all on this side of r? 6 i T ea,t ® lvl de : and. whether we ‘ “I. not ’ " e must live from the cradle to the grave by faith. Pi; F, W. Norwood received a most cordial rec-eptiou on taking the chair at the Citv Temple Literary Society’s meeting. He had just arrived home after a tempestuous voyage from America, and he said he was very glad, indeed, to-be , Hc , rcm l ark ed. drily, that he had ,v' U ,?yf c ' vh '? t >* must be like * aT “ le ln , an aeroplane and at the same time .to loop-the-loop. Now he knew! Never more than then did he tee! inclined to sympathise with the old lady who fervently remarked, “ How nice it was to be on terracotta again l ” Dr A. Herbert Gray resumed full duty at Crouch-hill Presbyterian Church, London, after his recent illness. At the mormng service he preached upon “ What the Gospel Means to Me,” and in the evening, at the monthly young people’s m-eVrhpr le R° k 1 ‘° f t,le announced pieacher, Rev. H. K. C. Shennard who was absent by doctor’s orders * Taking as his subject “Must Christianity Supersede All Other Religions? ” D r Gray took up a quite clear affirmative attim V - f JS bel° n (t« to the very essence of our faith, lie said, “to believe that we have got something of final value to the world; something which all men and women everywhere must share if they arc to come to their best. Christ certoinlv declared that that which He bad to give must he tire best for all men everywhere. Christianity and any other religion cannot both be true. To hold this does not, of course, invo ve speaking evil of other to ° ns w» dec annf i H lß * ■ tll °y are Wholly m/t’' p f *J, lc undervalue clc{icinns ° f Fk “l 1 alld b , CaUty in other religions. For long—and especially so since the nightmare of the war—l have felt that for this old world of ours the one cnauce of ultimate escape ■ from - brutalitv cruelty, and strife is the way of Jesus. -there is uo suoh hope in Mohammedanism nr in any one of the Oriental religions.”

sponsibility of the Christian Churches ~f to-day. We shall be helped to fulfil that duty and meet that responsibility if we remember that Christ Himself was, in the truest sense of the term, an educator; and that His work was that of educational evangelism.—Luther A. Weigle.