THE SUNDAY CIRCLE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20964, 1 March 1930, Page 5

THE SUNDAY CIRCLE.

RELIGIOUS READING FOR THE HOME, PERMANENCE. Wilt thou not* open thy heart to know What rainbows teach and sunsets show? Verdict which accumulates From lengthening scroll of human fates. Voice of earth to earth returned. Prayers of saints that inly burned— Saying. “What is excellent, As God lives, is permanent; Hearts are dust, hearts’ loves remain; Hearts’ love will meet thee again.” —R. W. Emerson. A PRAYER. By Robert Freeman, D.D. A body with never an ail or an ache, A sapient mind all wide-awake; A bit of the big world’s work to do. With plenty of time for a book or two; A few new friends in the inner fold, And the power to keep the ones that are 1 old; A goodly cup of life’s sparkling wine. With nothing of same on me or mine. These do I want; but only ask Two things to fit me for my task; Courage to stand unwhimpering when My share befalls of the ills of men; Grace so to live that there may be Some few to thank my God for me. A SCRIPTURE MESSAGE IN MODERN WORDS. THE ALL-KNOWING GOD. Thou hast searched me and know me, O i Lord. i Thou knowest when I sit down and when I stand up. j Thon discernist my thought from afar. * Thou dost measure out my course and my camp._ I And art intimately acquainted with all j my ways. I For there is not a word on my tongue, But, Lord, thou knowest it all. Thou dost enfold me behind and before. And dost put Thy hand upon me; 1 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; ' It is too lofty—l am not equal to it. ~"P Ba lm 139: 1-6; J. M. Powis Smith’s Translation. A THEME FOR MEDITATION. “ABUNDANCE FOR ALL.” ’ Sunday.—“ The Lord God merciful and I gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth.”—Exodus 34:6. “They shall be abundantly Batiafied; For with Thee is the. fountain of- life; in I Thy light shall we see light.”— Psalm S6:B and 9. Monday.—“ The meek shall inherit the ■earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.”—Psalm 37:11. “ In his day snail the righteous flourish, land abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth.”—Psalm 72:7. Tuesday.—“ Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him, return unto the Lord, and He wall have mercy upon him’, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.”—lsaiah 35:7. Wednesday.—“l have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”—John 10:10. “ For all things are for your sates that the abundant grace might, through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.”—ll Cor. 4:15. Thursday.—“ Now unto Him that is able to do abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us.” —Eph. 4:20. “ And the grace of our. Lord was exceeding_ abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.”—l Timothy 1:14. Friday.—“ Blessed be the -God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesug Christ,”—l Peter 1:3. Saturday.—" Give diligence to . make your calling and election sure. For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of onr Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”— 11 Peter 5 and 11. What ia bright prospect for all who believe in Jesus Christ. —H. R. Higgins, in A.C.W. SADHU SUNDAR SINGH ON THE BIBLE. In a letter to the British and Foreign Bible Society Sadhu Sundar Singh says: “In reading the Bible I have found such untold and eternal wealth of riches, of which I never thought nor dreamed before; and now in passing on its message to others and sharing it with them, its blessing to me and to them continually increases. . , . If I had not known this Book, which is God-given, how should I ever have known the infinite love of God which was revealed on the Cross? . . .1 shall ever be thankful to the British and Foreign Bible Society, who translated and made it possible for me to get this treasure in my own language. May God grant that many ‘more like me will receive eternal life from the living Saviour by reading this, precious Book.” LIVING EPISTLES. " I said, and l I repeat," said Mr Edwin Hodder, in his biography of Sir George Burns, the founder of the Cunard Steamship Company, “I said, and I repeat, that if the Bible were lost to us all, if there were no prayer book, no catechism, and no creed, if there were no visible church at all, I could not fail to believe in the doctrines of Christianity while the living epistle of Sir George Burns’s life remained in my memory.” That was Whittier’s argument: * From scheme and creed the light goes out The saintly fact survives; The blessed Master none can doubt, Revealed in holy lives.” LOVE UPHOLDING. By Fred Scott Shepard. Underneath are the everlasting arms.— Dent, 33: 27. Lean hard, the Everlasting Arms Are underneath to safe up-gird, And though some sudden shock alarms, Find comfort in the Master’s word, “My peace I give! ” He giveth not as doth the world, With passing thought or empty word. But speaks unto the inmost soul That list’tiing hath his message heard— His, “Peace, be still! ” In quietness and confidence. Rest in a love that ne’er forgets; His tender grace gives recompense For all life’s woes and vain regrets—- “ Wait patiently for him! ” PRAYER. O Thou who art the same yesterday and to-day and for ever, behold us as we look to Thee. We knoW how weak we are and how short is our stay. Out of the dust were we formed and to the dust we return. But we believe that we are more than dust. Wo believe that Thou hast made us, and that Thou hast a regard to the work of Thine Own Hands. We pray Thee to assist us to cherish those most precious things within us of which we are aware; our conscience, our sense of honour, our sense of shame; the lights which comfort and the shadows winch afflict our soul; these things which have their origin not in the dust but in Ihyself. Do Thou help us to foster those secret signs, and to build. upon them as upon a sure foundation, remembering the pledge' of Jesus Christ Thv Son onr Lord; “If it were not so I would have told you”; to Whom with Thyself and the Holy Ghost h. 6 all praise for ever. Amen.

CENTENARY OF WELL-KNOWN HYMN. It is 100 years since the hymn, “ Spirit Divine, attend our prayers," was written by Dr Andrew Reed, who became minister of Wycliffe Independent Chapel th* following year. He is better known, however, as a philanthropist than as a hymn writer, having founded three great asy lums in London—the Hospital for Imbeciles, the London Orphan Asylum, anil the Asylum for Idiots. His famous hymn was written to be sung- on a particular day appointed by the Board of Congregational Ministers for prayer to God for • revival of religion in the British Church. T)r Reed wrote his own epitaph: “I was born yesterday, I shall die to-morrow, and I must not spend to-day in telling what I have done, but in doing what I may for Him who has done all for me.”

SUPERSTITION GROWING. “ It should be remembered,” said Professor S. Eadbakrishnan, of Calcutta, in a Hibbert .Trust lecture at Manchester, that while Rome made Galileo recant, Geneva might have burnt him, and Tennessee would have driven him out.” To-day, he continued, superstition seemed to be growing in the world; we had enormous faith in mascots and mediums. That was what happened when we began to hug authoritarianism to us. We had got to make up our minds whether we would care for truth or for safety. We were trying to combine safety with inquiry for truth within limits. We were afraid of I going beyond these limits for fear something dangerous should happen. THE END OF THE WORLD. And the trumpets sounded, and the stars fell down with a clash, and in the silence that succeeded the judgment began. And after about tw'o years—for most cases were extremely difficult—the nidges came to a large field in which were gathered several millions of people with taces not unlike those of mountain sheep. And the judges inquired of the thief jailer at the gates what was the condition of these who werebleating in a peculiar manner and putting their heads through the wire. And the chief gaoler jerked his thumb over his shoulder, and said: “They spent the whole of their lives inquiring about the end of the_road of life and arguing about the goal, instead of asking where the road began and getting their feet on lt -” M. THE QUAKER WAY. A story is told of a Quakeress of Hitchin, living in the period when “Nay" was the general attitude to life, that, though she had 17 offers of marriage, she was unable to free herself from the habit of saying “ Nay.” This negative attitude still seems to crop up in unexpected fashion in the Society of Friends, for it is stated that no collection plate is now passed at the Irving Street Friends' Meeting in Washington, which President Hoover attends. The reason given for this action is that the many visitors to the meeting, drawn by Mr Hoover's presence, might get the impression of a commercial atmosphere if the plate were passed round! However, the trustees of the meeting have advised their regular members, including the President and his wife, that they are expected to send their collection money by messenger or mail, A QUESTION OF DATES. " Knox knew how effectively a woman could intervene in a church service—was there not Jenny Geddies? " Thus ran a passage in the ladies’ page of a contemporary, It brought forth a letter in which tiig tvrifcer. stated that the Jenny Geddies incident, if there was such a person, took place in 1637, whereas Knox died in 1572. It is obvious, he wrote, that Knox could have known nothing of the lady or of her alleged feat. MARY SLESSOR. “ We can only obtain God’s best by fitness of receiving power. Without receivers fitted and kept in order, ; the air may tingle and thrill ‘ with the message, but it will not reach the spirit and consciousness,” said Mary Slessor, And she knew equally well that all prayer was not worthy of being answered. To one who said he had prayed without avail she wrote: “You thought God was to hear and _ answer you by making everything straight and pleasant—not 'so are nations or churches or men and women born; not so is character 'made. God is answering your prayer in His way.” DR M‘L AREN’S SARCASM. Dr Alexander M'Laren, said Sir William Barton, in opening a bazaar at Union Church, Manchester, “ was a man of great gifts, and one of them was the gift of sarcasm and satire.” He remembered his once saying, “It is a remarkable thing that ae men increase in riches their wives seem to decline in health.” What he meant, of course, was that ae they became well-to-do they wanted to live out of the town. And ever since then there had been a drain on the ‘congregations. ’ ABOUT MODERN YOUTH. “The church attendance of youth is on the decline, and yet I doubt if the thoughts of youth have ever been, more turned towards religion,” says Sir Arthur Yapp, . who recently relinquished his national secretaryship of the Y.M.C.A., in a f, message to youth, entitled The Adventure of Youth.” Sir Arthur has many pointed things to say about the present-day boy and girl, _ “Youth,” he says, “is the Niagara of humanity and one of its greatest reserves of power. ‘ Youth is thinking to-day, though not always on conventional lines. “I n essentials, I can find no difference between the young fellow who has gained fitst-class honours at Oxford and the keen worker at- a technical or night school who is bent on gaining knowledge and efficiency. “ The modern girl has not had an easy time; but she is self-reliant, resourceful, intelligent and charming; and, though she may npt admit it, she is domesticated at heart.” LAUGHTER IN HEAVEN. “One would hesitate,” writes ‘Low,” the famous cartoonist in the Evening Standard, “to say that the times are ripe for the_ revival of caricature as a part of theological controversy, though many would bold otherwise; but one might be permitted_ to suggest that a cartoonist, working sincerely on the side of the angels might be of assistance in* attacking the stupidity of sin from a new angle.” “As Dean Inge has written,” he adds, “ there is such a thing as laughter in Heaven.” COWARDICE. “ The great weakness of organised Christianity," writes Miss Maude Royden in the Guildhouse Monthly, “ and ihe real reason why the mass of the people are alienated from the churches is cowardice. We try to help people -who are almost unlielpable; we try to ‘rescue,’ ae we call it, the prostitute, and to build hospitals and workhouses for those who are hopeless, but we do not ask ourselves 1 why ’ these people are prostitutes, and broken, aiftl unemployable. “When I look at the mass of the people who are alienated from the churches,” Miss Royden continues, “ it seems to me that the reason is not in our theology half so much as in our refusal to find that battleground where Christ, if He were here, would be fighting. ... 1 do not say that if Christian people did' what Christ did they would be popular; I am quite certain they would not; bur their unpopularity would be a vital thing, a challenging thing. They would have great adherents and great enemies. There would be no apathetic alienation. And that is at present what we have to face. . . . Our real and often self-sacrificing kindness to the broken individual is wasted by our cowardly shrinking from the question. How comes that individual to be broken? That,is the real weakness of organised Christianity.”