THE SUNDAY CIRCLE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21242, 24 January 1931, Page 5

THE SUNDAY CIRCLE.

RELIGIOUS READING FOR THE HOME. OH, TEACH THE WORLD. “Christ of the Andes,” Christ of Everywhere, Great Lover of the hills, the open air, And patient Lover of impatient men Who blindly, strive and sin and strive again. Thou Living Word, larger than any creed. Thou Love Divine, uttered in human need— Oh, teach the world, warring and wandering still, The way of Peace, the footpath of Good Will. —Henry Van Dyke. A' PRAYER BEFORE SUNRISE. “0 give thanks unto the Lord for He is good, and His mercy endureth for ever.” 0 Lord, we beseech Thee, look down in Thy infinite pity on this Thy world; for lo! day is at hand, and Thy children must soon awake to life and toil and temptation. 0 Thou who art the Lover of men, let Thy Holy Spirit wait to meet with each one of us oh the threshold of the dawn, and lead us through this coming day. Like as a father pitieth his children, so dost Thou pity all the woeful i and heavyhearted. Look down upon all j those who must so soon awake to their, griefs; speak comfortably to them; and remember those who in pain must so soon take up their weary burdens. Look down , upon the hungry and the rich, the evil and_ the good; that in this new day, finding each something of Thy mercy, they may give thanks unto Thee, 0 Lord, for Thou art good, and Thy mercy endureth for ever. ' A TEXT FOR EACH DAWS MEDITATION. “FEAR NOT.” Sunday.—“Be'strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them; for the Lord thy God, He it is that doth go with thee, He will not fail thee nor forsake thee.”—Deut. 31: 6. Monday.—“ Have not I commanded thee? Be strong_ and of good courage; be nofc afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.”—Joshua 1: 9. Tuesday.—“ The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? Wait on ..the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart; wait, I say, on the Lord.”—Psalm 27: 1 and 14. Wednesday.—“ Cast thy burden upon the Lord: and He shall sustain thee. He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved."—Psalm 55: 22. “Also unto Thee, 0 Lord, belongeth mercy: for Thou renderest to every man according to hie work." —Psalm 62: 12. Thursday.—“o ,Lord God of hosts, Who is a strong Lord like unto Thee? or to Thy faithfulness round about Thee? Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, 0 Lord, in the light of Thy countenance.”—Psalm 89; 8 and 15. Friday.—“ Fear • not; for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name, thou are Mine. “When thou passeth through the waters I will be with thee, and through the rivers (of trial) they shall not overflow thee.”—lsaiah 43: 1 afi'd 2. Saturday.—“ Great in counsel, mighty ,ih' work: for Thine eyes are open upon the/ways of the sons of men:- to give every one according to His ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.” “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is there anything too hard for Me?”—Jer. 32: 19-27. —H. R. Higgins, in A.C.W. THE HALL-MARK OF CHRISTIANITY The hall-mark of genuine Christianity •is the Spirit of Christ, and on the plane of everyday living this expresses itself most, effectively in the spirit of service. Few episodes in the Gospel story need so little comment as that preserved in John xiii. There is something in the heart of Everyman which acknowledges the supreme worth of a greatness which spends itself for others. Men may suspend judgment on the Church's claims concerning./the. Person of Jesus; they cannot withhold their heart’s approval of the spirit in which He lived and died.

THE ENDURING WAY. The course of history is steadily driving us towards the recognition that no other way of life wifi endure save that which is in harmony with the Spirit of Christ. One after another our loveless and self-seeking ways break down, and we find ourselves compelled to try again. The world as a whole is far from being convinced that in the more excellent way of love there is the final way, but in the meantime those who have accepted it —constrained by the love of Christ to live not unto themselves alone —may go on in the quiet assurance that whether they apparently succeed or fail it is through such lives of service that the world will be redeemed and the Kingdom of God will come, A NOVEL IDEA. A-church pastor says that, during the winter he began to cast about to find some way in which to make his Sunday evening service different, with the idea of increasing the interest and also the attendance. “ I fell upon the plan of giving a 10-minute talk before the sermon, and these I, called “Talks.on the World About Us! ” The scientific journals gave him his. facts and his congregation seem to •have, enjoyed them and have asked him not to discontinue the practice. SUBCONSCIOUS CHRISTIANS. “ Many who are just outside the churches and are not very different from those inside,” said Canon Guy Rogers, speaking at a Birmingham Y.M.C.A. service, “ probably stay outside because of intellectual difficulties.” The people he had in mind were not prepared to pledge themselves to faith in. the Virgin Birth, to accept the ordinary church view of the physical resurrection of our Lord, use the phrase “ He descended into hell,” nor accept those special views of heaven and earth which do not fit in with Ccpernican astronomy. A great number of people, he insisted, are subconsciously Christian, with a faith very much like the faith of the early Christians before they formulated the Trinitarian faith. Ho would himself like to be able to provide a type of service that did not commit a man to more than he was prepared intellectually to accept at the time; and that, in his opinion, need not disturb the richer and fuller faith of the members of the church themselves. A NOVELIST FROM THE MANSE. “ Dorothy M. Fisk,” the author of the novel “The Golden Isle,” is the wife of the Rev. David Stephens, M.A., minister of Beeston Congregational Church, Nottingham. “ The Golden Isle,” a story of Majorca, is her first novel. “EVERY SERVICE—A VERY SPECIAL OCCASION! ” “ Some features of our social life are certainly very discouraging,” said the Very Rev. Dr A. N. Bogle, when addressing the members of Paisley Presbytery Office-bearers’ Union, " but my experience as moderator has encouraged me on this question. It is perfectly clear that, there is a deep and widespread interest in the Church and her work, and that on any special occasiou large numbers of. people will gather,in the house of God for worship. It would be a good thing if it .was realised by all that every service is a very special occasion, and that none should treat tlie opportunity to worship in the house of God as a light thing, to be put off on any slender excuse.” AT THE SPORTS. Aud Shakum the Preacher did attend a sports meeting, at which he beheld many strange and curious sights. For he beheld a runner who, looking somewhat too much at his spectators, did run an oblique course into a hard advertisement hoarding. He did also behold a man of mean legs who, starting last, did yet end first. But the greatest marvel was a jumper who did soar through the air like a football. And wdien Shakum the Preacher did inquire as to whether bis father or mother was a- kangaroo, they did explain to him that his parents both came from Bolton, but that he jumped 23 feet because he was always aiming at 25. —M., in the Christian World. WAITING FOR A PEACE LEADER. “The world is waiting,” says the Ghristiajj, Century* which, complains .that Presl-

dent Hoover .has never grasped the fundamental nature of the Kellogg Pact, “ for a President of the United States to say this simple non-pacifist thing:—‘ The United States, having pledged its honour, intends never to go to war again, and we expect every nation which has joined us in this solemn pledge to keep its word as we keep ours.’ ” THE TIME FOR CHURCHES TO REGAIN LOST GROUND. “ The Agnostic of yesteray defiantly proclaimed that he didn’t see why there should be a God,” said the Evening Standdard in a leading article summing up three articles on the problem of modern religion which it had published recently. “The Agnostic of to-day humbly owns that he can see no reason why there should not be a God.” “ It is remarkable that this change of thought should coincide with the most persistent drifting away from the churches that has been known in the history or Christianity. But we may well question whether in the new atmosphere, that drift will continue. Certainly now is the time for the churches to regain their lost ground. The note of the modern attitude in contemplating the universe is a note of humility, and ever since man began to bo, humility has been the first step towards faith.”