THE SUNDAY CIRCLE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21307, 11 April 1931, Page 5

THE SUNDAY CIRCLE.

RELIGIOUS READING FOR THE HOME NATURE’S ALTAR. I wandered in the tender eve alone. And found great Nature’s altar meetly spread, The suow' upon it like a mantle cast. The fragrance of the lilies, incense sweet, The trees, like priests, around it meekly bent. • Here were no words, save those of silver rills; , No substance, only purity and peace. I paused to breathe it in, and from my soul The cares and sins of life seemed washed away. —B. L. H., Christchurch. PRAYER. 0 Lord of life, Who dwellest in eternity and hast planted in our hearts the faith and hope which look beyond this life to another country, even a heavenly one, we give Thee thanks, at this uplifting season, for the bright shining of the light of immortality in Jesus Christ our Lord. As He showed us the blessedness of heaven here on earth and called, us into a kingdom not of this world, so may our life be made richer in the things which do not pass away. With our Lord and Master may we rise into newness of life; striving now to follow in that path of duty and of love in which He ever walked on earth, may we be prepared to follow Him in humble trustfulness when our way darkens and when it, is very dark. In such a day may we be sustained, remembering His blessed experience; remembering also His appeal to us, and His confidence that we should not fail in faith towards Him, as He would not fail of His pledged Communion. Amen. A LIFE IN CHRIST. With the best will in the world we cannot be Christians without Christ Himself. The most chivalrous of disciples who stands forward bravely and declares, “ You can depend on me! ” is fated to disappoint. Our life is not simply a life according to Christ; it is a life in Christ. Some are failing in the Christian life because they are detached from the living Lord Himself, from Him who by prayer and sacrament is waiting to breathe His own faith. His own courage, His very soul, into these very souls of ours.

A TEXT FOR EACH DAY’S MEDITATION. Loving Kindness of the Lord. Sunday. —“ I will mention the loving kindnesses of the Lord, and the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord h&th bestowed . . . according to His mercy and according to the multitude of His loving kindnesses.” —Isaiah 63:7.

Monday.—“ Thus saith the Lord: I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn thee.”—Jeremiah 31:3.

Remember, 0 Lord, They tender mercies and Thy loving kindnesses.”—Psalm 25:6.

Tuesday.—“ How excellent is Thy loving kindness, 0 God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings.”—Psalm 36:7. “Let Thy loving kindness and Thy truth continually preserve me.”—Psalm 40:11.

Wednesday.—“ Yet the Lord will command His loving kindness in the daytime and in the night His song shall be with me.”—Psalm 42:8.

“Have mercy upon me, 0 God, according to Thy loving kindness, according unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.”—Psalm 51:1. Thursday.—“ Because Thy loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise Thee.”—Psalm 63:3. “ Hear me, 0 Lord, for Thy loving kindness is good, turn unto me according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies.”— Psalm 69:16.

Friday.—“lt is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto Thy name! 0 most High. To show forth Thy. loving kindness in the morning, and Thy faithfulness every night.”— Psalm 92:1 and 2. ;

Saturday.—“ Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord.” —Psalm 107:43.

“Cause me to hear Thy loving kindness in the morning, for in Thee do I trust.”—Psalm 143:8.

I prove the loving .kindness of my Lord continually. He is so real and precious to me at all times. —H. R. Higgens, in A. C. W.

HOPE FOR LEPERS AND. SiNNERS. • The president of the American Mission to Lepers, in a message soliciting gifts that will carry “ comfort, cheer, and medical aid” to these afflicted people, made this glorious statement; “The discovery that leprosy is curable in the early stages has opened a new door of hope to the lepers in this mission’s hospitals throughout the world.” A new door of hope, indeed! But think of that greater door of hope for the leprosy of sin! Have we lost something of the wonder and glory of this amazing cure for sin? Man has found no cure for it—in its early or later stages. Christ, and Christ alone,, can speak the word of power: “Be thou clean! ”

We have the sovereign cure for the one disease the world_ has most need to be healed of. Amazing discovery! Joyful news! Practicing .physicians wanted!

THE PROCLAMATION OF EASTER. ' Year by year Easter comes round to tell us with the trumpets of angelic cohorts and a proclamation as of an earthquake that Christ is not in any grave, and therefore this also, that none of His is in any grave. Nevertheless, there are those among them that name His name and are sealed by His sacraments who know this very vaguely and hardly understand it or live by it. We must not deal harshly with these brethren. Certain of our own poets, like A. C. Benson, do not help them when they sing, as he does thus:— “ Ah, the slumber, how good to sleep Under the grass where the shadows creep. Where the headstones slant on the wind-swept hill, I shall have my will! ” This is not-the Christian truth of the matter at all. WHERE ARE OUR DEAD? When Fricourt on the Somme was taken by our men in July, 1916, the village cemetery was found to have been heaved and shattered to bits as by an earthquake. Afterwards when the Germans went right back to the “ Hindenburg Line,” the peasants came trickling up to their village and sought out the cemetery; but the cemetery was no longer there. They lamented and said, “ Where are our dead? ” A priest of theirs was standing by and he said to them, “ Children, our departed were never there! ” Then they wept afresh, but now with joy as of a new discovery and were much comforted. A REVIVAL OF WORSHIP. , What the Christian Church in our day most seriously stands in need of is a revival of worship. It ought to be a place where tired and jaded people—distracted with the jar and shock and wear and tear of a tumultuous and highly competitive world —can come with the full assurance that they will here find rest unto their souls and a measure of the peace whereby they may rediscover the lost paths to their own hearts. —Stanley Armstrong Hunter, LOYALTY TO THE BIBLE. But the supreme value of the Bible is that it is a book of Christ. And the best tribute we can pay to the Bible is to respond to the Lordship of the Christ of the Bible, and to seek to live in His Spirit. In the last analysis the only test of our loyalty to the Bible is our loyalty to Jesus Christ. —Percy Austin, in Letters to a Fundamentalist.

PRESCRIPTIONS. If you are unwell, read Psalm ciii. If you are heavy-hearted, read Psalm sxviii. If you are becoming anxious, read Psalm xci. If you have been bereaved, read 1 Cor. sv. If you have lost some money, read Psalm sxxvii. If you are discouraged in service, read Psalm exxvi.

If things are going wrong with you, read Heb. xii. If you are losing confidence in people, read 1 Cor. xiii. If ;vou desire to be saved for ever and ever, read St. John iii. NOT APPRECIATED. Bishop Ernest M. Stires went to Hobart College to preach, taking his son with him. He chose the letters in the word Hobart as a guide for his sermon, and growing enthusiastic over his subject, preached a full sermon on each letter, H for lionesty, 0 for order, and so on, preaching for over an hour. As they were leaving the chapel a boy back of Ernest Stires asked another what he thought of the sermon and the reply was, “ I’m glad I didn’t go to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.”—Kenyon College Bulletin. EINSTEIN HAS TO BE CAREFUL. When Dr Albert Einstein, of Relativity fame, was in New York recently, he paid a visit to Dr Fosdick’s new church on drive, expressly to see the statue of himself, which has a place along with 13 scientists of past ages, in an arch of scientists over the west portal. As the only living member of the company, Dr Einstein expressed his satisfaction at the unquestionable fitness of the other 13, but modestly doubted his own eligibility for inclusion in the gallery. While his eyes quietly twinkled with amusement, Professor Einstein remarked: “I will have to be very careful for the rest of my life as to what I do and what I say.” Dr Einstein also appreciated greatly the liberality of spirit which made it possible for a religious institution, a church, to give unstinted recognition to men and women from so many races and from all the great religions. Such a thing could not possibly be done anywhere in Europe, he said.

LIVINGSTONE’S AFRICAN SERVANT. Forty-three years ago Jacob Wainwright, Livingstone’s faithful African servant, died in the Tanganyika village of Urambo, but" there has been no memorial on bis grave, which has, indeed, been in danger of being swallowed up in the African bush. Missionaries of the Moravian Church in America have now provided a large, but simple, brass tablet, designed, cast, and presented by the Moravian congregation at Winston-Salem, North Carolina, which is to be erected over the grave on the mission land formerly the property of the London Missionary Society, but now belonging to the Moravians. The tablet bears testimony to Wainwright’s faithful service. SHEEP AND GOATS. The late Rev. David Allan possessed a fine sense of humour; which often saved an awkward situation. In one of bis parishes there was a very active ministerial brother wig) hardly played the game with his brother ministers. The church anniversary was coming on and the other ministers of the town being invited to the anniversary had a consultation as_ to whether they would respond to the invitation or decline to attend. _ They resolved to go and give some straight talk about “ sheep stealing.” The Anglican minister spoke first, and in scathing terms denounced the methods pursued. When Mr Allan’s turn Chine he could not agree with his Anglican brother, for he did not believe there had been any “ sheep stealing.” " Of course,” he said, “ when I look round I can see a few goats who used to attend my church, but the sheep are all right, there are none of them here.” MARK GUY PEARSE STORIES. At an afternoon service a celebrated but touchy singer had been engaged to render a solo. Just the service some dispute arose as to the fee the singer would receive, and eventually, in a huff, he said he would not sing at all. When the time came to announce this singer Mark Guy Pearse said: “Mr So-and-So was to have given a solo, but owing to a slight difference of opinion he has declined to do so, so we will sing hymn No. , beginning at the second part of the first verse: — Let those refuse to sing Who never knew our God, But servants of the heavenly King May speak their joys abroad." It was Mark Guy Pearse who first told the oft-repeated story of the drunken sweep who found his way into the village chapel during evening service. His fearsome appearance caused consternation in the congregation, and everyone made a mad rush for the door, thinking, apparently, that the sweep was the devil. All managed to escape, except an old woman who suffered from rheumatism. In a paroxysm of terror she went down on her knees, clasped her hands together, and cried: “Oh, sir, please don’t take me, I ain’t a member! ”