THE SUNDAY CIRCLE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21360, 13 June 1931, Page 5

THE SUNDAY CIRCLE

RELIGIOUS READING FOR THE HOME “IT DOTH NOT YET APPEAR,” By Arthur M. Kennedy. “It doth not yet appear” What in the end shall be; Some day, we know, ’twill all be clear; What now is dark we’ll see, God has in store a glad surprise— New glories of the starry skies. New wonders hidden from the wise— He’ll wipe away the tear. “It doth not yet appear!” He who wrote that word Was strangely called to suffer, here! But the voice of Love He heard, With eyes of faith foresaw the Day Reserved for those who watch and pray, Who, though they see not, yet obey, He felt His Father near. “It doth not yet appear” Why those who try their best To live aright, to scatter cheer / Should be so oft distrest; But in that Day, our questions flown, The way we came will be made known— We carry not the cross alone— And Christ will be eo near! PRAYER, We 'do not ask that Thou shouldst do for us anything that we desire. We ask that Thou shouldst do in us what Thou dost desire. We come before Thee with our need of strength. The sea of life is great and our ehips are small. The mountains of life are high and our paths lead over them. We need some wayside fountain of refreshment. We need another glimpse of Thine eternal stars. We need a margin of reserve around our need. 0 God, that we might be strengthened with might by Thy spirit in the inner man! We come with our need for courage. Thou living Spirit, lay Thy hands on men and women outwardly placid and comfortable, inwardly whipped and beaten. Fbr life, has laid a heavy weight on some of ue; death has come into our household, and we have been disapopinted in our friends; discouragements have met us in our practical affaire, and some of us know not how the next year’s living may be achieved. 0 God, we need the 'spirit of tmr fighting sires, who revealed the splendour of their souls when days were difficult. Speak to us, saying. Be not afraid. — Amen. ■ A TEXT FOR EACH DAY OF THE WEEK. VICTORY. 1 , Sunday.—“ This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?' —1 John 5:4-5. “ God giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”—l Cor. 15:57. 1 Monday.—" Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.”—Joshua 1:9. “ The Lord your God, He is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath.”— Joshua 2:11. Tuesday.—“ Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of His servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God.”—Isaiah 50:10.

Wednesday.—“ The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait f° r the salvation' of the Lord. Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: Thou saidst Fear not.”—Lamentations 3:25, 26, and 67. Thursday.—Jesus said, “If thou canat believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.”—Mafk 9:23,

“ The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.”—Luke 18:27. “ Said I not unto thee,' that, if thou .wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God? ’’ —John 11:40. Friday.—“ There > hath no temptation taken you but such ns is copmon to man; but God is faithful: Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able: but' will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to-bear it." —l -.Gor. 10:13.

Saturday.—“My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” —2 Cor. 12:9. “ Thanks be unto God which always causeth us to triumph in Christ." —2 Cor. 2:14. —H. R. Higgens, in A, C. W. v THAT IS WHAT WE DO. And Shakum the Preacher read the letter of the Bishops about the Unity of the Church and the replies of Free Churchmen thereto. And he fell asleep, t And, as he slept, he dreamed a dream. And in his dream he beheld a breakwater set in the midst of a stormy sea of wild and furious waves. And upon the breakwater were a large company of sailors, and they were busy discussing the design of their life belts and the fabric of their bathing costumes. And around them in the tossing waters a world was drowning. M. A TEST. As chairman of the London Hospital Lord Knutsford writes to The Times saying: “I simply cannot face the loss of £SOOO a year—a whole week’s upkeep of our hospital—which the kinema people have given me. . . I am really in despair if this is stopped. Will the Imperial Alliance for Sunday Defence make up the loss? I am not very hopeful when I note that the collections in places of worship in London are going down every year.” CHRISTIAN REUNION. The Oxford Evangelical Conference held in Oxford during April had as its general topic “The Basis of Anglican Doctrine ,and Fellowship,” with special reference to the Lambeth Report in regard to the reunion of the Episcopal churches of the East and West. Rev. C. M; Chavasse, presiding, said at the opening session that however passionately they might work for reunion, truth was greater than reunion, and they must never dream of gaining any measure of reunion through false pretences or at the expense of truth dearly bought and faithfully maintained. The supremacy of Scripture was as much a fundamental principal of the Church of England in 1931 as ever it was, and nothing had happened since the Reformation to impair its authority, but rather the reverse. . EMOTION IN RELIGION. The Rev. Lionel B. Fletcher, speaking in Exeter, said “they should not be afraid of emotion in religion. If they had a joyous emotion sweeping their soul when they fell in love, why should they not have a joyous emotion when they fell in love with Christ? Religion did not consist only of going to church and observing certain days and seasons, but of an intimate relationship with the heart of God."

CROSS CURRENTS IN GERMANY. Dr Siegmund Schultze, of Berlin, a prominent figure in international Christian movements, has beep visiting England with a view to enlisting the spiritual co-operation of the world’s religious leaders in a practical disarmament _ campaign. “ Germany is losing her will to peace,” he told a representative of the Christian World. “If all the nations round her are more heavily armed than ever she feels that morally, psychologically and logically she is entitled herself to arm.” At Somerville College, Oxford, ho will meet Lord Dickinson, Dr Rushbrooko, the Rev. Leyton Richards, and a company of American ministers, as well as statesmen of international reputation such as Viscount Cecil and Sir Francis Younghusband. “Germany,” he says, “has two drifts, or currents. One is towards religion, and this is strong in its youth movement and in the Labour Party. The other is away from religion, and is strong among the new-rich and the Communists. The economic situation is, of course, much worse in Central Europe than elsewhere. But if real disarmament by the Allies could be realised, the drift away from the will to peace could be stopped. Otherwise there, is grave danger ahead! ” LYMAN BEECHER LECTURES. Dr George A. Buttrick, of Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York, is giving the Lyman Beecher Lectures on Preaching at Yale University. Dr Buttrick is an Englishman who was trained for the ministry at Lancashire Independent College, In his lectures Dr Buttrick will speak on “Is There Room for the Preacher To-day?” “Is Christ Still the Preacher’s Authority?” “Preaching Christ to the Mind of To-day,” “Preaching Christ ffo the Social Order,” “ Preaching Christ to the Individual,” “ The Craftsmanship of the Preacher,”, “The Personality of the Preacher,” and “ The Cross —the Preacher’s Supreme Inspiration,” CHRISTIAN POLITICS. The Rev. Samuel Brown recently read a very suggestive paper on “ Christian Politics ” to a gathering of Baptist ministers and laymen. Politics, he said, dealt with many subjects in which the Christian might never become an expert, but he should be an expert in the creation and fostering of a spirit that would seek the Kingdom of God in and for his fellows. Neither the individual nor the Church might give full pledge to any party in its policy, but in the first loyalty to Jesus Christ they both must create the atmosphere by which, by means of politics, the Kingdom of God might more easily come. WORSE BEFORE BETTER. Sir George Paish, British economist, says that there are ways out of our’present economic difficulties but that we haven’t yet reached the place where we are ready to take them. One of our difficulties, as he sees it, is that we are still insisting that the present depression isn’t in any real way extraordinary or abnormal and that therefore the remedy may come along without much special seeking. Sir George believes that it will take the combined wisdom of the world working in co-opera-tion to get us out of our difficulty, but that we, ( tnay have to get further in before we are ready to do the thing that is needed. SOME THOUGHTFUL WORDS. Men win their satisfaction not by making little self-surrounding circles of complacent achievement, but oy allying .themselves with purposes greater than themselves —by losing themselves in a task and in a vision of greater moment than their own happiness and their own salvation. That is the temper of greatness; but it is %Jso the temper—at the end of content. —D. Helberington. * . * * ■■■> If we are to create a world order based on justice and love, those .values must reign in our own lives. The world crisis can only be met by a change in the very heart of each one of us.—Basil Mathews. * * * Thus to dedicate oneself may be as necessary and salutary for those who are naturally disposed to take life too hard as for those who are naturally disposed to take it too easy.—Dean Inge.