THE SUNDAY CIRCLE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21650, 21 May 1932, Page 3

THE SUNDAY CIRCLE

RELIGIOUS READING FOR THE HOME DO IT NOW! Friend, iu this world of worry, and work, and sudden end, If a thought comes_ quick of doing a kindness to a friend, Do it that blessed minute, don’t put it off, don’t wait, What’s the use of doing a kindness if you do it a day too late? A PRAYER FOR THE FAMILY, Behold, 0 Lord our God, a grateful household bowed reverently before Thee. For every favour bestowed upon our home in days gone by we unitedly bless Thee. Keep us faithful to Thee and loyal to one another. Help us to be thoughtful, sympathetic, and kind. We think fondly of those severed from us by distance. Thou, 0 Lord, art in every place, and from Thee no lands or oceans can cut us off. We rejoice, therefore, that those who are absent from each other are still present with Thee, and we pray Thee to have in Thy holy keeping all those dear ones of whom we are now thinking, and grant that both they and we, by drawing near to Thee, may be drawing near to one another, bound together by the unseen chain of Thy love, in the communion of Thy Spirit and the Holy fellowship of Thy saints. In the quiet of this hour/ we would recall all that Thou hast been to us and done for us in the past. We thank Thee for dear ones who watched over us in love and taught us by their lives of fa th to put our trust in Thee. We thank Thee for the blessed dead, for the many known to us and dear to us, of whom we think as being with Thyself. We thank Thee for all true friends; for the precious memories of home; for the house of God where, in joy and sorrow, we have sought Thee; for baptism and the Lord’s supper and all gracious influences that have helped to make us tender and to keep us true. Pardon all our wilfulness and waywardness and especially our forgetfulness of Thee. Ann hear us as we pray; Our Father Which art in heaven. . . • Amen.

A TEXT FOR EACH DAY’S MEDITATION. Sunday.—" I know that my Redeemer llveth.” —Job 19:25. . . “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart he acceptable in Thy sight, 0 Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.” —Psalm 19:14. . Monday.—“ Their Redeemer is mighty, He shall plead their cause with thee. Proverbs 23:11. ... “Fear not ... I will help thee, saith the Lord and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.” —Isaiah 41:14. “ I even I, am the Lord, and beside Me there is no Saviour.”—lsaiah 43:11. Tuesday. — i( Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, I am the first, and I am the last, and beside me there is no God. ear ye not, neither be afraid; have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? Ye are even my witnesses. —lsaiah 46:6 and 8. . . Wednesday.—" Thy Maker is thine husband, the Lord of hosts in His name, and Thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer.”—lsaiah 54:5 and 8. , , ~ Thursday.—" When the enemy shall come in like a flood the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. And tlie Redeemer shall come to Zion and unco them that turn from transgression , in Jacob, saith the Lord.” —Isaiah 59:19 and 20. Friday.—“ Their Redeemer is strong, the Lord of hosts is His Name. He shall thoroughly plead their cause. —Jcr. ou; 34 “0f Him ye are in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption.”—l Corinthians 1:30. Saturday.—" In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches ot Ilia grace.”—Ephesians 1:7. . ' , “ If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand-of God, Set your, affections on things above not on things on the earth.” —Colossians 3:1 and —jj Higgens, in A.C.W. WORTH THINKING OYER. Thou oughtest often to have recourse to the Fountain of grace and of Divine mercy, to the Fountain of goodness and all purity; that thou mayest be healed of thy sins and passions, and obtain to be made more strong and valiant against all the temptations and deceits of the devil.—Thomas A. Kcmpis. & & * Never in any experience of God, here or hereafter, by saint or sinner, will God reveal Himself other than as we know Him in Jesus Christ. That is to me the bed-rock of all my thinking and the assurance of all my hope. —Dr R. G. Macintyre. v * & “Every life must have an Alpine district. The mountains of rectitude are gathered in awe-inspiring majesty. The rivera of grace have their rise in these Alps of righteousness. The river of the water of life flows out of the great white throne. Get thee up into the high mountains.” ¥ * * , “ Diseipleship is an individual matter, and means different things to different men. It leads to varying experiences, according to man’s individuality, his loyalty and his courage. No two are alike. No two suffer alike. In Christ’s service there is no necessary equality of sacrifice.” CAN THE SERMON SURVIVE? “What is the matter with (he Protestant sermon? ” asks E. G. Hdmrighausen in a challenging article in The Christian Century (Chicago). “There is a vacuum in our preaching that makes it hollow and dead. I 'have to confess that it is found oft-times in the unlettered and obscure preacher. And I have to confess, in the face of my modern pride, that the preaching of a generation ago possessed a remarkable mysterious radiance and power that I pray in my desperation to possess. “ Have preachers no ‘ good news ’ to proclaim that has invaded our world from the mysterious and inaccessible heights; no gospel they ought and must preach? Has Protestantism nothing but analyses, exhortations, philosophy, sociology, or psychology to preach? Is Protestantism only a negative blur? Are preachers essayists, critics, hesitant connoisseurs of intcllectim] notions, informant? • The history of preaching in the last few centuries reveals a shift from an objective to a subjective emphasis.” DISCONTENT. Discontent shows an incomplete consecration. An entirely consecrated man has ceased to choose his lot in life. He believes he is in the place where God wants him to be. He believes that “ all things work together for good to them that love God.” If we are wholly consecrated, we arc just waiting divine orders to go or stay. If we are discontented, we need to ask to have the “old man” destroyed, who is the author of the spirit of rebellion in our hearts, that chafes at divine providence. DR ORCHARD ON CONVERSION. As conversion went out of fashion, said Dr Orchard in King’s Weigh House Church recently, coercion came in; it was the alternative. In the absence of conversion society would be driven to try to coerce people into goodness. Rousseau said, “Man is born free, and is everywhere in chains.” Nonsense! Man was born in chains, and only Christ could set

him free. Conversion, Dr Orchard said, was characteristic of Christianity. It was not to be denied that it existed over a wide range of human nature, but in Christianity, which had coined the word, it found classic expression. In Christianity it was experienced among the most unexpected people. It had taken place among so many types that nobody was immune. There was such a thing as sudden conversion, but there was no real difference between sudden and gradual conversion. It might be like the dawn or the turn of the tide, imperceptible, but certain. ’TIS EVEN SO IN LIFE. We sat in the theatre and marvelled at the wonder of the changing scenes. And later at the stage door we saw the men who did it all. . . And they were just ordinary people in battered bowler hats. M. THE VALUE OF A THEOLOGICAL COURSE. In his “Indiscretions of a Preacher,” Dr Norwood says—“ Ido not know what I got out of my theological course. What has always appalled me about the specific training of ministers is its unreality. The boy who passes straight from school to the university and the theological college so often comes out of it a lamb. When he touches the raw elemental things of life he feels naked. I have seen many of them shed this specialised training as if they had sloughted off their skin when- life struck them straight between the eyes.” CHINA—A PUZZLE TO HERSELF. “To no small degree China is still a puzzle to the world,” says Dr Cheng Ching-Yi, moderator of the Church of Christ in China, in an address published in “Youth’s Adventure with God.” “This, however, is not to be wondered at, for not only the people of the Western world are puzzled about the China situation; the Chinese themselves find it extremely difficult to follow intelligently all that is taking place in their midst. China is now in the remaking. ... A new China is emerging. . . . It is in this state of transition that we find ourselves.” THE LEPROSY PROBLEM. “The Present Position of the World Leprosy Problem ” was discussed by Sir Leonard Rogers at a recent L.M.S. missionary luncheon for business men. Leprosy, he said, was one of the most ancient of diseases. At the present time it is clear that there are millions of lepers in the world. In India alone there are 500,000, and in China possibly 2,000,000. Up to the last 20 years or so the disease was regarded as incurable, but within the past 10 or 15 years the whole outlook has completely changed for thc_ better. If only the children could be isolated from the infected parents it might be possible actually to stamp out the disease altogether. A recent important step has been the formation of an International Leprosy Association.