THE SUNDAY CIRCLE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22208, 10 March 1934, Page 23

THE SUNDAY CIRCLE

RELIGIOUS READING FOR THE HOME THOU DOST KNOW BEST. Thou imght’st have made me climb by shallow stairs, . By soft steps, hollowed in a sheltered place, With frequent pause to breathe my easy prayers, And plenteous oil for my small lamp of (•race — But so -I —l surely had not met Thee face to face. Tbou might’st have made my path a sunlit way. Wreathed with blooms, and jubilant with song, Whereon I might have mounted day by day With confidence, serene and glad and strong— But so—l had not known Thy love endured so long. i Thou dost know best—upon that painful road By which my feet have climbed were rifts of sea And sky and heaven —Thou dost know best, oh God, Through bitter gleams these splendours break on me— Aught else has cramped Thy love’s immensity. —Mary M. Curchod. A PRAYER. Eternal Father, we turn to Thee. We are beset with many fears and anxieties. Thou art our only hope. We acknowledge our foolishness, our weakness, our sin. Have mercy upon us and pity our helplessness. Open our eyes to see Thy Love and Power and Truth. Give us a humble spirit and a childlike heart. Bend our thoughts, and the thoughts of all men, to Thy purpose, our wills to Thy will, that we may do always what is right according to Thy law. Grant that in our obedience true happiness may enter our lives and true prosperity and peace come to the distracted world. For Christ’s sake. Amen. A TEXT FOR EACH DAY’S MEDITATION. Sunday.—" In the beginning God created the Heaven and the earth.”—Genesis 1:1. " By the Word of the Lord were the Heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. For He spake arid it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast.” —Psalm 33:6 and 9. Monday.—“ Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God: Which made the Heaven and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever.” —Psalm 146:5 and 6. 'Tuesday.—“He who hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and meted out Heaven with the span, and comprebend the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance.” — Isaiah 40:12. Wednesday.—"He hath made the earth by His power, He hath established the world by His wisdom, and hath stretched out the Heaven by His understanding. When He uttereth His voice. . . . He maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of His treasures.”Jeremiah 51:15 and 16 Thursday.—" 0 the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counseller? ” Romans 11:33, 34, Friday. —“ Or who hafli first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto Him again. For by Him, and through Him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.”—Romans 11:35, 36, Saturday.—" For by Him were all things created, that are in Heaven, and that are in the earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created bv Him and for Him. —Colossians 1:10.—H. R. Higgens. in A.C.W. AN IMPROVEMENT. And there came unto Shakum one who read the pyramids like a book and was almost certain as to the exact date of the end of the world. And he explained unto Shakum that whilst he knew all these things he feared that his family hated him. And Shakum having agreed with him that this probably was so, urged him in future, beginning with his own family, to try to cure fevered humanity, not so much with the barometer of prophecy, as with the thermometer of sympathy. And when he began to do this everyone was much happier.—M. .in C.W. WITH AND FOR. The deepest hell would be to have everything to live with and nothing to live for.—Dr H. B. Fosdick, in The Hope of the World. ARE MISSION SCHOOLS WORTH WHILE? An article in the Jewish Missionary Intelligence gives a decided affirmative by way of answer. ; A Jewish girl in Bucharest left a mission school at the age of 16 and married- Her chief impression from the school was the obvious goodness and sympathy of one of her teachers. Her married life was unhappy, the. husband being cruel and profligate. I The girl returned to her mother, and often saw her old teacher. By this sympathetic teacher she was led to Jesus. Then came the - great test. Would she face the pain and heartache of going back to her husband? She did so. It was a time of cruel testing, but she came through well. She neither preached nor criticised but just lived the life, and prayed. Gradually it affected her husband. Eventually she had the joy of leading him to the Saviour. The man’s conversion meant the loss of half their income, but they faced it together. The man himself is now a soul-winner, tearless and unashamed. Who can doubt the value of mission schools? Yet it depends of course upon the raisisonaries who teach in them. THOUGHTS TO PONDER. There is no cosmetic for homely folks like character. Even the plainest face becomes beautiful and noble in radiant moods. Moral courage is more worth having than physical, not only because it is a higher virtue, but because the demand for it is more constant. A man who has work that suits him and a wife whom he loves, has squared his accounts with life. We must educate our desires, and the first lesson taught must bo that they are not our masters.

In order to persuade men it is necessary to know them.

SAYINGS OF THE WEEK. Writing in the Christian Century. Mr Edward Shillito remarks that the sayings of the week which he has noted are somewhat on the gloomy side. Mr Wells in his discourse on “Whither Britain?”; “The nations are arming, arming, arming—drifting steadily towards nightmare possibilities of bloodshed, murder, and destruction never dreamed of before in human experience.” Mr Wells went on to plead as he has done before for an economic international council. The League of Nations, he thought, was too political. The bishop of Birmingham calls upon us to remember'that further wars mean the end of Western civilisation. Other civilisations have arisen and passed away. We need not be surprised if ours did not withstand the rough usage of war. Mr St. John Irvine said that the mood of modern drama was one of despondency. He quoted as examples Mr Noel Coward, Mr Sean O'Casey, and Mr Bernard Shaw. One, a young man of 34; another, a middle-aged man of 49: another, an old man of 77—a1l agree in their despair. A'PRINCELY GIFT. Mr William Craig, a working upholsterer, of Aberdeen, Scotland, has repaid an ill life did him in a notable manner. Through lack of means, he was unable, when a young man, to receive a university education, and he determined, in consequence, to make what provision he could to enable poor boys and girls to secure the advantage he had missed. His wages never exceeded £3 a week, and for the greater part of his long working life

must have been less; yet eventually be was able to leave £6OOO to the Aberdeen University.

PURE FLAPDOODLE

“ Sometimes people develop a contempt of the Church and sav that it is easier to live a Christian life outside than it is inside it. But that,” writes Dr Richard Roberts in the New Outlook (Toronto). “is pure flapdoodle. I have known a number of Rood Christian people who were outside the Church; but I met none who would'not have been better Christians inside the Church. And I confess to entire impatience with people who profess to be Christians, and stand outside it and criticise it. If the Church isn’t to their liking, then why in the name of God do they not come in and help t» make it more so? ” WHAT THE LION SAID. A clerical correspondent tells of how he heard, in his youth, a well-known North-country lecturer, Peter Mackenzie, speaking on Daniel. “ Daniel appeared at the door of the den,” Peter Mackenzie said. “ Coom in, Mr Dan’l,” said th’ owd lion, wiping a chair with his tail, ‘we don’t get a pnsson here ivery day.’” NEW METHODS OF RAISING MONET AT A BAZAAR. Beg or buy a watch; sell the seconds at a penny each. This is done by asking a great many people to each sell sixt" seconds—that js, one minute —which represents ss. As there are 60 minutes in an hour, each hour represents £ls, apd as there are 12 hours round the face of the watch, this amounts to £IBO. When all the seconds are sold the watch is wound up, and when it stops becomes the property of the person whose name is written against the second at which it stops.