THE SUNDAY CIRCLE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22368, 15 September 1934, Page 23

THE SUNDAY CIRCLE

RELIGIOUS READING FOR THE HOME. “ OF EVERY ROAD.” He walks the road with me on sweet spring nights. When sunsets whisper down behind the hills Like echoes of foreign lullabies. His hand is comradely upon my arm And quiet fields seem the fairer, by His side; - All earth new-tuned is fraught with wonder sweet Since once He fashioned yokes for patient beasts Who drew the ploughs in Nazareth long ago. And strong and sure He made stout oaken gates To guard the folds where all the wandering sheep Were safely gathered home at evening time. So, as He treads the twilight road with me. The very perfect Friend, I know the joy That came to those who tramped with Him the ways That wind along the shores of Galilee, And laughed with Him, like merry, carefree boys, And shared sweet crusted bread by roadside fires, Yet listened, as the sunset whispers ceased And stars flamed out above Judean hills, While He, their Comrade, spoke to them of Life, Of Death, of Love, of Wonder, and of God— » The God Who set the wheeling suns in space, Yet smoothed the feathers of a brighteyed bird, And carved the wistful wonder of a flower. —Gwendolyn L. M'Laren. August, 1934. PRAYER. 0 Thou, Who bast given to each of ns our work in life, we thank Thee for the quiet pressure of the hand of duty, for the steadying influence of our daily toil, for the blessing that comes to us in the consciousness of any service rendered faithfully as unto Thee; and we would pray for all those who are workless and hopeless in our land and world to-day. Give our peoples and our statesmen wisdom in the ordering of their industries and policies, that Thy rich bounties may become indeed a blessing to the family pi man. Amen. A TEXT FOR EACH DAY’S MEDITATION. “ FAITH EXEMPLIFIED,” Sunday.—“o Lord God Thou art that God: and Thy words be true, and Thou hast promised this goodness until Thy servant.”—2 Samuel 7: 28. “ Thou art my lamp, 0 Lord, and the Lord will lighten my darkness.”—2 Samuel 22; 29. Monday.—“As for God His way is perfect: the word of the Lord is tried. He is a buckler to all them that trust in Him.”—2 Samuel 22: 31. “He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure,” —2 Samuel 23: 5. Tuesday.—“ Be strong end of good courage and do it; fear not, nor be dismayed, for the Lord God, even my God, will be with thee. He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee, until thou has finished all the work.”—l Chronicles 28: 20.

Wednesday.—“ Lord, it is nothing with Thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power, help us, 0 Lord our God, for we rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go against this multitude. 0 Lord, Thou art our God, let not man prevail against Thee,” —2 Chronicles 14; 11,

Thursday. —“ Be strong and courageous, be not afraid. . . . With His is' an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God, to help us, and to light our battles.” —2 Chronicles 32: 7 and 8. “ I would seek unto God, and unto God would I commit _my cause.”—Job 5: 8. Friday. —“ Which doeth great things, and unsearchable; marvellous things without number, Who giveth rain upon the earth, and«sendeth water upon the fields. To set up on high those that be low; that those which mourn may be exalted in safety.”—Job 5: 9 to 11. Saturday.—“ Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed 6n Thee, because he tnisteth in Thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.” —lsaiah 26: 3 and 4. —H. R. Higgens, in A. C. W. KINGDOM OF GOD MOVEMENT TRAINS LEADERSHIP. The Japanese Christians are now giving large attention to leadership training conferences. Within the past few ■weeks several such conferences have been conducted, one of the most outstanding being that held under the auspices of the Kingdom of God movement in Tokio. It was concerned with the following prQblems:—Christian education, literary evangelism, industrial evangelism, social reconstruction, rural redemption, and international co-operation. Another interdenominational institute held at the Tokio Y.M.C.A. dealt with camp leadership, as camping is increasingly popular in Japan. CHALLENGE TO CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA. We read in the Christian that from amid the most religious people in the world there has arisen a blatant atheistic campaign. This originated in South India. At first is was known as the “ Self-Respect Movement.” It expressed the resentment of the ordinary caste folk against the priestly arrogance of the Brahmins. The leader of this movement went to Russia and gained first-hand knowledge of Bolshevist atheism. He returned to India, and led an “Anti-God” propaganda, teaching that religion is an obstacle to all progress. The movement has its preachers and press department, and is working in the villages as well as the towns. It constitutes a new and powerful challenge to the Christian Church in India. PALESTINE REVIVED. A Jewish medical doctor told a crowd of “Royal Empire” folk in the Scots Church Hall, Melbourne, that Palestine has entered on a new era thanks to Great Britain. It is notable that deserts are blossoming like the rose by irrigation methods, and that Australian eucalypti are making swamps into healthy land. In 13 years over £5,000,000 have been subscribed by wealthy Jews to help the Back to Zion movement. Tree planting is going on apace, over 1.000.00 Q having been planted in the last decade, and the climate is changing in consequence. We may look forward to a busy Jerusalem and a crowded group of towns about Galilee as in the days when Jesus walked Gennesaret. THE LIFE OF A HAPPY MAN. To awaken each morning with a smile brightening ray face; to greet the day with reference for the opportunities it contains; to approach my work with a clean mind; to hold ever before me, even in tire doings of little things, the Ultimate Purpose toward which I am working; to meet men and women with laughter on my lips and love in my heart; to be gentle, kind, and courteous through all the hours. To approach night with weariness that ever wooes sleep and the joy that conics from work well done —this is how I desire to waste wisely my days. —Thomas Dckker. A BUDDHIST REBUKE. “ While I and some other passengers were crossing the Irawadi in a sampan,” writes a Burmese colporteur oi the British and Foreign Bible Society to the Christian. “ one of the passengers, a Buddhist monk, asked me for a copy of the New Testament. 1 politely handed _ mm a copy but while he was reading it n lay passenger took it upon himself to reprove him for reading it. ‘My disciple,’ replied the monk, ‘if yon never read a worse book than this, and if you never fail to live up to its teaching, you need not fear 1 any of the four great punishments of the ! future life.’ After which he went on quietly reading.” A RESTLESS AGE. This is a restless age. Men are becoming victims of impatience and irritability. Nerves are strained and souls are sick. The passing of the old-fashioned Sunday,

with its tranquillity and peace, is a more serious loss to the nation and the individual than is generally realised. Those quiet Sabbaths were, and arc, resting places in the busy week; times for the storing up of energies; seasons of refreshment and renewal. It was then that the Good Shepherd made ns lie down in green pastures; then that he led us beside the still waters, restoring the soul. —Exchange, SOME WHOLESOME THINGS. It is easy, says Mr Charles T. Holman in the Christian Century, to become so obsessed with the pathological aspects of a city’s life that the good things are lost sight of. After all, most of what one observes is heartening. At the World’s Fair, Chicago, for example, the best things attract the largest crowds—the symphony concerts, the Shakespearian plays in the old Globe Theatre of “ Merrie England,” the halls of science and social science, the Horticultural Building, the Art Institute, the Planetarium, even the Hall of Religion (although I must confess that that exhibition almost makes me weep when I compare it with the Hall of Science). There is still more intelligence, and decency at large than their opposites, CANTERBURY ON LIVERPOOL. “Misdirected efforts” is the description which the Archbishop of Canterbury gives to certain recent tendencies toward reunion'. He meant, of course, the Liverpool experiment. He declared that if such happenings had passed without some authoritative protest if might have seemed as if the vital truth of Christ’s deity was lightly esteemed. He further stated that a reunion on the basis of tire elimination of all but truths accepted by all Christian people was valueless. He looked rather for a reunion in which all the treasures of the churches would be preserved. The Church of England had a great part to play seeing that it had affinities with the great Latin Church of the West and with the Orthodox churches of the East, and at the other ’ end with “ the various Protestant churches.” He believed that episcopacy was a divine provision for the _ right ordering of the Church, but he did not question, “the spiritual reality of duly constituted ministers of uon-episcopal bodies.” All this has the appearance of being definite and bold, but in reality there is in it an irritating vagueness, says Edward Shillito in the Christian Century.

CURIOUS TITLES, ADDRESSES; ETC,

From the Church Standard we learn that the Bishop of Colombo has received letters addressed to “The Officer-in-Charge of Confessions, Colombo ” and “His Holiness the Bish ”! The unfortunate Archdeacon in Jerusalem has on occasion ben styled “Venerable Enormity”! A few months ago the New York headquarters of the Church Army received a letter addressed to “ Mr Diocese Episcopal.” But imagine the surprise of Captain Atkinson, a Church Army officer, when ho read in a Massachusetts paper that “both his father and mother are vicars in the Mother Cbruch, the Church of England”!

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE CHURCHES. “ Substance ” is the subject of the lesson-sermon in all Churches of Christ, Scientist, to-morrow. The golden text is: “ My_ God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4: 10.) Among the citations which comprise the lesson-sermon are the following:—“ Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11: 1.) “Substance is that which is eternal and incapable of discord or decay. Truth, life, and love are substance, as the Scriptures use this word in Hebrew’s: ‘The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.’ Spirit, the synonym of mind, soul, or God, is the only real substance. The spiritual universe, including individual man, is a compound idea reflecting the divine substance of spirit.” (“ Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” by Mary Baker Eddy).