THE SUNDAY CIRCLE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23108, 6 February 1937, Page 3

THE SUNDAY CIRCLE

RELIGIOUS READING FOR THE HOME CHANGELESS God will not change! The restless years may bring . Sunlight and shade—the glories of the spring, *> . The silent gloom of useless winter hours; . Joy mixed with grief—sharp thorns with fragrant flowers. Earth lights may shine a while and then grow dim, But God is true! There is no change in Him. Rest in the Lord to-day and all thy days, Let His unerring hand direct thy ways Through the uncertainty, and hope. and fear, That meet thee on the threshold of the year; And find while all life's changing scenes pass by Thy refuge in the love that cannot die. —Edith Hickman Divall. PRAYER O Lord, we know not what we may be asking for when we ask Thee to purge us thoroughly from our transgressions, but we beseech Thee to help us to look upon things as Thou dost look upon them and to count all things less than the excellency of the knowledge and the likeness of Jesus Christ our Lord. So may we be willing to yield ourselves to Thy discipline, whether it comes in outward sorrows or in the movement of Thy Spirit in our spirits. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

FOR EACH DAY'S MEDITATION " LOVE TO GOD, AND CHRIST " Sunday.—" What doth the Lord require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul."—Deut. x, 12. Monday.—" Take diligent heed to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all His ways, and to keep His commandments, and to cleave unto Hin, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul."—Joshua xxii. 5. Tuesday.—" Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, that ye love the Lord your God."—Joshua xxiii, 11. "O love the Lord, all ye His saints; for the Lord preserveth the faithful.— "Psalm xxxi, 23. "Delight thyself also in the Lord: and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart."—Psalm xxxvii, 4. Wednesday.—" Because he hath his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him; I will set him on high, because he hath known my name."—Psalm xci. 14. "The Lord preserveth all those that love Him."—Psalm cxlv, 20. " I love them that love Me: and those that seek Me early shall find Me."— Proverbs viii, 17. Thursday.—" He that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him. If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make Our abode with him."—John xiv: 15 and 23. Friday.—"As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you; continue ye in My love."—John xv: 9. "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. If. any may love God, the same is known of Him." —1 Corinthians viii: 3. Saturday.—" The fruit of the Spirit is love."—Galatians v: 22. "Whoso keepeth His Word in him verily is the love of God perfected; hereby know we that we are in Him. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." —1 John ii: 5 and 15. —H. R. Higgens in A. C. W.

MAORI PROGRESS Speakers in the Waiapu Synod stated . that there were many signs of changes - among the Maori people. There was a » growing refinement, a feeling after ' social amenities, a desire for better I things (reports the Gazette). It might be seen in the number of Maori chil- > dren attending high schools and in the : greater care the parents were taking • for the education of their children. . This was reacting on the people and : bringing fresh problems for the Maori • clergy. They had to be chairmen of every committee in their communities, • requiring greater organising ability 1 and a social standard to give them this leadership. Unfortunately the stipends provided did not enable them to take their proper place in the community. That a higher standard was necessary , was recognised by both Maoris and pakehas. The clergyman must be given . means to fit himself for his work. The ! synod decided that a priest should be , appointed to assist the Bishop of Aotearoa. It was thought desirable that the • Maori Church paper should be revived to facilitate unity of outlook. BAILIFFS THREATEN A CATHEDRAL The Bishop of Saskatchewan recently ! lias been trying to raise in England ■ about £ISOO to save his cathedral from being seized by creditors on account of the failure of the diocese to pay interest on the loan to erect it. raised "at a time when there was every reason to feel confident of discharging 1 it." • Alas! there are parishes in this diocese which had the same confidence, says the Church News, Christchurch. CHRISTIAN SCIENCE CHURCHES " Spirit" is the subject of the lessonsermon in all Churches of Christ, Scientist, to-morrow. The golden text is "We all, with open face beholding as in a glass fhe glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." (11 Corinthians, iii, 18.) Among the citations which comprise

the lesson-sermon are the following from the Bible:—"But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ, Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." (Ephesians, iv, 7, 13.) The lesson-sermon also includes* the following passage from the Christian Science Health with Key to the Scriptures," by Mary Baker Eddy:—"Man understands spiritual existence in proportion as his treasures of Truth and Love are enlarged. Mortals must gravitate Godward, their affections and aims grow spiritual,—they must near the broader interpretations of being, and gain some proper sense of the infinite —in order that sin and mortality may be put off." AN INTERESTING CONTRAST A significant contrast in ideals of Christian fellowship was presented in the Welsh Methodist Synod at Penmachno, when the Rev. E. Berwyn Roberts, of Colwyn Bay, appealed for the restoration of corporate prayer to a central place in church life, and Dr J*. Henry Jones, of Mallagerni. appealed to Methodists for a more profound interest in the Sacrament of the Holv Communion as an integral part of church ritual. Dr Jones advocated the production of a Methodist Prayer Book on the lines of the Prayei Book of the Established Church for use in Methodist churches. In the same synods Methodists have been urged to revive church prayer of the traditional spontaneous type and to support the use of a Book of Offices which provides forms of service for worship and the recognition of several orders of church officers.