THE SUNDAY CIRCLE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23354, 20 November 1937, Page 26

THE SUNDAY CIRCLE

RELIGIOUS READING FOR THE HOME \ “THINK THIS OF ME” When they have laid me in the ground And the brief years begin to pass; Before the unremembered mound Sinks to the level of the grass. If any speech should be of me Among the men whose hearts are

P Ur6 > , ■ i i I would that this the speech might

be Ere silence follow swift and sure. “He had his doubts and question-

ings; But as he lived they fell to rest; He learnt to love all simple things, And simple folk, they pleased him

best. “He did not seek the rich and

great: He did not hanker after fame: Him words of praise did not elate. Nor did he shrink from words of

blame. “So ran his days, and as they ran They freshened, and their sweetness grew; And when they ceased, a light began To buoy the hearts of us who knew. “We do not mourn him, for the faith He held consorts not with the tomb; Rather he cast a light on death Than death on him could cast a gloom.” —The late Dr R. F. Horton. PRAYER Grant, O Lord, that Christ Himself may be formed in us, that we may be made conformable to His image, that when we are lukewarm fn prayer and stand in need of any grace or of heavenly consolation, we may remember His appearance in the Presence of God, and His intercession for us: for His Name’s sake. Amen. Bishop Andrewes; A TEXT FOR EACH DAY “Goodness and Mercy” Sunday.—“ The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth. Keeping mercy for thouin truth. Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” —Exodus xxxiv: 6 and 7.

Monday.—“ The Lord is my Shepherd: I shall not want. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.” —Psalm xxiii: 1 and 6.

Tuesday.—“ The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him.”—Psalm ciii: 8 and 11. Wednesday.—" Call unto- Me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. Praise the Lord of Hosts, for the Lord is good; for His Mercy endureth for ever.”—Jeremiah xxxiii: 3 and 11.

Thursday.—“ And thinketh thou this, O man . . . that thou shall escape the judgment of God. Or despisest thou the riches of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.”—Romans ii: 3 and 4. Friday.—“ The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness and faith. Meekness and temperance, against such there is no law. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”—Galatians v: 22. 23 and 25. Saturday.—" Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord: that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy.”—James v: 11. “He faileth not.”—Zephaniah ui: —H. R. Higgens. in A.C.W. SAYINGS OF THE WEEK Christian faith establishes the only genuine Communism by_ the dictatorship of the Holy Spirit.—Professor Emil Brunner. When “ progressives ” tell us that education should “inculcate habits of co-operation,” let us remember that no man’s co-operation is worth having unless he can think for himself. —Lord Eustace Percy. Be sure of this—when you are left alone you will never be left alone; there will certainly come the evil one, and there will always came the Holy One.—The Rev. Guy H. King. There will never be a moment when God will see the believer in Christ as any otherwise than absolutely perfect.—The Rev. Colin C. Kerr. . , We are living in a world of unrest, and uncertainty, and fear, and to some of us the only hope seems to be in a real spiritual revival. — The Rev. W. H. Aldis. . THE KESWICK TRADITION About 5000 people attended the Keswick Convention —the sixtysecond—held in July last under the chairmanship of the Rev. W. H. Aldis. Keswick, he said, at the opening meeting, could not expect to escape criticism, and he was reading recently that “ like every other spiritual movment, Keswick is living on a past tradition and its holiness is no longer a consuming fire but a comfortable warm fellowship and self-complacency, and a sort of spiritual carnival.” Thank God, that was not true. “A CHURCH AFLAME” Lady Mary Fletcher, writing on the Group Movement in The Guardian, quotes Bishop West, of Rangoon, as saying to the Oxford Conference on Life and Work that his vision of the Church, based on the experience of a wholly new and vital quality of life growing in his diocese in the last two years, was that of a fellowship in Christ of men working in honest transparency with each other, into whose lives God had come. In this new Church the distinctions would not lie between different sects but between men who had found the victory of Christ in their personal lives and those who were still defeated, or between those who were living under God’s control and those who are stilt under the domination of fear and self. This condition was the quality of fellowship which only comes first, when men are constantly and completely honest with each other; secondly, when they are trusting in the guidance of the Spirit to carry them through all decisions; thirdly, when they are forsaking all secondary conditions for the real work of life-changing; and lastly, when they are really willing to be of no reputation. CHRISTIAN SCIENCE CHURCHES “ Soul and Body ” is ihe subject of the lesson-sermon in all Churches of Christ, Scientist, to-morrow. The golden text is "My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from Him.” (Psalm 62: 5.) Among the citations which comprise

the lesson-sermon are the following from the Bible: “For we walk by faith not by sight; we are confident, I say, and willin rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5: 7,8.) The lesson-sermon also contains me following passage from the Christian Science textbook, “ Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy: “ Soul is the substance, life, and intelligence of man, which is individualised, but not in matter.