SUNDAY CIRCLE.

Southland Times, Issue 17004, 30 March 1912, Page 9

SUNDAY CIRCLE.

. —<>»■> ■ - (Condutcod by Wm. Haycock.) “MOVE'S SSXOTSFH.” ‘‘Up Thy Hill of Sorrows, Thou all alone, Jesus, Man's .Redeemer, Climbing, to a Throne: Thro’ the world triumphant. Thro' the Church in pain, Which think to look upon Thee Xo more again. Upon my Hill of Sorrows I. Lord, with Thee, Cheered, upheld, yea. carried, If a need should be: Cheered, upheld, yea, carried, Xever left alone. Carried in Thy heart of hearts To a Throne.” “And sitting down, they watched Him there.” —Matt. 27. 26; What a soul-absorbing vision is the Cross of Christ! The measured head of the marching years do not drown the sounds of its many voices. The advance of culture and knowledge do not rob it of its winsomencss and charm. Scholarship In admiration lays its erudition at its foot.' Xoble lives and Christian heroism] dally sacrifices and timeless sanctity bow'in reverence before its passion and its power. The Cross is the Christian's shrine; still the abiding altar of sacrifice and prayer. Devotion’s fires are kindled there. It speaks cf the sovereignty of love, the crown Of consecration, the power of holy purpose, the road to true redemption, arid the matchless unveiling of a heart of boundless love. We will In imagination join those far aWay watches by the Cross, and learn If it has any message for the soul. But we must go unhampered and alone. Theological preconceptions and dogmatic conclusions are not helpful at the Cross when the soul stays there to learn. Calvary has a message for the heart; its sweetest words are not uttered to the mind. Love cannot be confined in human categories; the passion of Calvary is too high and deep for the measures of the intellect. It is the' place for the outgoing of the affections, for the travelling of the heart. Xo place is more congenial for the scul that longs for holiness than the Cross of Christ. There the unutterod longings ca.n be spoken: there. the broken story of chattered hope; and faithless days can be told: there, the loftiest aspirings cf the human spirit can be breathed. for at that place of "holy dying" Jesus comes to the soul to cheer and to comfort and to bless. "I find a re?cl divine That ir.oetelh need of min?, Xo rigid fate I meet, no law austere, I cce my God who turns And o’er His creatures yearns; Upon the Cross, God gives, and claims, the tear." Ye?: at the Cross God identified Himself in Jesus with tho sufferings of man., I learn there that God has not been blind to the aches and sorrows of men throughout the year.;. His heart, lias been moved in a way that I can never understand when He has seen the poverty and pain, the heart break, and wrong, which has shattered and broken the term and beauty of the world Jesus endured the Cross'to remind us that God was willing to go to the furthest limits to save the souls of men. He showed once and for all that there is a saving element in sacrificial suffering. .To-m suffered to save. Pie died to red'em. Pie agonised to alter. He travelled in order to triumph. On the Cross Jesus descended to my state of "ufferiris that J might be lifted, to HI-, as'ale of ultimata vimey. And so mu-'d it ever be. The way to the empty temb and the heavenly throne in through my Goth ■•emane; and by ;nv Calvary?'! life's precious jewels are rot in life’s sorrows and pains. Death leads the wav to glory and the coronation daw On all the emblems of Calvary there will remain the trace-, of tears and agony. I shall be redeemed by the pa-sicn of the Cross spill present with the watchers there. I would learn, too. Unit earth'.; apparent failures are Heaven's denial triumph?. The watchers thought it was tho end of the apostate; they thought Hint Christ's death* was the end of His life; that the world had been relieved r f Him for ever. But a consecrated life- it not disposed of in that way. Men cannot silence for over tho voices of a God-filled life by crucifying ihc body. Failure may bo the pronouncement, of a supr-nlciul world ai the end of the brieioet life, but if given

to God. and lived for Him. it lives on. heedless - of the passing cf decades and the storms of years. Heaven sings when earth forgets. Heaven praises when the world ignores. God remembers If man passes out Of human recollection. Our toil may seem fruitless and our work barren, but the harvest is growing above. Man writes failure across the pages of life's book, but God inscribes victory, glorious victory, upon the records in the books of Heaven. And so, Jervis of my soul, Illumine my gloom by the light of Thy Cross. When lonely and discouraged, send me tho cheer and-comfort of Calvary's spirit. When suffering the pain and sorrow of the world, send me some promise of the nltimato triumph beyond the tomb. Lift me nearer to Thyself. Influence mo with Thy pa~sion. Fashion me by Thy love. And let the light of Thy Cross Illumine my pathway to tho skies. LORD LISTER. Lord Lister, tho famous surgeon and discoverer of the antiseptic treatment in surgery, died on Saturday at Park House, Walmer. at the age of eighty-five.,lt has been said that modern surgery had Its birth in Professor Lister’s wards in the Glasgow Infirmary in IS6G. Lord Lister had been honoured by almost every university in the kingdom, and was a. member of many learned societies abroad. He was Sergeant-Surgeon to Queen Victoria and to King Edward, He was created u Baronet in ISR3 and,a Baron in 1597. The Order of Merit was conferred upon him by King Edward in 1902 when ho was also made a Privy Councillor. The Dean of Westminster offered that tho funeral should take place in W estnunstpr Abbey,- but It was the distinguished scientist’s wish that he should be burled beside his wife at Hampstead. SIIS JOHIT SIBK. Mr H. Ernest Wood, chairman of the Ragged School Union and, Shaftesbury Society-, and Mrs Wood held a meeting at tho Baptist Church House, Southamp-ton-row, to welcome Sir Jtflm Kirk, tho .secretary of the H.S.U., on his return from Australia. New Zealand, and Canada. During his tour, which covered 40,000 miles, Sir John Kirk visited 168 institutions and schools, spoke at 10.) public meetings, and was present at 64 public receptions. THE STORY 02? A MIRACLE. In his address to the children Mr Jones, of Bournemouth, England, told a remarkable true story sent him a few clays ago by a friend in Devonshire. A child lay sick In a country cottage, and her younger sister heard the doctor say, as he left the house, ‘‘Nothing but a miracle can, save her.” The little girl went to her money-box, took out the few coins it contained, and in perfect simplicity of heart went to shop after shop in the village street, asking, “Please, I want to buy a miracle.” From each she came away disappointed. Even the local chemist had to say, “My clear, we don t sell miracles here.” But outside his door two men were talking, and had overheat d the child’s request. One was a groat doctor from a London hospital, anc. he asked her to.explain what site wanted. When he understood the need, he hurried with her to the cottage, examined the sick girl, and said to the mother, “It is. true —only a miracle can save her. and it must be performed at onqo.” He got his instruments, performed the operation. and the patient's life was saved. As Mr Jones told this story, and gave hi? personal guarantee of its truth, I thought that them was here a tale not less remarkable than that of the Hoi?, Thorn, —the curing of a sick child which so stirred the heart of Pascal. He wrote afterwards: "S’ll y a lies miracles, il y a done qttelque chose au-dessus de ce que nous appelons la Nature. (If miracles happen, it follows that there is something above that which wo call Nature.”)