THE CHURCH

Southland Times, Issue 21581, 19 December 1931, Page 10

THE CHURCH

NEWS AND NOTES. FROM PULPIT AND PEW. Pastor L. P. Bryan will be the preacher at the North Invercargill Baptist Church on Sunday both morning and evening, when Christmas messages will be given. A special choral service will be held on Christmas night at 8 o’clock in the Salvation Army Citadel, Tay street. Christmas carols will be sung and musical items will be given by the Citadel Band and songsters, assisted by other local talent. Christmas carols and special anthems by the choir will be rendered at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church on Sunday night. Miss M. Jopp and Mr S. Anderson will be the soloists and the Rev. E. Gardiner will be the preacher. There will be a special choral service at the Esk Street Baptist Church on the Lord’s Day. Some of the messages to be sung by a large choir will be: “And the Glory of the Lord,” “I Thou that Tellest Good Tidings,” “Glory to God” and the “Hallelujah Chorus.” The Rev. J. Carlisle will be the preacher. The services on Sunday in the Salvation Army Citadel will be of a seasonable character. Special singing and Christmas messages will be a feature. Visitors to the city will receive a hearty welcome at the morning, afternoon or evening services which will be conducted by Ensign and Mrs Montgomery. The evening subject is entitled “The Greatest Wisdom.”

The good old Scripture does not say, “Whosoever loveth God is born of Him.” It is simpler than this. It says all love is of God—the love of the mother for her child, the love of friends for each other, the love of the strong towards the helpless, the love of the child for his pet, the love of the philanthropist or the patriot. It is all one love, it is the inbreathing »bf the same great spirit.—Charles F. Dole.

A Christmas carol service will be held in the St. Peter’s Methodist Church tomorrow evening. The large choir, under the baton of Mr W. H. Farley, will render the favourite carols and Christmas hymns. Mrs A. J. Wilcox will sing “O Divine Redeemer” and Miss Patton “I Know that my Redeemer Liveth.” Master Bobbie Wilson will assist and sing “My Hope is in the Everlasting.” As choral services are always largely attended at St. Peter’s visitors are requested to attend early. A Christmas carol service will be held at the Central Methodist Church, Leet street, at 6.30 pan. on Sunday, under the conductorship of Dr Stanley Brown. Many old and also less familiar carols will bo sung, boy choristers assisting in several numbers. Solos will be rendered by Mrs Macdonald and Dr Stanley Brown, and a brief, appropriate sermon given by the Rev. C. H. Olds, BA. A Christmas anthem and carols will also be features of the morning service.

Dr J. H. B. Mastennan, Bishop of Plymouth, says the time has not come, and that perhaps it will never come, when the nations of the world can beat all their swords into ploughshares and all their spears into pruning hooks. “But in a world inspired by good will and a passionate love of justice, one-tenth of the present expenditure on armaments would suffice for all purposes of public security, and the policing of the high seas may ultimately be taken over by an international naval force.”

‘Things look dark for the world,” says a writer in the Christian Advocate. “What with revolutions all around the earth; with financial disaster threatening the oldest and steadiest nations; with unemployment and distress universal, and with discontent everywhere, the present seems to be a period of more general gloom than living men have ever before known. Week by week every pulpit in the land should find place for some message that will put courage and confidence into hearers who are bearing unusual burdens.” .At First Church on Sunday, being the Lord’s Day nearest to Christmas Day, the occasional Christmas-tide sermons will be preached. At the family diet at 11 ajn. the theme will be, ‘‘Why Angels of Heaven, do ye Sing?” The children’s address concerns “Christmas Roses.” At 6.30 p.m. carols dealing with the Nativity of our Lord will be sung by the choir at the conclusion of the sermon, the subject of which will be “At the cradle of Jesus.” Mr L. R. Evans will sing the solo parts of Gounod’s anthem “Nazareth.” Christmas music will form the praise portion at both diets.

St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church will hold its Christmas Festival to-morrow. At the morning service the Girls’ Choir will provide a service of Christmas carols. The clear, young voices of the Girls’ Choir are heard to fine effect in the two-part singing of this seasonable sacred music. In addition, the pupils of the Young Worshippers’ League will be presented at this service. In the evening the service will be fully choral, the usual order of service, and the sermon being much abbreviated for this occasion. The choir, under the baton of Mr H. P. Weston, will give a full service of Christmas music. The anthem will be, "Sing, O Heavens.” Mrs A. E. H. Bath will preside at the organ and the preacher at both services will be the Rev. C. J. Tocker. The evening service will be broadcasted from Station 4ZP.

Sacrifice—Never forget that, though we so often use the word in that sense, “to give up something” is not the real meaning of sacrifice. Sacrificio in Latin means “I make holy.” so to make an offering of anything is the main idea. When you write a poem or a book you should do it as a sacrifice. You should offer it up to God as the work of your brain, of your hands, for in that way you are really making it a sacrifice, you are making it holy. You tru’ - live only when you are a channel for the Divine force. This other life, this life of the separate self, in which every-

one is trying to grasp something for himself, is just a dream; it is not a real life at all. To be giving out always is the only true life. The force of the Logos cannot penetrate into the physical plane without unselfishness and therefore unselfishness is the keynote of all. It is the force which moves the world. —Bishop Leadbetter. INVERCARGILL HOME MISSION. FATHER CHRISTMAS. The greatest event of the year in connection with the work of Sister Alice was that of last Tuesday, when over 200 mothers and children were gathered into the Jed street Methodist Hall, kindly lent for the occasion, to partake of the Christmas cheer and to carry' away some practical message of love. With one mind and heart everyone entered into the spirit of the day—getting ready in faith not knowing what might be sent from loving hearts in the name of the Babe of Bethlehem. At 5 p.m. there was a wonderful evidence of this, when all eyes were admiringly’ fastened on the platform—was there ever such a tree? was uttered, and then came Father Christmas (Mr G. Croizer) with his cheery Christmas greeting and introduced Mr C. S. Longuet, a. friend of the mission. Pointing out a big white star, shining white and clear from the top of the tree, Mr Longuet told a little Christmas story of the shepherds, the star, the babe and the manger, adding that one of the greatest ministries of life is to make others happy, and that nothing could give their sister greater joy r in the future than the knowledge that they were striving daily’ to follow the star by their prayers, love and thankfulness to Him, the great good giver who so loved the world, that Ho gave His only son. The Rev. C. H. Olds, B.A. (chairman Advisory Committee), before leading the singing of Grace, spoke of the Christ who came as a little child and who surely was in their midst on this glad day, to bless the gifts spread before them, the loving hearts who had provided them, and to bless and enrich their own lives until the great day dawned, when their own prayer would be fulfilled “and grant that we may feast in Paradise with Thee.”

During the tea members of the finance committee honoured the mission by their presence. 'Mr J. D. Gilmore (chairman) conveyed to Sister Alice the deep appreciation on the success of the work of the mission with its far-reaching influence for good in many homes in this city and on behalf of the finance committee, he asked the sister to accept the sincere expression of their appreciation in the form of a small gift of money towards the cost of a well-earned holiday. In reply, Sister Alice said she would always remember and appreciate the gift of kindly thought and co-operation and were it not for the combined efforts and interest of the members of the advisory and finance committees, in all probability the mothers and children would not have been afforded to such an extent such cheer and gladness. On behalf of the mothers and children Mrs Beale thanked everybody from far and near through whose beneficient work and the generous gifts the day had been made possible. Then followed two Christmas carols by Misses Murphy and Ferns; “Good King Winceslas” by Master Rangi Dickson; and the distribution of the gifts by Mesdames Gibson, Gilmore, Simson and Cabott, assisted by Father Christmas. The day closed by the cutting of the huge Christmas cake by Mrs H. Simson (the oldest friend of the mission) and the Sunday School vesper. “Now the time has come to part, Father come to every’ heart, Go Thou with us as we go And be near in all we do.”