THE CHURCH

Southland Times, Issue 22008, 6 May 1933, Page 7

THE CHURCH

NEWS AND NOTES FROM PULPIT AND PEW. Reincarnation—Birth is not the beginning of a life, nor is death its ending; birth and death begin and end only a single chapter in the life story. The story runs through many chapters and the plot is continuous throughout. —Dr Annie Besant. The services at the North Invercargill Baptist Church to-morrow will be conducted by Pastor L. P. Bryan. The subject for the morning service will be “The Church at Prayer,” and for the evening one, “Vital Religion.” Believers’ baptism will again be observed at this service.

The meetings at the Salvation Army to-morrow will be conducted by Adjutant L. B. Tong. The morning subject will be “The Love Of The Book.” Tlie afternoon will be devoted to a study of the Acts of the Apostles. The evening subject will be “The Way Everlasting.”

The claim of the Bible to be regarded as the Word of God will be the evening theme of the Rev. C. H. Olds, 8.A., at the Central Methodist Church on Sunday, it being Bible Sunday. The morning subject will be “The Bible in the World,” dealing with the wonderful spread and influence of the Scriptures in various lands—a fascinating theme.

Mr George Melvin, whose death occurred last Tuesday, was not only a respected citizen of Invercargill, but also an old and honoured office-bearer of Knox Church. A special in memoriam service will be held in Knox Church on Sunday evening to which the members of the Invercargill Bowling Club (of which'Mr Melvin was one of the founders) are cordially invited. The service to be broadcast from station 4ZP to-morrow evening will be from St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church. The choir will sing the anthem “Thine, O Lord, is the Greatness” (James Kent); and Mrs Martin and Mr Farley will sing the duet “Love Divine” from “The Daughter of Jairus.” The Rev. C. J. Tocker will be the preacher, and the subject of the sermon is "Up Against It.”

In his message at the Esk Street Baptist Church to-morrow morning, the preacher, the Rev. Bennett H. Williams, will endeavour to throw some Bible light upon the national depression and discover our only way out of

the chaos and discouragement surrounding us on every hand in these dark and difficult days. The evening service will introduce a unique personality and is especially appropriate to the times.

A reviewer in one of the Home papers of Dr Ronald Campbell Macfie’s “Faiths and Heresies of a Poet and Scientist,” speaks of it as a book that will be especially helpful to the people who, influenced by “naturalistic Victorian science (he means naturalistic Victorian philosophy) have banished God from their thinking, and Christian ethics from their living, and are content cynically to regard themselves as cellular tissues on the way to become manure.”

Special community singing will precede the evening service at St. Peter’s Methodist Church to-morrow. The anthem will be Himmel’s “Incline thine Ear” and Mesdames Berridge and Bell will sing Jude’s duet “The Wondrous Cross.” Miss Jordan will sing “His Eye on the Sparrow.” The theme will be “Tire Problem of Providence,” being the first of a series on “Problems that Perplex.” The members of St. Peter’s Basketball and Tennis Clubs will parade to the service. At First Church on Sunday at the family diet at 11 a.m. the theme of the meditation will be “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and forever.” The New Testament tradition abounds with the power of Jesus Christ. Is it possible to hold the New Testament position today ? The early church fathers (Apostolic and sub-Apostolic) had very decided opinions about Jesus. Can we, or must we, hold these views to-day? The evening meditation will be “Mine eyes have seen the King.” The anthem selected is Torrance’s setting of the psalm text, “Let my prayer be set forth.”

The Zenana Bible and Medical Mission is the oldest women’s mission in India. It has schools, orphanages, hospitals and a home for the Church. Four hundred women are engaged in its various activities. There are nine fully qualified lady doctors and the figures for the year at one hospital were 1400 in-patients and 8000 out-patients. The total attendances at dispensaries were 36,000. Work among the Zenana (secluded) women is a special feature of the society’s work. Miss H. E. Formtain, recently from India, will give a lantern lecture on Monday, May 8, at 8 p.m. The hon. secretary for Invercargill is Mrs C. T. Bradfield and the hon. secretary Mr W. A. McCaw. Let me give you a rule in life for awakening your love and sympathy. First put yourself in the other person’s place, and then try to help him. You are compelled to associate with some persons who always seem to, do every little thing in such a way as to make themselves unendurable. To use an everyday expression, “they always rub you the wrong way.” Now just imagine yourself in their place. Make their sorrows your own, give full credit to their virtue, and then try to help them. It may be that they have some anguish of soul, or some hidden disappointment, which, did you but know, would melt your heart with pity for them. If their surroundings were yours, it may be that you, too, would be far less endurable than you are. —D. L. Moody.

“Visitors to the Holy Land,” says the latest report from British excava-

tors at Tel Duweir, in South Palestine, “are usually impressed with the barrenness of the country, and recall with incredulity the Old Testament statements of its being a land flowing with milk and honey. Here at Tel Duweir, some 25 miles south of Jerusalem, the expedition is camping in the midst of desolation, and yet it is evident that once upon a time the city they are excavating was surrounded by fertile valleys and hills covered with oak, olive or fig trees, or else terraced with vineyards. All these bountiful gifts of Nature were uprooted and destroyed by war—they constituted the very fuel which Nebuchadnezzar’s soldiers (in 586 8.C.) piled up against the city’s walls and fired in order to break down its defences.”