SUNDAY READING.

Thames Star, 24 December 1921, Page 3

SUNDAY READING.

EXILED. Light, light, always light, would craze our minds: God knows we need and must have blinds. And the gloom of a wood in which to rest, Where the tall trees sigh and the wild birds nest. Shadows r.r-d shade and gloom, ace sweet After sun-glare and sizzling heat.

And when the last great shadow falls, And the stream runs black and the night-hawk calls. . 4. x Jife'll. sleep like guests at some old inn By velvet darkness folded in. Until, through windows open wide, We hear the surge of a Western tide; Ah! then, through trailing mists upborne . - We'll drink morn. j^^^^^ adventore. At a mid-day service at St. Alban's, Wood Street, London, Mr Clutton BrAgferto . whom, Chaides Simpson said>."Weredue some of the most inTimes'"during address the P^P past, P^nhad beeiii PKTtliere (^ that revelation. "That r&ftitude," said Mr Brock, "always ' produces endless quarrels. People who don't v/ant to face problems, who want to bo comfortable, concentrate on te::ts tl;at suit their own purpose. I heard ova old lady say that Socialism must be wrong, because Christ salii, 'The poor ye have always with you.' This futile controversy, which does so much harm to religion, might be avoided if only we realised that the Church is a fellowship of discovery, a discovery which has hardly begun. You cannot understand what revelation is at all unless you believe it is never ending, that the Kingdom of Heaven is around us all the time. The traditionalists seem to say not 'By their fruits shall ye know them,' but 'By their roots shall ye know them.' They cling to creeds that really have no relation to conduct. Christ insisted on great sacrifices, not on great affirmations. But the Church to be held together without creeds? Well, Ave all know instinctively what is Christian and what is not. We all have to admit, if we are honest, that the fabric of our society to-day is not Christian in the least. Men won't join the Church unless' the Church holds together not defensively, but offensively, demanding not interpretation of ancient documents, but right conduct. If you want to keep the Church together, give it that task; to point out with precision what is Christian and what is not."

ST. SOPHIA. FIRST CHURCH IN EUROPE. The future of the beautiful Byzantine Church of Santa Sophia at Constantinople was discussed by Professor F. M. Simpson in an illustrated lecture before the t Royal Archaeological Institute. ~~- "Since the ai'mistice," he said, "the question had arisen whether this church, the finest in Europe, should revert to the Christians. To whom should it be entrusted? To the Church of Rome, by whose adherents of the fifth crusade it was sacked and ruined? To the Reformed Church in the West, which was not in existence until 1000 years after it had been built? "A better case could be made out for the Greek Church; but would anyone like to see it in possession of Athens, and would the Turks consent to this solution? "The Turks, who had repaired and taken care of the building, would do nothing in the present state of uncertainty; but he suggested that the besiTsolufion was to let them keep Santa Sophia, , and to tell them promptly that they could keep it. This was the only way in which the great edifice could be preserved."