For the Sabbath

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14764, 1 October 1921, Page 10 (Supplement)

For the Sabbath

FAITH AND I. Paitta ai>d 1 went, forth to sow Early in the morning; All Mio streams ran very low, Doubt looked on witli scorning. "See.," he said, "a barren field, All the flowers are blighted; Thorns alono Uie ground will yield; » Thus is faith requited." "Nay," said Faith, "I hear Ihe rain hinging in the mountain, And the dry and thirsty plain Laughs to meet a fountain. * "Ha!" rried Doubt, "that same old tune; But if you remember, Krost rvan show a smiling June Frowning as December.'* Then with fainting heart I thought, "Faith and I must sever"; But with steadfast trust she wrought, Whispering softly, "Never 1" Then I turned from Doubt, and lo! By me stood the Master, And I heard Him saying "Go!" While Faith held me faster. Joyful now we onward press, Faith and I together, Sowing seed of righteousness In all kinds of weather. —M. Carrie Moore.

DR. ABBOTT AND MR MOODY. Dr. Lyon Abbott, now in his sixtysixth year, shows in the "Snap Shots" ef his contemporaries, which he is contributing to the New York Outlook, that his hand has lost none of its cunning. He has been reviving his memories of Dwight L. Moody, and gives some intimate glimpses of the famous evangelist. Moody, he tells us, never became a good speller or a great reader, and he had none of the arts of the orator. The spiritual power of his message and his own ihteaso conviction of his truth were the things he depended upon. Dr. Abbott makes it clear that, Moody's theology is not his, and that he does not accept the infallibility of the Bible with Mr Moody. "But," he adds, "I. am sure that if, we of the so-called liberal faith hope to retain in these more liberal days the attractive power of the Church, we can only do it by holding fast to the great spiritual fact that in God there is abundant forgiveness for Hie past and an abundant life for all for the future: and we must declare this not as a theological opinion to be defended by hypothesis, but as an assured fact historically certified by the life and death of Jesus Cljrist, and confirmed out of the mouth of many witnesses by the exneriencc of Christ's disciples and followers in all the Churches and in even' age. If we fail to do this, men will desert our minisfry for Romanism, Anglicanism, or the old orthodoxy, or in despair of spiritual life in any quarter will desert all that the ministers to the higher live, and live a wholly material life." DANGEROUS WORK. Mr J. H. Edgar, F.R.G.S., formerly of Tapanui, who is a cousin of Mrs Mackic, of Hamilton, gives a graphic account in "China's Millions" of adventures experienced by him in performance of his work last year as a China. Inland missionary He says:— I have tramped about 1700 English miles over dangerous mountain passes; one was 16,300 ft high, and through the simmering heat of the Chengtu Plain, where brigands and cholera were holding high carnival. Our city has been under fire three times. Travelling has often been unsnfe. On the pass just mentioned we saw men lately murdered by ferocious Tibetan brigands, and when bivouacking at 13,500 ft our coolies saw robbers lurking in a jungle opposite. In September I unwittingly ran into a camp of 500 brigands. They were bristling with weapons. I felt like a rabbit in a fox's den, and in sheer desperation began to sell books, which were bought, and the money paid after the manner of honest men! But next day they robbed a large town I had just left, like true brigands. In December I was in another brigands' camp, the units of whicli were ill-fed, ill-clad, and in danger of extermination any time. They were in a mood known as "unconciliatory." One day the leader of a squad was firing at goats and missing. Thinking I would make a better target, he turned his rifle on me, but someone knocking it up in the air ended a picturesque situation. A few days later, however, another squad, running amok, began firing in the street. The play ended when one of their number was fatally wounded. I was called to supply antiseptic dressings, hut the victim died shortly afterwards. His-com-rade, whose carelessness' caused his death, was being officially tormented when I left. I was at limes, also, in a market panic-stricken with cholera. One night, within a 200-yard radius of my inn, eight victims were carried out. EARL HAIG AN ELDER. Earl Haig, of Bemersyde, was among the elders admitted to office at St. Columbia's Presbyterian Church, Pent street, London, on a recent Sunday morning. Rev. Archibald Fleming. D.D., preached the sermon and conducted the short ordination service at the close. Every available seat in area and gallery were filled, and extra chairs were placed for late comers in Hie aisles at the back of the church. The name of "Douglas Haig, Earl Haig, Field .Marshal," came half-way down the list of Hie seven new elders, whose ordination makes the number up to 30. Among githcrs elected, distinguished men in Ihe service of their country, were Brigadier-General Sir William Alexander. K.8.E., Dr. W. Stevenson Ja'ffray, C.M.G., Deputy ChaplainGeneral and Chaplain to the King, and Mr I'Yederiek C. Thomson, M.P. for South Aberdeen. TIMELY COUNSEL. In a, characteristic address at the recent annual meeting of Westbourne Park Church, r.ondon,"Dr. Clifford gave some wise and timely counsel lo his people 'oi keeping young. "H is necessary." he said, "that the Church should keep an alerl mind, eager In meet the changed conditions which arise as Ihe years pass. The Christian faith is not simply a great tradition, but a living and abiding force through all the changes that time brings. The Ihinicin^ r of Ihe world is false lo a very ■-Teal extent, it needs Ihe true interpretation of human life and of God as given In us in Jesus Christ. You nitisl so study Ihe movements of the minds Hi" Hi" yi.mis'. and so approach them thai Christ's personality, with all its fine qiinlilies. mav sland "tit before lliom in all its wonderful apnea]. Do ,'..i:i permil .'.•mil- old a-o In blind you In Ihe movements of the day and Ihe hour. Such always has been, and always will he, my temper."