The Sabbath

Waikato Times, Volume 112, Issue 18809, 3 December 1932, Page 18 (Supplement)

The Sabbath

IS THTS SOUND? “ Believe your beliefs And doubt your doubts, And don't make the mistake of Believing your doubts And doubting your beliefs.” —The Christian Register. FACE TO FACE. I had walked life’s way with an easy tread, Had followed where comforts and pleasures led, Until one day In a quiet place I met my Master faoe to face. With station and rank and wealth for my goal, Much thought for my body but none for my soul, 1 -dhi *<(!!} I had entered to win In life’s long race v When I met the Master face to faoe. I met Him, and knew Him, and blushed to see That His eyes, full of sorrow, were fixed on me. I faltered and fell at His feet that day, While my castles melted and vanished away, Melted and vanished, and in their place Naught else did I see but the Master’s face. And I clred aloud, “0 make me meet To follow the steps of Thy wounded feet.” My thought is now for the souls of men, I have lost my faith to find it again, E’er since that day in a quiet place I met the Master face to face. CHURCH SINQINQ. ARCHBISHOP JULIUS’S VIEW. REGAINING WARMTH OF WORSHIP “ Fifty years ago the scientists told us that spiritual things were quite beyond us; to-day, however, the greatest of them say that matter is unreal and that it is the spiritual that is ttio great reality,” said Archbishop Julius, preaching at the dedication festival service of the Church of the Good Shepherd, Phillipstown. “ They believe, moreover, that we shall never find it until we come closer to God and, already, there is a tendency toward change." Archbishop Julius took for his text, “ How shall we sing the Lord’s song In a strange land?" and he applied It to the early days of Babylon. Of church muslo generally, and the hymns in particular, he said that most of the j best of them were born out of sorrow and suffering, therefore they were lasting. Century after century had passed and yet they were still sung the world over* With an added beauty through the grace of God, tiic songs of Zion took on a newer and higher meaning. “And yet," said Archbishop Julius, “ there seems to be something wrong. Somehow the'life seems to have gone out of much of our worship. I have gone into the great churches where people have listened to the choir and Hie organ and taken no notice of them. Hymns that no one knows, or wants to know, have been sung. The trouble is that during the last 80 years we have been losing touch with the spiritual things; we have had an overdose of materialism. People are apt to blame bad singing, bad preaching, or bad something else, but that is not Hie cause at all. Wo are always wondering what the oilier person is thinking. The root of the whole tiling lies with Hie people themselves and the warmlli of rongregatioal worship must he regained. Among the slums of London Ihe services warm the hearts of all who hear them. There is no choir or organ and yet the people’s hearts arc full. “ now often do we see the congregation settle down to get through a service as quickly as possible! Surely you do not think for a moment that the parson does not know it. Of course he does, I do not, mean that you must all shout and sing, for some of you would he horribly out ot tunc. II ’is not Ihe noise we make, for, if I were to sing, Ihe church would bo empty in live minutes. It is Hie expression of joy, praise, and gladness that lifts ttio roof off," lie added.

IRREPRESSIBLE CHRISTIANITY. The nev pereival .1. Botlnvell, in concluding a lantern address on "The Near Hast” in Toowoomba recently, given under the auspices of the Australian Board of Missions, said: “NS ill Constantinople ever become a Christian

oity again, as it once was? The idea seems more remote to-day than ever it has been since the Mohammedan conquest of the city in 1453, now that Turkey has gained national independence and appears more firmly established with Constantinople as her chief citadel than ever she has been yet. The present-day Greeks in Constantinople firmly believe that there will come a day when the city will again be Christian, and as a sign of it they point to the mosque of St. Sophia (once a Christian oathedral and now a Moslem place of worship), where in the interior, In several places on the walls and dome, there can be seen showing through the coats of gilt and paint daubed on by the Turks, the figure of Christ and the sign of the Cross. The original paintings of the figure and the symbols of the Christian faith are no longer entirely obliterated, and the fact is seized upon as proof that tire Christian religion is irrepressible and will come into its own again In Constantinople. I have seen these things, and they are not without their significance. May missionary servioe hasten that day!’’ LONE MOTHERS. OCCUPY FAMILY PEWS IN CHURCH Women conducted entirely a service and meeting of the Women’s Guild in connection with the English Congregational Union Assembly. Mrs Archibald Parsons, of Bath, discussing “Some Modern Essentials,” contrasted family life in Victorian days and now.

“In the old days,” she said, “we used to have a family pew, and father, mother and the whole family used it. Now we sometimes see mother there. She is more often alone, and the churches are being kept going by the elderly and middle-aged people. “In the old days, if one met people who were not going to church on Sunday, they would pass by on the other side or explain why they could not go. “To-day our young people pass us with their golf clubs in their cars and Just wave ‘cheerio.’ We women should make every effort to save the family life of the country. “I am not asking you to go back to Victorian days, but I suggest we should each start by making our homes centres of attractiveness to the young people around us, where they can discuss anything with us and be perfectly frank with us. “Many a woman has dusted her Children into the street and her husband into the public house," Mrs Parsons declared. A POET AND THE LORD’S PRAYER. Mr John Drlnkwater, writing in the Sunday Dispatch on tlie Lord's Prayer, referring to Christ’s promise, “Ask and it shall be given you,” says—“l suppose that most people in distress have made wild demands in prayer, and have been frustrated in consequence. “Plainly, much for which we ask is not given us. But much that we ask is asked against the course of nature, for which suffering is inseparable. “Christ has no intention of promising to deflect the course of nature. He promised no immunity from grief. I-lis ‘Ask and it shall bo given you’ presupposed a fitness of mood in the asking, and of sucli fitness would come a clear understanding of the nature of the thing asked. “Tim lesson is a dilllcult one, but one that every mind has to learn before it can be- at peace “Man’s communion with God, as Christ expounded it, predicated a moot! in which man, shaping his desires, had faith that to Cod must be left I lie decision as to how Ihcy could best be satisfied, am! further faith to accept Ihe possibility of the divine, way seeming at the time lo he at odds with the way of man's conception. “II is not an act of resignation that is demanded, but an act of faith. Christ made no pretence that in any circumstances it was an easy world for man. “He, with perfect sympathy and understanding, knew what a world of snares and lormenL if must always lie. “Hi' showed man the way lo quit himself as a man in spile of these, not passively, or without hope, hut actively, in faith, with a certainty forlressed in his spirit. “Mail was here told that in all trials lie need not fear the issue if he could at once with humility and courage bring his troubles exactly to the lest of •our Father which art in Heaven.’ ”

A GARDEN FETE.

Dear Peter Pan, —Isn’t It runny. I’ve been :rylng for a long" time to win a Competlion and n-ow I have won two with only a >.veek between. On Saturday, November loth., we held a garden fete at school. Each house provided a stall and I made quite a number of thing's for my house, Ross. I'am going- to tell you about my afternoon. On arriving: I went to the stalls, and after lniyinfr various articles I tried my luck at the “ llsh pond.” Tills consisted of a srreen. on which some of j the girls had patuted all manner of llsh. : After paying your sixpence you were pro- : vlded with a fishing line, which you held ■ over the screen, behind which was a ! heap of parcels and two girls to nx them ; on to your line: then you pulled up your : line, on which was a present. Tilts I caused much enjoyment and laughter as we compared our “ fish.” The next thing I I went to see was also very amusing.

This was a long rtrtng tied about four feet from the ground, to which was attached a number of coloured balloons. The competition was to be blindfolded and try t® prick one of the balloons wrth a pin. IT you succeeded In doing this your money was returned to you. At 3.50 there was a story In dance on the lawn. Tills was done very well and was most effective. ATter this was the concert, In which I sang a carol with the rest of my form. So many people wished to hear It that we had to perform, twice. Afternoon tea was served on tables under the trees and was enjoved by everyone. Among the other entertainments were deck-tennis, Highland goir, and a hikers’ excursion. When the time came to go home we were all sorry that the afternoon was over.—Barbara Rogers (11). Hamilton. The fete sounds a Jolly one, Barbara. Peter Is sorry he missed It, but the Circle keeps him too busy with the Page.—Peter Pan.