CHURCH NEWS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XL, Issue 12538, 8 May 1915, Page 3 (Supplement)

CHURCH NEWS.

DEVOTIONAL. O God, Creator infinite, Lord ;of the heavenly steep, Mantiimg the day with garish, light, The night with kindly sleep, ■ That rest may fit our fainting lksli To bear the morrow's toil, And pur o'er-'Jaden minds refresh And their sad cares a^.soil! The day is gone, the night is n ; gh ; Our prayer and praises we bring. Answer our penitential, cry, And hear the song we sing. Christ, .with the Father and with Thee, Hlest. Spirit we adore : <) Almighty Trinity. Cher sh us evermore. —David Smith. PRAYER. O Lord, we thank Thee that they who are with us are. more than they that be with our enemies. Open our eyes that we may fee. the mountain full. "1 the chariots' of fire and the horses, of fire round about us, and safe behind that ring of defence may we have no fear for any evil. We bless Thee that nothing can get at Thy servant to hurt them which cannot pass through that guarding circle. May we live.- in the. centre, and so' be at rest, and delivered from many fears and .sheltered by Thy great and wise Providence from . all Teal evil. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. ITF.MS. As time goes on (says a Home paper), the demand tor the Word "of God, instead of diminishing, vastly increases amongst the soldiers of all our Allies. The -Scripture. Gift Mission has now seven honorary workers laboring amongst the English and French troops in France, and from these Iriemls most encouraging reports of the work are received. One writes: —"I keep on repeating to myself the French' translation of the latter part of Luke. ] -.17 —'un peitple bien dispose.' 1 find the French nearly entirely a well-dis-posed people towards the Gospel. Wo were most courteously treated by the Brigade-major at the base headquarters, and permission was given.to all the various camps and hospitals." Another work writes: —"After considerable difficulty, we liave cleared the Customs of the Gospels and Portions. The military officer in charge turned out to be one who knew me years ago. We visited part of a French hospital, and distributed manv Gospels; and we had a"Teat demonstration last Sunday afternoon with, the texts, and 1 preached uninterruptedly to large numbers on the crowded front. A large quantity of the Knglish have no 'Active Service Gospel's,' and are most eager to have them."

Tim tin-- native Chin.se congregations in connection with the BresbytorianChurch of England should systomatcally support Gosp"cl work anions the- Jewish people, is a fact of peculiar interest. In ::!i explanatory communication, a native nnstor writes: —"Formerly the Christians in China were indifferent as to the salvation of the Jews, not realising that tliev had a duty in the Matter; hut of late yeais they have recognised that they also have responsibility in the matter. Koalising this, the Synod of the Presbyterian Church of South Fnkien have decided that a collection shall be taken year by year on an appointed day for the Evangelisation of the Jews/' 'Tims, in a very striking maimer, from the Far East we are lurnished with grounds for praying that Ocd's ancient people, still scattered throughout, the world, man be saved through the ministry of believing Gen--1 ilcs—-thai, as the great Apostle wrote, •'through your mercy they also may obtain, mercy" (Rom. 11:31).

It U but little more than a century aso (says the Chicago Journal) that Voltaire urnphesied that "in a hundred \car.y the Bible would be an extinct 'book." How lias that prophecybeen fulfilled? From ISO-I to 1817. the. total Unites of Billies and portions of. -Scriptures in all Europe and America were about three mil-lion copies, or an. average of less than a nuartcr of a milii -li a vear. distributed in less than TO languagrs. At present the thirty Bible societies in. the world, which exist for the specific purpose of pub-

lis'Him the word of God without note or comment issue the whole Bible or portions cf it in over "ilV.t languages, and the atrgreg-.it-> circulation is about 18,000.000 conies a year. Then there, are the Bibles and portions printed by private publ'shing " firms, returns of which have recently been gathered for the first time, and'these add 10.00.0,000 coiiies to the annual ouiout. This total of 25.00,000 is more thrift 120 timethe annual*- output of a century ago. Thus does the ever-living Word of God put to shame the ignorance of foolish men.

AYliile continuing his special ministry to tin l thousands of sufferers- from the recent terrible earthquake in the Abruzzi. the main work of Rev. 11. H. Pillion— tlip Spezia Mission—is going forward withi threat encouragement. In many widely-separated 1 parts of Italy the M'ssion lias important stations and. sub-stations, and its admirably winced headquarters at Casa Alberta, Spezia, is in one of the largest and most vigorously growing centres of population in that interesting laud. Many thousands have passed through the Bible Day Schools of tho Mission, obtaining not only careful and thorough Bible teaching but also an education so good as to win the warm commendation of the Government Education authority. TheSunday schools are also doing splendid work in their carefully graded classes, under earnest, well-equipped, and care-fully-trained teachers. The ships of all. 'nations visiting the Port of Spezra. are carefully visited; the Word ol God is effectively and 1 systematically distributed with' discrimination and prayer throughout the entire kingdom, and various other operations are vigorously put forth to reach as large a number as possible of Italy's thirty-eight millions with the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. In addition thereto, a great new cry comes from the- vast new colonies of'Tripolitania and Cyrenolca. A writer in a contemporary has made what lie. terms a "modest suggestion," advocating a transposition of the order of Divine service which will place the sermon first. Doubtless, the suggestion will strike many as daring rather than modest. Yet. in view of the fact that worshippers profess to meet thus for worship, there, is a serious thought in the suggestion tluit the sermon should lead up to fuller praise and prayer to God, rather than. that the worship should lead up to tho sermon.. The latter is of course to expound the Word of God. hut too often"it is quite otherwise. To feel after God —whether by praise, prayer, or exposition—should be tho supreme purpose of public worship. When this is done in spirit and in truth, the order of service will be com. parativelv unimportant. A conference of representatives of the Lavmen'.s Missionary Movements in England, Scotland, and Ireland was held reeentlv at Chester. Sir Andrew Wingate. 1v'.C.1.E., presided. In. a discussion of the aims and basis of the Movement, Lord Bryce, 0.M., delivered a weighty address on the present world-crisis." Let them remember, he said, that the impressions created bv the war would pass away unless they kept these before their countrymen. The first impressions that they had in the mouth of August were in danger of being dulled by contact with the scenes and horrors of war. They were becoming accustomed to it, and they were ceasing to be impressed with the horrors of tho breakdown. They ought to take the opportunity of getting to the root of the evil .and see if there was anything they could do to try to rouse their people to a sense of their own duty in tho matter. It was difficult to see how that could be done, but it was a call upon their faith. If they had a prof nun dtrust 1n God .and remembered that only hy Christian principles thye could be made better, lot them see how it was that they had failed to apply Christian principles and where they had failed. As the Laymen's Missionary Movement had l enlisted their sympathies to think that Christianity was the only remedy for the ills of the world, lie asked that they should consider it as a. part of a greater movement for Christianising Themselves. They wanted more faith, more hope, and," above all, more love, a stronger sense of the bond that united them, and not onlv transcending all their religious differences, but also the differences separating them from the lsot children to whom the light had not come.