THE SUNDAY CIRCLE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17687, 26 July 1919, Page 5

THE SUNDAY CIRCLE.

RELIGIOUS READING FOR THE HOME. ROAD-MAJEING. Answor.soul of mine—wkicli way Hast thou made a road to-day't Hust thou followed Love's sure chain Over hill and over plain? Whichsoever choice thou'st made, 'I'hora another road is laid— Not a transient, fading trail, But a path that shall not fail. Evermore 6ome foot shail stray O'or the road thou mad'st this day. Ah, let each of us beware How his thoughts and motives boarl Every road tliat we shall choose, Other pilgrim feet will use.. Some will follow where we lead Long as life shapes life, indeed. Have a brother's care, and pray God to mark thy road each day. James Buckham, in tho British Weekly. PRAYER. O Lord, our Father, Who hast taught us to look not only on our own things, but also upon tho things of others, we thank Thee that tho way to Thy Throne is open for us, not only when we come laden with our own necessitias, and seeking blessing for ourselves, but when wo come bearing one another's burdens, and presenting one another bafore Thy Throne. Hearken to us, Lord, when wo come, trusting that it is no vain thing to intercede with Thee for all whom wo love and remembsr in your hearts now, beseeching.Thee that, according to our diverso necessities of sorrow or joy Thou wouldst be very near to help hlcss.Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. THE TRANSFORMATION FOR TO-DAY. "They shall beat their swords into plough shares and their spears into pruning hooks." —Isaiah ii, 4-. • What Isaiah contemplated was not the mere abolition of war, but its transformation. The sword and the spear wero not to_ bo thrown into the lumber room as things for which the world had no further use. Tbey were to bo from instruments of destruction into instruments of beneficence and usefulness. Tlie sword was to become the ploughshare and the spear a pruning-hook. The fierce weapons of carnage, that had brought so much misery and suffering to the world, were to bo used henceforth to promote its happiness and well-being. What are wo to do with war? Are we simply to hring; it to an end, wiping the slate clean and leaving nothing in its place? If we do we shall make the world a poorer place than it is. For with all tho suffering and loss of war it has developed among us certain splendid virtues that it will never be safe for us to let go. . Think of the hardihood' and heroism of our youth, their contempt, where duty called, of danger and death; tliink of the new spirit it has evoked among our people, the loyalty to a common cause, the sacrifice and sernoe, tho shame w© have come to feel at habits of effeminacy and self-indulgence, the sturdier manhood and the nobler womanhood that have come among us. It is this sense of the discipline of war that has led thoughtful and peace-loving men to put forward an apology for it. _ Evidently -we shall need to put something in place of war to conservo what is good' in it, or our last state will be worse than the first. The last thing that Christian people should long and pray for is tho return of tho softness, the slack sense of duty, the overweening love of pleasure that brought us in the days of peace very near to the brink of a falL What thoughtful men are seeking after is something that will keep the world safe and strong in days of peace. The world will always be a scene of struggle. God has made it so, and 111171 cannot alter it. Naturo has to be subdued; right has to triumph and wrong has to go down; justice to bo vindicated, and service for humanity has to go along its royal road, both of tl)em calling for heroisms as groat as the battlefield. Sin in its myriad forms has to bo destroyed, and the Kingdom of God 'built tip in our midst at the cost of labour and sacrifice and tears. In tho days that lie in front an appeal will bo made to all that is heroio and strong in our manhood and womanhood, an appeal to whioh a deaf, oar will be turned only by the shuffler and the coward. Nobled weapons will be' takMn from our arsenal than those our fathers used, weapons whoso stroke will be fair jtnd whose wound will be clean. And yet th r$ will be but the old weapons after all, ransmuted and transformed— tho courage) tho hardihood, the loyalty, put forth in a nobler cause for the redemption and w Jfaro of mankind. The sword will become a ploughshare and tho spear a pruning li iok.—John M'Coll, M.A. STRESS AMONG STUDENTS. Tho Student Christian Movement of Great Britim, hi ito report for 1917-8, presents an interesting picture of student life ac the end of tho war. The men's colleges had two sets of students—one set very young and inexperienced, and the other set oi men who liiid faced tho starn realities of the war. The men's colleges had never been emptier; the women's colleges were all an enormous increase of women medical students. Tho report says that' there were t many signs of stress among -women students and) of marked emotional activity, with also a considerable alertness of mind, but with marked intellectual vagueness. " One of the most fundamental causes of the unsettlement among students soeins to be directly due to the failure of the Church to portray tho Christian way of life in its fellowship. Students have no clear and compelling sense of what Christianity is, because few of them have seen it working in tho corporate life of a church. They have been taught religion at school', in tho majority of cases, in a wav which has not gripped their attention. Their intellectual grasp of Christian truth is inadequate and confused. They are uninterested in formularies and denominational differences, but troubled and nuzzled about fundamentals. Tho instinct for truth and for reality is very pronounced. There is impatieneo everywhere with the formal and conventional, and a new passion for fullness of life and for idealism of every kind." Th© number of men in oollegea last year was about 8500; tho- women students numbered 16,000, making a total student field of 24,500, among whom the Student Christian Movement has 5970 students, 5110 of these being women. This is a marked decrease in men, but a notable increase in women. Proportionately to tho number of students, tho Student Christian Movement held its own. The report states that tho granting of tho franchiso to women has undoubtedly played its part in stimulating the widespread interest in social questions in tho women's colleges." THE RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT. A GENERAL'S STRAIGHT Presiding at the anniversary of the Army Scripture Readers' Society at Caxton Hall London, General Sir EL S. Horne, £.C.8.,' K.0.M.G., said hd went thcr c because ho went wherever it was obviously his duty to go. In fact, any man who had had the experiences ho had had in the war, and holding tho deep convictions ho held, would not bo fulfilling his mission if he'stayed away "In my experience of this terrible war, continued the Genera!, "I have consolidated ono opinion, and that is of the extraordinary military importance of religious Bcntiment among tho troops. I speak as an army commander. We have got to get it recognised that this religious sentiment is part of our daily life. \Vo must not be pessimistic, dull, or depressing Wo have got to teach men to live. Everyone can die; it is not everyone who can live to advantage. During tho war tha chaplains have found thoir feet; now we want tho keen young men to continue the good work. Mind you tho qualities that mako a good soldier of Christ and a good soldier of the King and a good citizen are practically the same. The times are very critical. We cannot be content to sit still, and do nothing. Wo must make a better England, a bettor Empire, a better world, or this terrible war will have been in vain and onr comrades will liavo given their lives for nothing."