CIRCLE REVIEWS by Mrs. L. Flora Plummer

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 13, 1900

CIRCLE REVIEWS.

By Mrs. L. Flora Plummer

MRS. L. FLORA PLUMMER.

ONE of the recommendations pertaining to the Circle work, passed by the General Conference Committee, is as follows: “That meetings of Seventh-day Adventist churches or companies be held for reviews and the general interests of the Circle work as frequently as the work may demand, the church officers providing for the leadership of the meetings.”

The question has no doubt been in the minds of many, How shall Circle reviews be conducted? There is no intention in the mind of the writer to attempt to answer this question definitely; for successful meetings are not held by rule. I simply wish to call attention to the subject in a way that may help each leader to find the answer for himself.

There is no doubt that well-conducted reviews will be a great help in increasing the interest in the Circle studies, and in accomplishing the object of the studies. A constant remembrance of the object of the whole plan ought to be helpful in deciding this question. What is the object? — Always the one thing, — a preparation for missionary work. Since that is the object, what two things stand prominently in the foreground as most necessary? — Is it not, first, a knowledge of the subject? and secondly, ability to impart that knowledge to others? How can any one do missionary work without possessing these two essentials in some degree?

Having before us these two points, let us notice the word “review.” What does the word itself imply? In the study of that one word is clearly given a hint as to what a review meeting should not be. If the review be conducted just as if it were not a review at all, but as a first study of the lesson, those who have previously studied it are not greatly benefited, and those who have not given the lesson any study are confirmed in the idea that it is not necessary to do so. The review ought to encourage the most careful home study, instead of being made a substitute for it.

A leader is apt to be led into the habit of occupying a large share of the time of the review in imparting the knowledge he has gained of the subject. He comes to the meeting with his heart and mind full of the lesson; and stirred by the solemn truths he has studied, he begins the exercise by asking a few questions. But oftentimes the answers are slow in coming, and he feels that precious moments are slipping by unused. Thinking to arouse the members, he launches into the subject himself; and before he is aware of it, the hour has passed, and he has done the talking, and the Circle members have done nothing.

The home is pre-eminently the best place for study, — the attaining of the first essential mentioned above; and the review meeting ought to be made the training-school for the accomplishment of the second essential. In planning for the review meetings keep in mind what is most needed. It is not little sermons; it is not entertainment; it is not the development of one or two of the brightest in a company; but it is the training and development of each member into a working missionary.