CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOUR CONVENTION.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 227, 26 September 1898, Page 2

CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOUR CONVENTION.

In the Edinburgh-street Congregational Church yesterday the Key. p. Warner preached a sermon on 'The Christian Endeavour Movement and Its Critics, and the Missionary Vision.' ' In the course of his remarks he said: 'I want, first ot all, to state that I have never said (as reported) that the Endeavour is a perfect organisation.,; What organisation is? There are eer«; ious faults in the movement. -He would be blind indeed who could not; see them. But they are such that, by;'. wise leadership, may be removed. There are dangers around it, which, are difficult to deal with. Its motto, 'For Christ an?l \Vj Church,' is ex-. eeedingly ambitious; but it puts before the movement the highest ideal—; Christ must be the aim of each Society, and of each "member. The Church to which the Society belongs must be the arena in which that Society does its work; to work-other.*'..', wise is to act contrary to the motto, and to curt the direst failure. With re* gardto Christ, this motto means that every Endeavourer strives to 'Abide in Christ, Become like Christ, Call others to Christ.' With regard to the Church, it implies that each member shall 'Attend the. Church, Befriend the: Church, Commend the Church.' It. has been said that a nation may, have an army and yet, have no soldiers. The Endeavour is an army of the Church t but if the movement is faithless to the motto, which it has woven on its: banners, the Church may'boast of its army as it likes, but it will have ao true soldiers to strengthen and defend it. The movement exists for the one great purpose of training the young to work for Christ within the boundary; of the Church. To separate the Church and the Endeavour is to weaken the\ Church by the withdrawal of its - young, and to ruin the Endeavour by being cut adrift from the protection, guidance and nourishment of the Church, the Endeavourer is the child of ~ the Church —the Church is its home.' This movement has been spoken of, with a good deal of sneering, as a woman's movement; and the weekly gatherings as very bad specimens of Salvation Army meetings. To this I give an emphatic denial. I know that, among certain young people there is a tendency to be frothy, to mistake sound for sense; that they very often, have zeal without knowledge. But this is not so with the mass of present day youth in our Churches. My experience is this, that in our Societies, taking them all round, the members, are young men and women who would adqrn any Christian Society. I am glad to know that I have them in my Church here, and that the nine men,,. whom you have vast elected to the Diaconate, are ali Members of our Society. It is not true that the more cultured steer clear of the Endeavour movement. There is a deep spiritual life to be found in the movement. It numbers in its ranks some of the most intellectual and. foremost workers in the Christian Church; and, where the Societies strive after the. Ideal Endeavourer, the meetings are reverent, joyous, deep, spiritual, and everything that is conducive to the robust Christian life, which we long to see possessed by the rising generation. I know that, a little while back, some one spoke of the Endeavour as a 'cock-a-doodle-doo Christianity'—a . most inelegant expression from- the ptilpit, and one which I would not even ;. dignify by mentioning here, but-Vfor the fact that it has- been received in the city with 'an infinite clapping of hands,' and people have been catchingup the phrase as' an excuse j for their non - sympathy with, the movement. Then' there areothers who would couple the Endeavour and Bands of Hope as the chief , cause of juvenile depravity in this city. They write long letters to the . newspaper, saj'ing that the Endeavour brings children out late at night. These people are totally ignorant of the movement. The Christian Endeavour is not a, children's movement —of course, there are Junior Societies, but these rarely meet in the evening. There is a great difference between children and young people. I have read and heard all this criticism, and I must say that, if all these people—, priests, though some of them may be —had a grain of the religion of Gamaliel, their tongue would be silent, and their pen unused in criticising that which they know nothing- about. We are told that the Endeavour is a nursery for Pharisees; that the young people in the Societies get 'uppish,' and think that, because they can occasionally lead a meeting ■ they could, therefore, run the Church better than: the Minister and Deacons;" and that, being Endeavourers, they are superior to Church members who do not join the Society. Now, I grant that there may be a danger in this direction in some, moulds of character; but let me say that one work of the Endeavour is not to foster this* spirit in the young, but to destroy it. If it ex- v ists, more need is there to seek to put it away. This Pharisaism exists outside the Endeavour, as we all know.. Where it does exist, its tendency is to withdraw from the Church, striving to work apart from it. Where you find an Endeavourer neglecting his Church—thinking he can do without its help—you will find that, sooner or later, he will break away from- all Church ife and become stranded, if I ha.ye any here I would remind you of the words of Dr. Stanford: Yon ardent young- men — storming along with an irrestible passion for useful- , ness, leaving the ministrations of your Pastor, and the guidance of your Church life and become stranded. H vert the world—take care tne world does not convert you.'