RAWEI AT THE CENTRAL MISSION.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 161, 10 July 1899, Page 2

RAWEI AT THE CENTRAL MISSION.

An audience that filled the Central Mission Hall to overflowing gathered last evening to hear Rawei, the gifted and eloquent Maori Evangelist, speak and singr, The usual half-how's song service whs held as the people were assembling, and at 7 o'clock, when the service proper commenced, only standing room was available. After ths opening exercises Rawei read the leggon from the fifteenth chapter of Mark's Gospel. In the reading1 of the Scriptures hy Rawei there is a oharm and a freshness which invests an oftread passage with new light and meaning. The address wok based upon Ma.txhow iii., I—ll, Pealing with the preaching of John the Baptist in the wilderness of .Tndea he characterised the preacher »vs one of the .greatest the world had ever seen. Certainly no temple or cathedral of the present day oould accommodate the multitudes that flocked to hear this strange man. "There went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan." Dwelling upon the one great theme of John's preaching—"Repent, ye"—'the speaker emphasised the great need of the pulpit of the present doy by not exhorting the people to repentance, Repentance was absolutely necessary to salvation. Many were seeking an entrance to Heaven along lines laid down by themselves, but totally ignoring repentance of their sins towards. God. "Christ bore their pins, in His own body on the tree," and coming to God, pleading the merit of Christ's atonement, they would be saved. Rawei sang two solos, one of them in Maori, accompanying himself on the guitar, The sweetly quaint and plaintive voice had a wonderful effect upon the audience. These two items were all too brief, and had it been n, concert instead of a religious service a repeat would have been demanded. Mrs Wood also sang two solos during the evening, and the Rev. D. O'Donnell cloned, the service, many staying to the aiter-meeting;