MELANESIAN MISSION LITANY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 36, 11 February 1904, Page 4

MELANESIAN MISSION LITANY.

A service of prayer for the success of the Melanesian Mission was held in St. Sepulchre's Church last night, conducted by the vicar. the Rev. G- Carver. O.ving to the wet weather the congregation was small. An earnest address was delivered by the Bishop of Melanesia, who said that while the mission worker? in the Pacific Islands were fighting against Satan in his stronghold, their friends at home were holding up the hands of the missionaries by prayer. He looked upon the St. Barnabas Association as the Prayer Union of the Melanesian Mission, and when faced by difficulties and danger from which God had brought him safely through, he had often thanked God that they h-acl a body of praying men and women behind them- He spoke earnestly of the need for prayer on behalf of the missionaries who had to meet varied dangers, and ondure utter loneliness on many of the outlying stations. The results of the work might have been poor, he said, but that perhaps was because they had cone to work in the wrong way. They tried every year to send from Norfolk Island to the other islands 20 native teachers who. if they had been well grounded and their Christian character truly formed, exercised a marvellous influence upon their fellow-natives. He looked upon the St. Barnabas Association as the mouth-piece of the mission at Home, and if its members would do all they could enlightening Church people about work in the islands, it would accomplish a great -work.