The Resignation of the Bey. Jas Chisholm

Bruce Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 310, 6 October 1899, Page 7

The Resignation of the Bey. Jas Chisholm

■■■' ■■■ ' •■ : :''■'■■' '■"■',♦ : — , '• . ■ AN EXPLANATION TO THE \ PREsBYTERY. At Tuesday's meeting of the Presbytery the Rev. J. Chiaholm delivered a statement with regard to his reasons for resigning the Tokomairiro charge, wad in doing so spoke as follows :■—' ' ! My peouliar position has suggested the kind of " apologia" I. wish to present to the Presbytery. If I seem egotistical, I have to plead the example of St. Paul and say to all whom it may concern, in his words : "1 am become foolish. Ye compelled me." After long and prayerful considerution, I waß forced to the conclusion that it was my duty to leave Tokomairiro. What that meant for me no one will ever know. The outward or material consequences can be easily stated. I gave up an attached congregation of 400 members, besides adherents, a stipend of about £375, one of the finest church properties outside Dunedin, and went forth, literally not kuowing whither I went. That was no easy process, or one likely to be coveted for the mere fun of the thing. I considered that adequate pledges of my sincerity were given in the fact that I gave up everything. It seems, however, that the step I took ha 8 been so far out of line with the motives which actuate some people that they have not been able to believe that I acted with thorough honesty of purpose and from a sense of loyalty to Jesus Christ. I would not in ordinary circumstances have taken any notice of the baseness that has been manifested in imputing alien motives to me. I know very well that people's thoughts of others are determined very much by their own character, and that a man's outlook depends entirely on his own moral stature. But there seems to have been a persistent attempt by significar t hints of " something behind it all " lo discredit my action. I was told plainly the other day that I was handicapped in every congregation in Otago by the notion some people had regarding this " something behind it all." I hat I know is not the case so far as the majority of Presbyterians are concerned for I have been asked, with more or less urgency, to preach in every important vacancy throughout Otago, and have invariably refused. It has been repori.ed to me also that some of my brother ministers think I did wrong in leaving a congregation like Tokomairiro without a, settled minister. la answer to that, I have to say that I took care to leave the congregation in si thoroughly equipped condition. To make sure of adequate spiritual and financial supervision, I ordained shortly before leaving a number of elders and deacons, in addition lo the f.iitly large staff previously in office. . . Besides, I anicipatad, aud subseque t events amply Justified my anticpa ions, that there would be plenty of ministt-rs willing to step into the vacancy. The bn-thei minister* I have referred to wouli have yeen nothing amias in leaving the flock a*- Tok .miiriro if I had been, as they say, "called" to another and perchana-s better sphere. But because I was called to go out not knowing whither 1 went it seemed to them altogether wrong. Their view of the case waa well put recently by an elder of the church before a southern piesbytery, with no intention, I suspect, of befriending me, in these words: "Mr Chisholm had gone in search of the Island of Utopia, which no man has ever found. But in Mr 's case there is no Utopia. A large and important congregation are ready to receive him with open arms." The gentleman who uttered these words has been a very successful colonist. He may have found that what he deemed obedience to the Will of God always lay in ihe line of least resistance, 1 have found it all the other way. From my reading and experience it is with me a settled conviction as sure as God, as sure as the obedienco uuto death of our Lord Jesus Christ, that loyalty to truth and one's own deepest convictions is not by any means always re warded in this life by higher rank or a larger income. I have thoroughly mis interpreted the very rudiments of Christianity, and am willing here and now to confess that I am utterly ignorant of Jesus Christ and his method of salvation, if it be the case that obedience to the " Will of God " in this present world ordinarily lies in the line of least resistance and involves least sacrifice. I say boldly that as a rule, in the present state of the church and society, a thorough-going loyalty to Jesus Christ will lead a man into the line o greatest resistance ; and the more loyal a man is in his inmost core to the behests of duty the more bodily comfort and worldly prestige he will have to sacrifice. It is therefor a solemn question which these brother ministers of mine might profitably lay to heart whether, if I have resisted what seemed to me to be the pressure of the Divine Will and stuck to Tokomairiro, I would not in the light of the Highest have been showing greater solicitude for wool and mutton tban for the welfare of the flock, I might have gone candidatiug in vacancies as some of them have done, and " got a call" in tke usual way. But Cindidating as at present carried on eeema to me to be about the coarsest, the clumsiest, and the least effective method of bringing needy congregations and suitable ministers into contact, and I preferred to accept the call of God t 0 leave Tokomairiro rafcher than try by candidating to draw forth a " call " to another congregation. And so I am adrift. As soon as I was ready for work I inquired o f the convener of the Church Extension Committee about the places that were available for work. There happened to be nothing at the time. I then interviewed the moderator of the charge about supplying South Taieri. It was arranged that I should go there ©n a certain Sunday. On the preccedmg Sunday, however, I got a telegram from an elder of the district telling me not to come as thera was a minister already on the field. I might have paid no heed to the unauthorised telegram *nd gone to fulfil my engagement,

create a scandal. That door accordingly was also shut. I then inquired about itavenabourne. Someone said : " You. would never think of taking such a small charge as Ravensbourne." I said that I would do anything to serve my church, . . After all this the movement in: the line of church extension in and ardund Dunedin, was revived. Some of the most respected ministers of the Dunedin Presbytery had been striving for' years to create an interest in some kind of forward movehient in the line of church extension. They had, by statistics and in other ways, conclusively Bhown the urgent necessity for such a movement. This, indeed, can hardly be called in question. Everybody who haa given thought to the j matter knows how many Presbyterians have lapsed from church-going altogether c* joined other denominations because of inadequate spiritual oversight on the part of the congregations to which they were nominally attached. And it has been, and can «till be, easily demonstrated that there i 8 altogether insufficient church accommodation in Dunedin for the population that claims to be Prenbyteiian. lam nob, however, attempting to prove the necessity ; lam simply saying that the necessity has been over and over again recognised, The recent phase of the movement was originated by Mr Hutton, the representative elder of the North-East Valley. A large committee was appointed to prosecute the matter. I happened to be in town, and, with the hearty consent of the committee, was present at the first meeting. There was nob a aingle dissentient voice raised against the necessity for church extension. Roalyn was selected as a suitable field to begin with. Seeing that a suitable agent is one of the most essential factors in the successful carrying on of such work, and thinking I might be able to serve the church in that Capacity, I ventured to offer my services. At once Mr John Reid, I the representative elder from Knox Church, rose and congratulated the meeting on the happy solution of all difficulty so far as Roslyn was concerned, and then left, evidently caking it for granted tliafc a goou hour's work had beeu done. lam not giving it history of the whole movement, but simply statiug my own relation to it. It seems that now, after four months, an entirely new element has come in. It is an element that, for the sake of our common Christianity, apart from the interests of the Presbyterian Church, can only be deplored. Some of those who who been taking an active part in the movement have been accused of the basest motives. It has been asserted that ib is because I am, and have been though all the vicissitudes of the negotiations for union j with the Northern Church, a steadfast unionist, whereas another minister in the neighborhood of Roalyn has been opposed to union on the proposed basis, than an attempt is being made to make room for me at his expense. It is oomohow also taken foi cranted that whatever measures of success in the way of church exteusion is attained J in Rc-lyu a corresponding injury will be done 10 neighboring congregatious. It would surely be ludicrous were it not tragic ■<j note that the advent of ano'her minister in Roslyn ia expected to herald the decline or fall of any old and well-esublished charge. Instead of fighting as from hostile campe, why could not neighboring miuist^rs and the agent appoiuted tv Ro-lyu work honorably together, and make * p'aca endowed with natural be.tuty equally rich in spiritual excellence ? Wha ever may be the result of tiie movement so far as I personally couoerned, in one sense I care very little. Rosiyn is not a supremely desirable place. After what has transpired there will be, for a time at least, a few intractable elements there. My recent experience in several congregations have clearly shown that there is no falling off in the quality of my ministration*, and that I hare still, by the grace of CJocl, ability and energy to commend the Gospel and service of Christ to my fellowmen. I have before me at present several out ets for honorable and useful work in the Northern Church. But it will be a torribla wrench if it tuna out that there is "no more phce in these parts" for me, »nd that I am virtually constrained to sever my connection with CKago. I joined the church ay a lad under Dr Stuart. Through the eenial and fostering influence of his noble character, a desire sprung up within me to serve the church in the ministry of the Gospel. I devoted all the money I had acquired during the palmy days of the first goldnelds of Otago to cover the expenses of several years' sojouru in Edinburgh in order to qualify myself for efficient work, j After returning to Otago, and ere I had \ quite finished my theological studies, I was j "called" to Tokomairiro. 1 toiled often j beyond my otrength for twenty. nine years in what grew to be one of the largest and best equipped congregations within the i bounds of the synod. I have betn called by j the church to fill the highest offices she has ! to bestow, and do work that has heen most honorable, but also moat taxing to both body and mind. And now, if after all these years in which I have given of my beat to the Church of Otago, and am not a penny richer in wordly substance, ib come 3 about that I have, however, reluctantly, to leave | her service, then I can only sjo forth rejoic- J ing that I have still the opportunity and i ability to serve Jdsua Christ iv the ministry of the Presbyterian : Chureh elsewhere ; and I can only hope that the selfishness or jealousy, personal and congregational, that necessitates my retirement from Otago may not tend still furtuer to belibble and deaden the spiritual life and enterprise of a church that I dearly love. It was decided nob to discuaa this statement at present.