Youth Leader Speaks In Whakatane

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 15, Issue 87, 25 August 1950, Page 3

Youth Leader Speaks In Whakatane

"One of the things I do know,” said Pastor S. T. Leeder, at the Whakatane Adventist service on Saturday morning, “is, we are living in the last days, and we will never survive without a true living faith in .Christ.” Pastor Leeder visited Whakatane as director of 'the Youth activities of the North New Zealand Conference of SeventhDay Aventists. Pastor Leeder referred to the devastating things happening day by day on land and sea; to the feeling of expectancy, of fear and dread in the world; to world leaders like General Smuts who said: "We are living in the twilight of the world. I wish someone could tell if we are living at the beginning or the end.” "God has already told us about this day,” said Pastor Leeder. From Scripture he said: “The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath; a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation.” The speaker then said, “In the convulsions of nature we see the judgments of God to obey the King of kings. Man is upon the persistent refusal of man in terrible danger today, lest coming suddenly He find you and me ndt ready.”

Again he read: "Before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, seek ye the Lord . . . seek righteousness, ... it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger.” Pastor Leeder continued: "Righteousness is the only thing that will insure one against the evils of that day. Christ died that you and I might receive righteousness; that our sins might be covered by His righteousness; and that we might receive power to overcome and have Victory in the life. An active living faith in Christ will result in a life of obedience to Him. We must determine to live for Christ; as the old hymn puts it, ‘Live out Thy life within me, O Jesus, King of kings’.”