BAPTIST UNION.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18202, 13 October 1924, Page 11

BAPTIST UNION.

annual conference. rhc ann;;,?] eonterence of the, New Zealand Baptist Union was continued on. Saturday arid Sunday, many different tunctions being held. On Saturday morning a private ministers meeting was held, and an address on -The Hidden Wealth of the New Testament/' ■p-as delivered by the Rev. A. J. Gri—, 8.A., B.D. The come rente picnic was to have been held at ■'■Saltairc -1 the residence of Mr C. Dixon. i_n the afternoon, but it was owing to the rain. •A*" P- m - the "ioung "Women's Bioio Lmon held iu- annual tea i_n Oxford terrace, schoolroom. and entertained members of the conference, interested in the movement. The exDominion president of the Union, Mrs Guy Thornton presided. Addresses were given by Miss Hilda Rice and tbe ticwly-elacted president, 'Mrs H. M. Smeeton. Concert Id Baptist Church. 1 he-re was a. very large audience at tho Oxford Terrace Baptist Church on Saturday night to hear the concert provided by the combined Baptist choirs. The conductor was Mr V. C. Peters, and Mr W . Melville Lawry was the organist. The programme was as follows: -Chorus "Tho Heavens Are Tell'nS' '.Haydn'* choir; solo, "0 Divine Redeemer" (Cb. Gounodl, Mr Albert Drayton; double quartet, "Evening Hymn'' ilTaupman'i, choir members; anthem (Unaccompanied'). "Fierce Was the Wild Billow" (T. Noble), choir; pa 1 .!-.! <song, '^Evening 1 ' '(AWt.*),. maJ© members; quartet. "Cast Thy Burden (Bernard H.atrfblc-n), Misses Elsom and Drayton, Messrs W. and R. Drayton ; motet. ''Hear My Prayer'' (Mendelssohn), Miss Dudney and choir; part song, ''Lullaby'' (Brahms'); male members; solo. "A Song "f_ 1 hauksgivjrig'' (Allitson), Mrs W. Sykes; double trio. "Lift Thine Eyes (Mendelssohn), Mesdanies Vol- ] ler and Why to. Misses Elsom, Lilly, | Partridge and Dawson; chorus. I "Achieved is the Glorious Work" (Haydn), choir; solo, "Star of My Soul'' (Sidney Jones'), Mr Albert Drayton; quartet, "Nearer, My God, to Thee" (Old Hymn). Messrs Whyte, Peters, Drayton and Richards: chorus, "Thanks Be to G'od" (Mendelssohn), choir. THE DARK RACES. ANNUAL-MISSIONARY SERMON. In connexion-with the Now Zealand Baptist Union Conference, ths Rev. J. Takle, of Bengal, preached the annual missionary eermon yesterday morning at tho Oxford Terrace Baptist Church. During the course of his sermon, tho preacher referred to tho imperative need for British people to have wider views. Patriotism, racial pride and politics had an ' important' place in man's make up, but if they were backed merely by self-interest and unholy ambitions they failed entirely. During tho last twenty years, exaggerated patriotism had been a pest of humanity and since tho armistice there had been 3n orgy of nationalism. When nationalism was .first raising its head in India, Sir Ram K. Bhandarkar, an Indian judge of the Bombay High Court and a weil-kuown social reformer, said to a. European with passionate feeling, "Why is it that, men are 'turning away front faith in human brother-. liood to this narrow nationalism, which lias no. room in it for a, wider love?" In European countries, said the preacher, the racial prejudices distress us, but the relations between the white and coloured races were' becoming increasingly painful. What were the nationalistic slogans tff so many lands in the East but the expression in different languages, and different, forms of one passionate challenge to the white races to leave the coloured races alone to work out their destinies. In one language it was "Home Rule for Egypt"; in another "Swaraj," or '' Mali a tma "Gandhi kejai" (victory to the great-souled Gandhi); or. "India, for the Indians." There was a panArab movement and a pail-Turanian movement and a pan-Islamic movement,. At. heart, they were one. Claims which were 'only whispered in the tea-shops and bazaars.of the East, ten years ag.o, were now shouted in the Council Chamber; and the British people must take notice, since three persons out of four in the British Empire were coloured .people. The coloured people were acutely self-conscious, -while AngloSaxon's in the East, still retain a sense of superiority which they believe was inherent in their birth and blo"d. White arrogance marked down the Indian, the Chinese and' the African as ''niggers," suited only for coolie labour and tally clerks, as "lesser breeds without t.he law,"' as "far behind in their evolution," and so on, and so on. But all these "hewers of wood, 3n( i drawers of water" were found to be indispensable to the European. the East Mho would amass a fortune quickly. Still it was common to hear of Indian gentlemen being removed bv Europeans from railway carriages. aJthough. they had paid the correct, first or second class fare. Others had been asked to leave English churches in India, because Europeans objected to their being present in national dress. One such experience ruined the goodwill, not only of the man'insulted, but, also that of anv acquaintances whom he mar tell. Was itsurprising. then, that Asiatic people were looking for the day when they | would be able to break down white superiority and dominance, and become masters in-their own'house. The average commercial man from Europe and the"average representative ot' a. Western industrialism had no time for the missionnrv enterprise'as e solution, said the speaker. Sometimes if would seem as if tbey were saying: "Hands off. this is our patch.'' They judged everything in the terms of dividends, and lacked entirely an. idealism which would Ivring about a real internationalism. If- as some- said, missionaries ■ onlv spoiled the natives, if was well to remember that the trader and t"'-e professional man by a csteru industrialism and commercialism brought .jn a process of breaking down, and piling nothing in "return. Tt"was cusy destrov 'lie social fabi'i'' of backwaru races bv our Westernism. it was for Britishers—trader?, professional men and missionaries—to see to :t that it was rc-built so that the peoples might take a new lease of life with new ideal.-;. VICTORIA SQUARE SERVICE. I An open-air religious meeting was held in Victoria square in connexion with the. Baptist Conference, yesterday afternoon. There was a good attendance of the public, and the Rev. J. J. Xorth occupied the chair. | The chairman intimated that the i meeting was being held for the pnri pose of preaching the Gospel. Tho Revs. X. Keith Ewan (Hastings) and Joseph Kemp (Auckland) then, delivered brief religious addresses. A number'of hymns were sung by the Oxford terrace Baptist Church Choir.