AMAZING SCENES.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19675, 19 July 1929, Page 4

AMAZING SCENES.

RELIGIOUS REVIVAL AT CESSNOCK. DUTCH EVANGELIST'S METHODS. (FBOM OTJB OWK COJtBESPONDBNT.) SYDNEY, July 11. Amazing reports have come during the past week from the mining town of Cessnock, in New South Wales, of the operations of one Van Eyk, a Dutch evangelist, who reached Australia not long ago from South Africa. This evangelist has gained the confidence of the people in the distressed mining centres in a remarkable manner, and it has been suggested that in the midst of their suffering the unemployed miners and their families have been like the proverbial drowning man who was glad to clutch at a straw. Van Eyk said that he received a call to go to the mining towns, and he answered it. He prayed for sufficient money to enable him to make the trip, and lo and behold, he became possessed, as if by some magic, of £75. He said that God always provided for him. He had no need to take up collections. He had never been stranded. God had always answered his prayers, and would also answer tbo prayers of the people. All this he told the people of Cessnock. and very soon he became the centre of the most remarkable religious revival ever seen in any town in New South Wales.

After a number of preparatory meetings he announced a great public meet ing, at which there would be baptism by immersion. Needless to say, the announcement created a great deal of interest, and long before the adver tised time of starting hundreds of people were waiting for the doors of the theatre to open. A specially con structed concrete tank had been erected on the stage, and this was filled with warm water, which was heated in kerosene tins in the vacant section alongside the theatre. When the meeting commenced a crowd had gathered the like of which Cessnock had never before seen. It was evident, too, that many of them had come to scoff, and if that were so, most of them remained to pray. The scoffers soon found that they were in a minority, and any unseemly behaviour was due more to the enthusiasm of the crowd than to any endeavour to obstruct the proceedings. At the first baptismal ceremony 33 women and 31 men were "dipped." And dipped they were in the true sense of the term. The women were arrayed in white gowns and the men in white shirts and white trousers. The women were dealt with first. One by one they emerged from their dressingroom and proceeded to the tank. Once they reached the tank they came into full view of the audience, but not one of them faltered. They were greeted by the evangelist, who stood in the tank with the water up to his thighs. Van Eyk placed his arm around the shoulder of each woman, and with one hand he covered the nostrils and mouth of the convert. Then he allowed the patient to fall back, and finally pressed her head beneath the surface of the water, at the same time intoning the words, "I baptise you in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." Dripping wet, the converts proceeded to their dressing-rooms, where they sang with much feeling many wellknown hymns. It was at this stage of the proceedings when all the women had been dipped, that the crowd got out of hand.

! Apparently the people were even more anxious to see the men who had agreed to face the ordeal of a public baptism. Van Eyk called for twelve strong men to help him to regain control, and his appeal was not in vain. The volunteers formed a cordo~ around the tank. But this did not dampen the enthusiasm, and it was only with the utmost difficulty that the front-rankers were not precipitated into the tank. So Van Eyk resorted to the method of declaring that the ceremony was over. He left the stage and later ordered that the lights should be put out. Many people went home, but hundreds were sceptical,, and the patien-e of the latter was rewarded, for when the crowd had thinned out the baptisms were proceeded with and carried to a conclusion. Then the men who had been converted sang hymns. The men and the women who had been converted said the next day that they felt much better for it. They felt that God had taken possession of their lives, and that thereafter they couid do no wrong, and would be guided and protected in everything. Scores of others appealed to Van Eyk to baptise them. The following day Van Eyk announced that he had been billed for £lO for damage done to the theatre by the crowd when enthusiasm was at its height. That did not worry him, he said, for he knew that the bill would be met by the good people of Cessnock, who appreciated his m.3sion. But what did concern him was the fact that scores of others wanted to be baptised, and he had no place where he could carry out the rite. Then it was announced that somebody had answered his prayer and had given his mission a section of land. More than that, sufficient money had been subscribed to erect a temporary meeting house. At a meeting the night after the baptisms Van Eyk attacked various religions, and some of his remarks were resented. It was then tha. Van Eyk displayed h real powers. "Leave the hall," he said to one of the interjeetors. And when the man refused Van Eyk went dow from the platform, took the man by the scruff of the neck, and practically carried him outside amidst the applause of his many followers. This interjection was but a mere echo of the controversy which Van Eyk's mission has aroused in the coal fields. At practically all the churches last Sunday the ceremony was the topic of the sermons. So if the mission has done nothing more it has attracted, a great deal of attention to this im-->rtan' religious rite.