DIAMOND JUBILEE.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20869, 31 May 1933, Page 5

DIAMOND JUBILEE.

CAMBRIDGE TERRACE METHODIST CHURCH. CELEBRATIONS CONTINUED. Commemoration of the diamond jubilee of the Cambridge Terrace Methodist Church was continued yesterday with a tea and a jubilee concert. Many old members of the church were present at the tea, and the little church was filled in the evening. Mr H. Holland, M.P., presided in the evening, and he and the Rev. E. Drake gave short addresses. Musical items were given by the Addington Methodist choir. At the beginning of the concert the Rev. T. W. Vealie, the present minister of the church, read many messages of congratulation and goodwill from former ministers and friends of the church. A bouquet was presented to Mrs Vealie by Mrs H. Holland, on behalf of the congregation. '

"The Greatest Force in the World." The jubilee, Mr Holland said in his address, was by some persons described as a milestone in its history, but milestones were silent, lifeless things, and a jubilee could hardly be called lifeless for there were celebrations and there was joy fulness. He would rather call it an anniversary. The church was not the building in which the people gathered; it was the people themselves, and if those people lived rightly they would attract others to their church. The present time was a very difficult one and some persons stayed away because they had no money to put in the collection. Those persons were every bit as welcome as persons who had money to give, and the church wanted them all to come in. The church of Jesus Christ was a remedy for all our ills, and religion was the greatest force in the world —no other force could be compared with it. "Something: to be Proud Of." Mr Drake said that 60 years was something to be thankful for and to be proud of, especially in a young country, a country in the making, and with a great future before it. The men arid women in the early days had had great difficulties, but they had accepted things as they were. There had been some great souls among the ministers and officers of the church. Methodism had had a great history in Canterbury. He could 100k back at the old Durham Street Church and to the erection of other churches in Christchurch, and all through the lives of the people had been permeated with a spirit of devotion to God. Methodism had no fads nor faddisin in the presentation of Christian truth. Wesley had dealt with unemployment and distress, and many other social problems, and right through the years there had been this attempt to translate into life the princiole3 of holy religion. Primitive Methodists had had no difficulty in applying the Gospel to their social life, and men had felt all through that they must get into touch with the people. "I do not believe that we can solve our present difficulties through politics or politicians, or through economic conferences, but only if we go before God and get things put right in God's sight. If things are right in His sight they will work out all right in relation to men."

Learning from the Past. 'The past taught us, Mr Drake continued, what we ought to do in the present. We had to translate the great past. He asked what was to be done for the young people and what was to be done to stop the everlasting quarrels of local bodies, to get everyone to work for the general good. What had become of the persons who in earlier days had given all to the church and who had now almost forgotten it? They were no longer where they should be, and why was this so? There was the call of the city and of the country. It was a call not that the country be made safe for democracy but that it be made safe for mankind. Thus, what the people of the church believed should come to be. The celebration of the jubilee will be continued this evening! with a united fellowship meeting, which will be followed by a Communion service. The concluding function will be a young people's rally and social on Thursday evening.