SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27563, 21 January 1955, Page 2

SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS

CONFERENCE OPENS IN CHRISTCHURCH

“When the mundane things of life are placed beside the hope of the imminent second coming of Christ they pale into insignificance,” said Pastor A. R. Mitchell, president of the South New Zealand Conference of Seventhday Adventists, in his opening address to the thirty-ninth annual session of the conference in Christchurch last evening.

Reminding delegates present from all adventist churches in the South Island that “study of, and belief in, the Bible’s clear-cut teachings was the great motivating force in early Adventist history,” Pastor Mitchell said that that same hope was fundamentally the only basic reason for the session. “Lift your gaze from the mundane things of life to Heaven —the reward of the faithful;” said Pastor Mitchell, predicting that the “Gospel’s most powerful and glorious days of triumph” were to be in the near future. He asked delegates to bring to the work of the session their best planning in readiness for finishing the work of the Gospel in the shortest time possible. Bible prophecies, which predicted a great religious revival in the days, just before Christ’s second coming, also told of the rise of a counterfeit power. The ability to discern between the true and the false revivals could be gained by a study of the Scriptures, said Pastor Mitchell. The session’s selection committee was appointed as follows:—Pastors C. C. Winter (Blenheim), G. C. Best (Nelson), A. S. Herbert (Greymouth), W. W. Petrie (New Brighton), Messrs S. Ashby (Christchurch), V. H. Saunders (Oxford), R. Grey (Papanui), A. S. Lewin (Invercargill). E. C. Rosedahl (Rangiora), J. Cusack (Sydenham), G. T. Hedges (St. Albans), H. L. McDuff (Timaru), C. Spain (Dunedin), and Mesdames A. E. Woodley (Ashburton) and M. G. Townend (Milton). Under the chairmanship of Pastor W. E. Battye, of Sydney, president of the Trans-Tasman Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, the committee will nominate the session’s four standing committees.