BAPTIST UNION.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 328, 15 October 1908, Page 8

BAPTIST UNION.

PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. CHURCH AND POLITICS. (BY TELEGRAPH.—SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.} Nelson, October 14. Tho twenty-fifth annual conference of the Baptist Union commenced its sittings at Nelson this afternoon, under tho presidency jof tho Rev. J. G. Buckingham (Oamaru). Some sixty delegates were present representing all parts of the Dominion. After the roll call three new churches were welcomed into the union, viz. t Hamilton, Gisborne, and Richmond. Four now ministers wero received into tho ranks of the ministery—the llevs. Kempton and Archer from England, tho Rev. Mr. Laird from Ireland, and the Rev. I<\ Jones from Australia. A welcome toa was tendered by the pastors and officers of the Nelson church, the oldest church of the denomination in New Zealand. Mr. Carey (Christchurch), replying to the welcome, emphasised the great principles for which the Baptists stand. They had ever been first in demanding absolute liberty of thought and conscience for all They had stood in opposition to everything that held men in bondage. They stood to-day where they always stood. They spoke with unanimous voice against the licensed bar, in, favour of No-License, and with equal voice declared against everything that held their brother men in bondage. In the evening the president delivered tho annual address from the chair. He reviewed the quarter of a century's work, and urged the churches to greater devotedness, The Church should, show in its internal life and relations that ideal of brotherhood for which the world waited. It should bo a standing advertisement of what Christian principles could do for the world. They must have an educated ministry, truo to the old faith, but alive to present-day needs. To the cry that ministers should leave politics alone, they answered politics ..made up a large part of tho life of men and women, and they must touch all such matters 011 tho moral side. They needed to be children of theylay, and up-to-date while firri\ in their adherence to New Testameut truths;