A POPULAR MINISTER.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 341, 30 October 1908, Page 7

A POPULAR MINISTER.

RECEPTION TO REV. J. J. NORTH. The Rev. J.-J. North, who has been absent for five weeks from the Vivian Street Baptist pastorato while attending the Australasian Baptist Congress in Sydney and the New Zealand Baptist Conference in Nelson, was welcomed back last night at a largely-at-tended meeting held in tho Vivian Street Schoolroom. Mr. J. Godber was .in tho chair. ' ■ The Rev. T. A. Williams referred to the high honours in which Mr. North was held, and stated that he ■ had gained his presentposition by hard and faithful work. Mr. Williams. spoke eloquently of the influence which the Christian Church should exercise on the civic life. The Rev. J. Keith Ewen, Newtown, said that Mr. North had stood in the forefront of the battle' and declared himself with no uncertain sound. He was profitable not only to his own church and congregation but to the city. He prayed that ho would continue in his onslaught agajnst tho powers of darkness. and. that by his presonce the city would be all the purer and all the sweeter. The Rev. R. S. Gray, of Christchurch, who is secretary of the Now Zealand Baptist Union, said that tho union honoured and esteemed Mr. North; because he' was one of their students, and beca.uso he represented and set forth, they thought, tho highest ideals of their denomination. With all his gifts and graces he was an exceedingly sane man, with a magnificent conception of the spirit of their denomination and of tho spirit of Christ. He believed that the sacred was tho secular and the secular was the sacred. When Mr. North was chosen to attend the Australasian Bantist Congress the speaker wrote to say that the New Zealand Union was sending the best man they had. He had been told that Mr. North and the Rev. F. W. Boreham (formerly of New Zealand, but now of Tasmania) had 1 stepped oasily into the front rank of Australian ministers. Ho thought that everybody liked Mr. North because ne was such an Irish fighter j he would not be surprised if Mr. North fought in his sleep. The Rev. A. Dewdnoy expressed the sincere regard of the Brooklyn Baptist congregation for Mr. North. Air. North's efforts to promote public righteousness had raised him bitter enemies. He had had to fight with beasts in Ephesus, but his brother Baptists would stand by him in his good work. Tho Baptists had always been in tho van in demanding civil and religious liberty. Mr. A. Hoby endorsed the remarks of former speakers) and presented Mr. North with a substantial gift of books, . Tho Rev. J. J. North said ho feared that previous speakers would need to pray for cleansing of thoir souls from tho exaggerations they had uttered. Ho was a peaceable man, and never fought if he could help it. He thanked his congregation for their prompt rosponso to schemes no had suggested. If tho Church had progressed, it was because all had stood together. He believed that a very large part of the duty of a Christian Church was to teach morals to tho community. He referred to his conduct on the gambling question, and with respect to billiard saloons, and declared that as regards tho latter question ho was right, and had evideuco in his possession which might be brought forward some clay. He warmly thanked those present for their reception and gift. Tho following contributed musical items:— Songs, Miss D. Larroby, Messrs. Murrell.and Pargetter: flute solo, Mr. A. Grox; violiu solo, Miss E. Hoby.,