THE CENTRAL MISSION.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 800, 25 April 1910, Page 8

THE CENTRAL MISSION.

SERVICE AT KING'S THEATRE. r . The King's Theatre was again the scene of the Central Mission popular Sunday evening service last night, when in spite of the inclement weather the number present was distinctly encouraging. The new missioner, Rev. E. 0.. Blamires, made reference to the pre-" ponderance of men in the • gathering, and, explaining it as partly due. to the bad night;, said he preferred' a gathing of men to any other. He congratulated all those who "found themselves wearing shoes belonging ,;to, a young man." The service was of a special character, centring around the hymn "Nearer my God to Thee." The brass band opened with a selection having that title, and the solist, Mr. Potr ter, gave the well-known sacred solo, made familiar by Miss 1 Ada Crossley and others. -Duying ■ the address the choir punctuated the speaker's remarks with the various v ,verses of the hymn. The tost was froiij Genesis sxviii., 11: "And he took or the stones of that place and. put them for his pillows." This was an illustration of great use being _ made of unlikely material. The uninviting stone was used to mark an epoch in the history of, the. people of Israel. The hymn was another illustration of the same,- being . written by the Unitarian daughter of a couple who first _ met in Newgate Gaol. Jacob's life illustrated the same fact, and the illustration was used to point out how God wrought great 'men and good, men like J. B. Gough, out of material the most sunken and degraded. The message was' one of inspiration, putting hone into the man who was down anq calculated to lift him "nearer to God. During the service the missioner announced that the new silvei band instruments would be used for the first time, the following Sunday evening at a special dedicatory service.