BIG METHODIST RALLY

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 104, 27 January 1931, Page 11

BIG METHODIST RALLY

Bible Class Movement The summer school o£ the combined Methodist young men's and young women’s Bible class movement, which was commenced at Scots College, Wellington, on Wednesday night last, was brought to a conclusion yesterday. On Thursday morning, the Bev. E. S. Emmet, of Taranaki, was the speaker, on the subject “Jesus, Our Saviour and Redeemer.” Practical advice was forthcoming in the evening, when Mr. C. E. Gardiner, statistical secretary of the Y.M. 8.0. movement, took as his subject, “The Working Out of Our Class Objective.” The address was a continuation *of that given by Mr. G. C. Burton the previous night. Mr. Walter Nash, M.P., on Saturday morning delivered an addres's, the title being “Jesus —His Significance in the Present World Situation.” Speaking of racial factors, he said that the northern area of the Pacific was looming largely on the world’s political and economic horizon at present. Japan had an area one and a half times as large as New Zealand, with a population of nearly 60 millions. She had reached the limit of the utilisation of land for food, and her only source of raw materials was Manchuria, which was owned by China. Within the next decade, he thought, that was a most promising area for war.

Australia would dot allow the Japanese to enter, yet they had the right to demand the same standard of living as others. Russia, Mr. Nash said, was, since 1917, trying out the greatest experiment the world bad ever known in anti-Christian methods. Gandhi was working in India. The youth movement in Germany was growing rapidly. In South Africa the colour bar was the predominant evil. Mr. Nash concluded by saying that the principles of Christianity had to be applied, and that people had to get a bigger vision than nationality. On Saturday night Miss Jean Archibald took as her subject “A Sense of Vocation.” The recreational side of the school was developed to its utmost, and Saturday afternoon was spent in staging “stunts” by members of the unions. The most impressive service of all was the communion service conducted at 7.45 on Sunday morning by the Rev. E. P. Blamircs, in which the whole school took part.