N.Z. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Evening Post, Volume C, Issue 23, 27 July 1920, Page 3

N.Z. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

DR. GIBB ON EDINBURGH /

VISITORS FROM OVERSEAS,

(W0« OUR OWN CORRESPONDFNT.I

LONDON, 27th May

A considerable (portion of the forenoon session of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, on 19th May, was taken up with the introduction and reception of deputations from colonial churches and from other Reformed churches. Representatives were welcomed from the Presbyterian Churches of New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, and Australia.

The Rev. Dr. James Gibb, "Wellington, addressed the Assembly on belialf of the visitors. Though in the colonies they regarded the Free Church of Scotland as their mother church, the Church of Scotland was at least their grandmother. (Laughter and applause.) The purpose of his visit to this country was to obtain forty workera--twenty ministers and twenty missionaries—for the New Zealand Presbyterian Church, which was going to be the predominant Church in that country. The needs of New Zealand were greater than the needs of this country. He did not know what they wanted with all the church&s in this country. He looked around Edinburgh in dumb amazement. All over the city, at every street comer, ■were more churches, if all stories were true, than there were people to fill them, ■or people willing to fill them. It appeared as if someone has sprinkled churches down !iko pepper. He appealed to Euitable men to offer themselves for work in New Zealand. A MESSAGE FROM -FRANCE. M. Louis de St. Andre, D.5.0.. M.C., -who acted as liaison officer with the British Army in France, and who was accorded a very warm reception, gave a message to the Assembly from the Federation of Protestant Churches in France. They had not forgotten, he said, and could never forget, the old ties that allied .the- Protestants of Fra.no© with the Churoh of Scotland. France, and tho French Protestant Church, had suffered muoh from the war. but there was now between them a; bond which nothing could break. (Applause.) "'We shall never forget your sons, or their "bravery and sacrifice. Do not forget that tho task for which they died is not yet. completed, and won't be. so long as the country in which they fought 13 lying deserted and waste." To help them to build up that land he appealed to them, and' he knewj he would not appeal in vain.. (Applause.) The- Assembly was also addressed by the Be*. Fedor Ruppoldt, of the Evangelical Church of the new Republic of Czechoslovakia ; the Rev. Emilie Oorsani, of tho "Waldensian Churoh, Italy: and .M. J. Victor, of the Reformed Church in Hungary. JONAH'S "SPECIAL WHALE." A member of the Assembly, in suggesting to the committee the publication of a handbook on the history of the writing of the Bible, remarked that- a Sunday School teacher once insisted to him that the whale in which Jonah was confined was a special whale—specially _ provided so that Jonah could live in it in comfort for three days. (Laughter.) UNITED,FREE CHURCH. A number of speakers at a meeting of the General Assembly of the United Free Church directed attention to the serious position disclosed in the foreign mission fields. Among the contributory factors to this situation is the adverse movement in the 'rate of exchange. It was decided to send a cable to the mission councils in India and Manchuria, saying that no work was to be abandoned.

Presenting the report of the Colonial Committee, the Rev. John Cairns referred with gratification to the inorease in the contributions laet year. He aUo spoke of the novel methods of the Australian Inland Mission, where aeroplanes \were brought into use for the work. The burden of «il the messages that came from Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa was a oaH for men, »nd their friends in these colonies must not think they were indifferent to that call. He appealed to the younger ministers of the Church, who might think a change desirable, to consider this great field, and to relieve the congestion that undoubtedly obtained at Home. It would be far better if they offered themselves for a colonial post Tather than take part in the scramble for a call to & city church, for instance.

Mr. William Walker, Edinburgh, in moving the adoption of the deliverance, discussed the need for extending their missionary enterprise in the Middle East. He spoke of the prominent part Scotsmen had taken in the rubber boom of ten or twelve years ago, and the result of which had been an enormous expansion of the industry. Dividends had 1 been and still were being made up to 100 per cent., and amongst the men making these dividends many came from Scotland. Surely a first obligation against these unearned increments should be provision for the spiritual wants of the men who had made possible the making of such large incomes. The proportion of Scotsmen in the Middle East rubber and tea, plantations was very large. .

The Rev. D. Campbell, G-reanook, seconded, and the deliyerance was adopted.

SURPRISE AT ABERDEEN.

The Key. J. Weatherhead, Dundee, aubmitted the Toport of the Central Fund Committee, and his remark that ho had made a special visit to Aberdeen to organise a. campaign for finanoiol succour to hia pet lamb was received with uproarious laughter and comments not complimentary to the Granito City. He had heard, he said, of the stono with which Aberdeen was built, and had received all kinds of sly hints that something of the texture of the local masonry had entered into the hearts and minds of the peonje of the place, but he was met by Sir John Fleming, and, after a consultation with that tower of strength and vitality, his misgivings and fears had oozed away. Aberdeen made a most generous response, and not one single person refused to give when appealed to. He left Aberdeen in the knowledgo that the city had been grossly libelled. The Aberdeen he had gone to visit almost despairing of had proved to be a colony of large-hearted and generous men. (Applause by Assembly.)