YOUTH MOVEMENT

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 29, 3 August 1931, Page 3

YOUTH MOVEMENT

A '"grand rally of youth/ under the auspices of the Hutt Valley branch of the Inter-Bible Class Council, was held in the King George Theatre, Lower Hutt, yesterday afternoon, and was presided oVer by the president of the council, Mr. J. S. Reid. The body of the hall was filled with members of the following affiliated bodies: The 'Ariglican Bible Classes o£ Petone, Lower Hutt, and Upper Hutt; Baptist classes of Petone and Lower Hutt; Church of Christ, Petone and Lower Hutt;' Congregational, Lower Hutt; Methodist, Petone, Lower Hutt, and Upper Hutt; and Presbyterian, Petone, Lower Hutt, and Upper Hutt; the Hutt Valley branch of Toe H, and Petone and Lower Hutt Rover Scouts. The ministers o£ the various churches, Mr. Len Greenberg, of the Wellington branch of the Bible Class Council, and the Mayors of Lower Hutt (Mr. W. T. Strand) and Petone (Mr. D. M'Kenzie) were present. Special items were rendered, and the singing of the hymns was led by the Hutt Methodist Choir, under Mr. C. E. Crawford, and an orchestra under Mr. V. . R. Brown. The pianists were Miss Masou and Mr. C. R. Horman. • The devotions were led by the Yen. Archdeacon A. L. Hansell, and the Benediction was given by the Rev. J. Lopdell. Mr. Greenberg expressed the greetings of the Wellington 'Bible Class Council. The chairman spoke of the aims and objects "of the movement. The youth o£ today were called upon to follow the gleam of the torch lit 2000 years ago and leaven the various world movements with the spirit of Jesus Christ and carry Christianity into the practical everyday world. Mr. Straud, in his welcome, said the most necessary thing to-day was the practical application of the teachings of Christ to the problems of the world, and for that work the coming generation was responsible. JThe address was given by Mr. Walter Nash. M.P. The purpose of the movement, he said, was Christian fellowship, Christian co-operation, and Christian activity and service. The greatest leader the world had ever known was Jesus, and it was to be regretted there was no record of His youth. He was a man of piercing insight and graceful personality, and a brilliant story-teller. His stories were unequalled and were full of lessons on world problems. The vineyard parable showed how He would deal with the unemployed problem, paying the workers according to their need and not according to "service. The answer to His enemies who would have trapped Him—"Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things which are God s"— showed that there were not two standards of life, but that the service of God did not differ from service to community or country. The Sermon on the Mount gave the law of. life, and to obey its injunctions was to live. The message of Jesus was a message to change the world. Christianity was a challenge to the world and should be taken into account in every attempt to solve the great problems of unemployment and disarmament and the racial problem. Christianity demanded equal rights and privileges for all, whether white, black, brown, or yellow. To carry out the principles of Christ required the courage of a Colonel Freyberg, yol Christianity was not a. life of excitement but one of quiet, calm determination . Mr. Nash closed with a paraphnse of Abraham Lincoln's speech at Gettysberg as applied to New Zealand to-day.