UNITED SERVICE

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 86, 8 October 1935, Page 17

UNITED SERVICE

DUTY OF CHRISTIANS

The Island Bay Methodist Church was crowded last Sunday evening, when an inspiring united service was. held by the Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians. The Rev. F. O. Prosser (Methodist) conducted the service, and in welcoming the visiting congregations and ministers, said that such occasions of fellowship were valuable in bringing nearer a church unity which undoubtedly would be realised in the future.

The Rev. A. L., Silcock (Baptist), who delivered the sermon, reminded the congregation of the duty of Christians to strive to ■win the careless and indifferent to Christianity. This duty could ne^er be evaded by merely employing a paid ministry. In Christ's parables of the Lost Coin, the Lost Sheep, and the Lost Son, our Lord showed his passionate eagerness to reach those who were regarded by the religion of His day as outsiders, and His followers today ought to share the same eagerness. "So long as we retain our membership, and lead our young people to join the Church, we thmk we are doing very well. But that is not enough. Christians should not be satisfied until they see constant accessions to the Church from those at present untouched by religion."

The Rev. P. J. Wainwright (Presbyterian) led the congregation in intercession, and the united choirs, conducted by Mr. J. K. Edie, gave a fine rendering of the anthem "God So Loved the World."