THE CHURCHES.

Evening Star, Issue 7876, 8 April 1889, Page 2

THE CHURCHES.

The Rev. Isaac Rooney, deputation from tho Wesleyan Missionary Society, conducted service in the Cargill road Wesleyan Church yesterday morning, and in Trinity Church in the evening. The congregations were very large, and liberal collections were taken up on behalf of the mission fund. In the evening Mr Rooney took for his text 2nd Corinthians, chap, x., v. 4., "For the weaponß of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds." He began by saying that Christianity waß aggressive and intolerant, and in this it differed from heathenism. Had it been more tolerant it would never have had to endure the persecutions to which it was subjected at the beginning. It brooks no rival. It aims at universal dominion. It was because of this that Paul eould speak of his work as a warfare. The conflict between Christianity and heathenism has not yet ceased. The command is still given "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." Tho preacher then proceeded to speak of the methods employed in the mission field. There were two ways of propagating a religion—force and moral suasion. Mahomed employed the former, but Christ the latter. The methods employed in the mission field may be summed up as follows: —Preaching the Gospel, teaching the young, eirculating the Scriptures; and training Native agents. During the present century no fewer than 300 translations of the Scriptures in whole or part had been published by the British and Foreign Bible Society alone. Of these translations no fewer than thirty had been made by missionaries laboring in Polynesia. The demand for the Scriptures on the islands was large and increasing. He remembered on one occasion 20,000 copies being ordered, all of which were sold in two or three years. The importance of training the young could not be over-estimated. A great deal of the success of missionary work was due to this. A Native ministry was also necessary. As soon as a Native agency comes into existence, Christianity ceases to be looked upon as a foreign thing. Special attention was being devoted to this, there being at present in connection with Wesleyan missions in the islands between3,ooo and4,oooNative agents employed. The training of these agents was thoroughly practical. They were trained not only for the work but in the work. The results of mission work were next dealt with. The Gospel was an everlasting Gospel. The weapons employed were still mighty, through God, to the pulling down of strongholds. The success of missions during this century could be proved by the number of converts that had been gained. It had been estimated that no less than 3,000,000 converts had been gained from heathenism. Success, however, was not to bo gauged by numbers alone. There was work done that could not be tabulated. Not only were converts made, but the character of the prevailing heathenism became altogether changed, it being robbed of much of its tyranny and cruelty. The testimony of Sir Bartle Frere, Sir Richard Temple, and others to the success of mission work in India, and of Mrs Gordon Cumming and others to the success of the work in Fiji, was quoted to show that such success was real. In answer to the question, Are the converts genuine ? the preacher gave several striking iustanees of the wonderful change that had been wrought by the power of the Gospel in the lives of men who at one time were cannibals and monsters of cruelty. An earnest appeal to the congregation to do

their utmost to help ou this work brought a most interesting anil powerful sermon to a "dose. In addition to tho above services, Spaniel Tomakit addressed tho Sunday schools in thro afternoon, very much interesting the scholars by what ho told them of somo of tho customs and traditions of his people. This evening a public meeting will be held in Trinity Church at 7.30, when addresses wili be given by Daniel and tho 3iev. I. Ruoney. At St. Andrew's Church yesterday morning tho Rev. Mr Adamson, in the course of a sermon, referred to the fact that many ■commentators of tho Scriptures said that .religion meant godliness. lie then went on to say : I think that is a great mistake. There is a great difference between these •words. It is true that every godly man i 3 a religious man ; but it is not true that every religious man is a godly man, or that religion is godliness. It is a very strange far,t, when we come to look at it, that the *>iblo says very little about religion, and it never praises religious people. Tho Biblo speaks of a religious man only once, and of religion only twice, except where it speaks of the Jewish religion to condemn it. The Bible tells us nowhere to bo religious, but it does tell us to be godly. Make no mistake about the use of these terms. These uro very religious times in which we live, but I say they are very ungodly times. There never ■was more preaching in tho world than there is to-day, and there never was more downTight hypourisy in it. There is a great deal •of talk about religion and religious things, but very little talk about God and godliness. It is a very strange fact, but a very true one, that a man may bo a very religious man, and yet a very ungodly one.

There never was a time iu the history •of tho church when there was more need for this to be made known 'Jian there is to-day. Perhaps some of you will say " I don't know what you mean by religious. Ia not this a religious man : a man who talks a deal about his soul—who is anxious about bis salvation, who reads and prays a great deal about it, who weeps and cmouras over his sins and shortcomings?" And yet I say ho may be a very ungodly ■man. It is his own soul ho is thinking ■about. It is salvation that is all his troublo, ■and if he can get on without God he is not -at all anxious about hum Thoro is many a member of the Christian church of which this is a true picture. . . . But we raay ask the question: What is the difference between mere religion and godliness? It is tho difference between always thinking of self and always thinking of God. It is the difference between trying to save ourselves and looking to God that he would save us through the finished work of His own Son. In a word, I say, to he godly is to know God, and to know Him is to love JHim, and to love Him is to serve and obey Him. There is many a religious man who will talk seriously enough to you about dying and goiog to Heaven, but I don't know why he wants to go there. Depend upon it many of these men are better ■off hero than they would be there. They 'They imagine that Heaven is a place ■of rest. . . . But there is not a

word about God who made them, or about *Jhrist who saved him ; not a word about tho Holy Spirit. Oh, no ; if they could get to Heaven they would be well enough without these. But it is different with the godly man. Hero ho sees but through a glass darkly; here ho knows very imperfectly ; but when life's last battle is won, and death's cold stream is passed, he shall enter his Father's homo with joy—not because it is a place of rest, not because he is leaving behind him the cares and troubles of time. Ah ! no; it is because there ho shall be like Christ, for he shall seo Him as He is.