BAPTIST UNION.

Evening Star, Issue 10783, 18 November 1898, Page 1

BAPTIST UNION.

The Conference resumed yesterday morning with a devotional meeting conducted by Mr J. Mminer. The report of the Auckland Baptist Auxiliary Association was read by the Secretary (Rev. A. H. Collins). It referred to tho work of the missioner, Mr H. Long. He has a district 1,400 square miles in extentsixteen centres, in each of which he holds religious service once a month—and eleven Sunday schools under his charge. The report of the Central Auxiliary referred to efforts after aggressive work which are being made. Sir vices had been continued at Palmerston North.

The Canterbury and Westland Auxiliary reported a year of prosperous work. The church at Rangiora had been enlarged, and a new church had been erected at Greendale. A church had been formed at Kaiapoi, and a hall had been built for the Chinese mission at Oxford Terrace. Evangelistic missions had been held with great blessing in various places, Tho report from the Otago and Southland Auxiliary indicated great difficulty in starting home mission work. The Cavertham Church had erected a church at Upper Green Island, which had been paid for. All these reports were received with glad thankfulness.

A letter was received from the church at Waugauui inviting the Union to meet there in 1899 —Accepted with hearty thanks. The Rev. A. Dewdnev moved—" That rule 13 be amended by the insertion of *7’ instead of ‘ 5.’ ” —Carried. The Rev. A. North moved —" (a) That a committee be formed, consisting of seven members, to be called the Baptist Union Sunday Schools and Young People’s Societies’ Committee, whose business shall be to correspond with, watch over, and further the interests of bur Sunday schools and young people’s societies, to collect statistics, and to re port annually to the Union, (b) The Committee to bo elected by the Assembly at the annual meetings of the Baptist Union, (f) That tho members be located in one centre, and that th# auxiliaries be requested to appoint sub-committees to co-operate with them.”

After considerable discussion this was carried unanimously. It was decided to issue a denominational almanac. The Rev. F. W. Boreham was appointed editor, Tnc follow iig t '.solutions concerning gambling were cart.e I; —“ (a) That in view of the alarm ng 8 l jml of gambling among all in the community, and of influential attempts to justify the same, this Assembly urges on the churches the need of immediate and energetic effort to protect the young people under their charge from this contaminating influence; (hj) that with a view to this, the General Committee be requested to formulate a pledge against gambling for the use of Banda of Hope, Sunday schools, and other church organisation 5 , and to communicate with each church urging the adoption of the pledge and suggesting the line of action that commended itself to their wisdom ; (c) that the General Committee prepare a petition to Parliament urging the abolition of the totalisator to be circulated for signature throughout the churches, the Committee being further instructed to enter into correspondence with other church authorities requesting them to take or renew action on similar lines. - ’ The Hon. T. Dick was present, and explained that the Totalisator Bill had been introduced into the Upper House by the late Sic Frederick Whitaker, and when it oame to the Lower House he (Mr Dick) took charge of it in the ordinary course. It was then believed that it would greatly minimise the evils of gambling. The speaker de* dared that he would sooner have cut off his right hand than to do anything to forward the increase of this grinding and oppressive evil. Mr G. Cabsost, M.S.R , explained that when the totalisator was introduced the mischief done by the bookmakers was far greater than it was at present. He thoroughly sympathised with the resolution. Daring the afternoon the Rev. J. A, Williams read an interesting paper on ‘The Ohristianly Conduct of Business,’ This was followed by a discussion on the paper, which was opened by the Rev. Alien Poole (Inver* cargill), Evening Meeting. - The Conference tea was held in the Hanover street Schoolroom, and a very large number of persons sat down to the ample meal provided by the ladies. About hali-paat seven an adjournment was made to tho church, where the public meeting in connection with the Conference was held. The church had been prettily decorated for the occasion, and was crowded. The Rev. A- North occupied the chair. After a hymn and a prayer delivered by Mr G. Carson, the Chairman said he had much pleasure, on behalf of the Hanvover street Baptist Church, in welcoming the delegates to the Conference, and he speke on behalf of all the members

of the church and congregation in according the representatives a cordial and heartfelt welcome. The Hanover street Church had had a long connection with the Union, in fact they had belonged to it from the commencement. It did not fall to their lot to have the honor of forming the Union ; that honor fell to the Oxford terrace (Christchurch) Church. The Union was now a very strong body, and included almost all the Baptist churches in the colony. Mention had been made of the fact that Hanover street Church had been privileged to lead in the contributions towards foreign missions. They were naturally proud of this, but he must say that all the money they had obtained had been given cheerfully and not through pressure. Perhaps their attention had been drawn so much to missions that their gifts to the Union had fallen short of what they should have been. In future they would have to attend more to the claims of the Union. He contrasted the present position of the Union with what it was when they met in Dunedin fourteen years ago. There were then twenty-four delegates, now there were forty; and the church throughout New Zealand had increased in the same proportion. Then there were only twelve Baptist ministers, now there were twenty-two —an increase of nearly two to one. Oae thing that had struck him in connection with the present Conference was the fact that, leaving- out their own six delegates, thirteen of the remaining thirtyfour had been connected in one way or another with the Hanover street Church. It had been the privilege of his church to train up a number of godly men and women who were doing good service for the cause throughout the colony. There had been a large advance in the numbers of the Baptist churches all along the line, and they were nearly double the strength they were fourteen years ago. He was very pleased with ’ the quality of their ministers, as shown by the speeches at the Conference. He could say, speaking as a man somewhat advanced in years, that their ministers wore able to stand shoulder to shoulder with the ministers of any body in any part of the world.—(Applause.) He made a touching and sympathetic reference to the late Professor Kirk. Professor Kirk, he said, was a man of extraordinary abilities —a scientist in the true sense, yet did not hold the stupid folly and falsely declare that science and religion were antagonistic. He was a noble, devoted man; a simple-hearted Christian gentleman. — (Hear, hear.) He would never forget the lesson that the deceased gentleman used to teach—viz , bo patient. He used to say that all who loved Christ were blended together in an organic unity, each to each, and illustrated this by describing in a beautiful manner that giant of the forest, the noble kauri, and pointed out that God’s way with regard to spiritual laws was analogous to His great natural laws. He concluded by expressing his pleasure at, for the third lime in Dunedin, welcoming a lay clergyman as president of the Union. Ho could not emphasise too strcngly against the heresy that there were two castes within the church. He would always maintain that every Christian man was a clergyman quite as much as those who had been called to the ministry.—(Applause.) During the evening addresses were delivered by the RevG A. H. Collins, C. Dallaston, and J. J. North. The choir, under the direction of Mr Moore, the organist, led the hymns, and rendered several anthem?,