MISSIONARY ADDRESS.

Evening Star, Issue 12873, 24 July 1906, Page 6

MISSIONARY ADDRESS.

The Rev. A. Gamble delivered an interesting and instructive missionary address last evening in the rooms of the Y.M.C.A., wh<yj there was a moderate attendance. Mr Gamble has been recently appointed organising secretary of the New Zealand Church Missionary Association, which was formed in Nelson in 1892, when the colony was visited by a deputation from the parent society—the Church Missionary Society—founded more than 100 years ago. Their annual income amounts "to nearly £400,000, and their mission work has extended to most of the countries occupied by messengers of the.Gosjwl. One member of the deputation referred to was the late Rev. R. W. Stewart, M.A., who three years later was numbered amongst the martyrs near Ku Cheng, in the province of Fukien, China. Quite recently a son and daughter of the late Mr Stewart left England to labor where their parents laid down their Uvea. Tlie New Zealand Auxiliary is now fourteen years old, and has fourteen representatives in the field, several of whom are engaged m work amongst the Maoris. Since Mr Gamble's appointment three candidates have applied to the Association to be accepted for service in the foreign field. Durrwg the course of his address List evening the speaker's remarks were frequently and strikingly illustrated by diagrams. There are 1.500,000,000 people in tho world, of whom only one-third are nominally Christian, showing that during the past nineteen centuries tb© Master's great command to '" Preach the Gospel to every feature" has been largely ignored. Where one million is spent oh foreign missions, the speaker said, £1,500,000,000 is spent upon drink. Three things were iiecessary in order that Christians should take a real mterest in farthering the Gospel—namely (1) knowledge, to be gained from missionary magazines and biographies of missionaries; (2) giving, which should at leaefc be done to the extent of tithing one's incomer »nd (5) prayer. Mention was-niade of the National Missionary Association of India, formed recentry,- and hav-. ing for its' object the: evangelisation of India by natives themselves.