FOREIGN MISSIONS

Evening Star, Issue 15308, 7 October 1913, Page 1

FOREIGN MISSIONS

he l d >' oßtcl ' d! ’,v afternoon of the Methodist Ladies’ Auxiliary of Foreign Missions. The President (Mrs C. J. Likins) said T?,H« dd T I"' 3 ? t0 l ’° Sivon'by Sister dulia, who had spent 13 years in missionary work m Papua, the last throe being as their special deaconess, snpporlod out of then-funds Owing to frequent and persistent attacks of malarial fever fsister Juba s, constitution had heen so weakened that the doctors forbade her to return to Papua, greatly to their regret as well as to her own. Sister Julia gave a very interesting address, consisting chiefly ol instances of renurkablc answers to prayer in her work in New Guinea. The Rev. W. Slade spoke on the centenary of tho > establishment of the Wesicyan Methodist Missionary Society Ho referred to tho part taken'bv Lr Thomas Gopo in connection with the oversea growth of Methodism. In 1013 Dr Coop, then an old man, undertook to establish a Methodist mission in India, and sot. sail with a band of missionaries for (hat great country. Cope himself did not live to reach India, but died of apoplexy in the Indian Ocean, and was buried at'sea His disappearance left a. great gap in the. Home Land, as he had filled in ),is own person the position of executive of Methods foreign Missions. To fill the gap an organisation was required, and three of Dr Copes youthful admirers in (he home work resolved to hold a meeting in Leeds for the formation of a Yorkshire Foreign Missionary Society. Tho meeting was hold in at. leters Chapel on October 6, 1015 and was crowded by an enthusiastic audience, who unanimously decided to form tho suggested society. Other places fob lowed the example of Leeds, and ultimately the conference unified the societies into one general body under the name of the _ Wesleyan Methodist Society of Foreign Missions. But the real birthday of the society was October 6. 1813. The organisation was formed none Iso soon because groat claims wore at hand. In 1819 the Rev. Samuel Leigh visited Emland to urge the need of the .Maoris. 'Vhoso condition he had himself seen ; in 1825 the cases of Tonga and Samoa were made known; ton years later James Watkins’s famous appeal, “Pity for Fiji," raised a perfect tempest of pilv. wliieh tho church could not resist. In fact from every part of tho world cries for help were heard, and to respond to (hem a strong central organisation was necessary, to collect funds, decide upon their allocation, and bo responsible lor the poliev to bo pursued in the various foreign fiidds, Mr Slade concluded by expressing regret that they were not marking tho centenary m Dunedin by a united demonstration. The names of the three, mighty men who led tho Leeds movement—Jaboz Bunting,' Richard Watson, and Robert Newton—ought to bo held in honored remembrance throughout the world-wide Methodist Church.