PRIMITIVE METHODIST CENTENARY.

Feilding Star, Volume I, Issue 287, 10 June 1907, Page 3

PRIMITIVE METHODIST CENTENARY.

The centenary of Primitive Methodism was celebrated in Feilding yesterday when special services were held in the Primitive Methodist Church in Manchester street. The pulpit was occupied by Rpv. P. J. Cossum, who preached appropriate sermons to good congregations. In the morning, discoursing from Po. xcviii. I.— the preacher dealt with the providential origin and the subsequent development of the Primitive, Methodist Church, showing it to be the outcome of a revival movement in the north of England at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and that it was a growth, not a manufacture. The evidence of providential leadings were traced in the history of the church, and the lesson of gratitude to God for the work accomplished was emphasised. At the evening service. Mr Cossum spoke on the Evangel of Primitive Methodism, with special re- ' ference to its suitability to present !• day needs. It was shown that while, ' in common with all other Protestant churches, the doctrine of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ was the message of the denomination's pulpit, an earnest evangelism had always been^ts great characteristic. Its ministers '- had from the beginning been evangelists as well as pastors. The preacher said that this earnest evangelism was the need of the present time, and that as far as Primitive Methodism I was concerned, this evangelism must ' occupy the foremost place, or the church could not live.