METHODIST CONFERENCE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2128, 29 February 1908, Page 3

METHODIST CONFERENCE.

new PRESIDENT ELECTED

Press Association. AUCKLAND, Fob. 28. At- the Methodist Conference there aro 170 ministers present. The Rev. C. E. Bee croft, of .bedding, was elected president.

RETIRING PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS.

Tile address of the retiring president- of the Methodist Conference (Hov, W. Slade), to-night, included a vigorous and plain-spoken review of tho problem of non-church-goers, lie referred to the enormous disparity between the number of people inside and outside the churches. “In dealing with this subject, we need not «o,” ho said, “beyond our own scores, because New Zealand presents on a reduced scale a picture of what- exists in Europe, in America, and in Australia, and where we look for the cause of this, it may be expressed in a sentence, the world has captured the church, and still for tlie most- part holds it in bondage. The entire population of New Zealand is in round numbers 900,000, and the number of people for whom accommodation is provided in all the churches and meeting-houses is 3i0,908. Hero we have a difference of considerably over half a million, which means that if on any date the whole population wished to attend Divine service, more than half a million could not got inside the place •whore service is hold, but this does not- express all the facts. W hen we ask whut number of people the churches themselves return as attending their various places of worship, wo find tho number is 220,2(33, which leaves a still greater disparity between our total population and the church attendance. It is an unwelcome truth that not a quarter of the people of the Dominion are ever found within the walls of the churches.” Mr. Slade referred to what he termed the deep and awful cleavage that exists between the working classes and the Christian church. ‘“Not only,” he said, “do comparatively few of the great army of toiling men and women attend the churches, but there exists in their minds an intense hostility to them, and through them, to religion it-self. To these persons, churches are associated with political disabilities, with social inequalities, with invidious class distinction, with economic injustices, and with a pride of purse and place. To them, religion has seemed to be always the privilege of the rich and the strong, and we cannot wonder at this, as it is difficult to think of an abuse of power, in which State churches have not shared. The darkest pages of history have- beeu embroidered with mitres and fawn sleeves, and in recent times the churches have seemed to the working classes to be indifferent to their needs and sufferings. They think of the churches as institutions which say : “Live in a nice house, wear nice clothes, have money in your pocket, and we will welcome you.” They think that the churches are not only out of sympathy with them, but are actually opposed to their efforts to secure fanwages for themselves, better homes and environment for their families, and to be able to live without the dream presence of the wolf always at the door. They tliiuk the churches have always been on the side of the big battalions 'of the capitalist, ol the land, of the manufacturer, and of the monopolist, but we who have read history know how mistaken all this is, and in spite of her many shortcomings and mistakes, that the Christian church has done infinitely more than any other half-dozen institutions put together for the amelioration of the suffering of mankind. Christianity has no power to attract the multitude if it has nothing to offer towards the solution of problems which, though - not immediately religious, yet have a great influence on religion. If when men with the anguish born of hunger ask that the bread of earth be made casier to procure, religion can only talk about the bread of the life to come. If when shivering with cold they pray, for warm clothing for themselves and their families, can only point to the white raiment which the redeemed wear; if in the face of the extremes of wealth and destitution, which modern life presents, the multi-millionaire, squandering thousands of pounds, or one bacchanalian, dying of hunger on his sack of straw ; if, I .say, in answer to this, religion has only the message about tlie crowns of gold which the saved shall wear before the Throne in another sphere, it should not surprise them that men turn away from it as having no message for them.”