THE OXFORD GROUP

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXVI, Issue 99, 7 April 1936, Page 5

THE OXFORD GROUP

Address at Waipukurau

From Our Own Correspondent. WAIPUKURAU, April G.

The large crowd who gathered in Bt. Andrew’s Hall, Waipukurau, this afternoon to hear Mr Ivan Menzies speak on the Oxford Group left the hall with much food for earnest thought. Mr Menzies, in his opening remarks, explained that one cannot belong to the Oxford Group. It has no membership list, subscription, badge, rules or definite location. It is a name for a group of people who, from every rank, profession, and trade, and in many countries, have surrendered their lives to God and who are endeavouring to lead a spiritual typo of life under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The four essentials in the group, said Mr Menzies, are absolute unselfishness, absolute honesty, absolute purity and absolute love. In simple direct language that was occasionally punctuated by humour, Mr Menzies explained how by striving to carry out these four rules irritations, temptations and jealousy could be overcome. Many people, through the influence of the Oxford Group, had discovered what really was meant by the Kingdom of God. Several present told the assembly, with a simplicity and unselfconsciousness that could not have been other than genuine, of the transformation that had been wrought in their lives. As Mr Menzies had to leave the meeting, he asked the Hon. Miles Philtimore to carry on. The latter told his interested audience of many incidents in his own life, and the happiness that was brought to him by always putting God first.