REV J. J. NORTH.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXIII, Issue 16060, 15 October 1912, Page 5

REV J. J. NORTH.

ACCEPTS CHRISTCHURCH CALL,

A VIGOROUS PERSONALITY. [FKOM OuR CoKRXSPOKDENT.] WELLINGTON, October 14

The acceptance of a call to Oxford Terrace Baptist Church, Christchurcb, was announced by the Rev J. J. North to his congregation at Vivian Street Church yesterday. As a consequence, Christchurcb will gain by the presence of an elert and vigorous personality, capable of exorcising much influence upon social reform movements in that city. Mr North has been the mainspring df tho Anti-Gambling League in Wellington. His temperance work has also been prominent, and he is capable of wielding a vigorous pen as well as turning his wide reading and observation to account in the pulpit. In announcing his decision to move to Qhristchurch, Mr North said:—"l have passed through one of the great crises of my life during last week. 1 came at your call to this, city eight years ago. I was young and unformed, and the honour you did me in calling me to this central church I shall never forget. I came here with many of my ideas in a state of flux. 1 came, indeed, with a very fixed faith in Jesus Christ as tho revelation of God and as tho Saviour of men, but I was struggling to relate my faith in Christ with tho "revelation of God in Nature. I was also keenly touched by 60cial and economic problems, and was feeling my way to the relation between them and Christian faith. You met mo from the first with a wonderful patience and a wonderful courtesy, and through eight years you have given me unfailing support. Every year has seen our Church stronger in numbers, in finance and in general influence. 1 have by your gotxlnosa come to understand human nature much batter than I did, and 1 have seen my way to larger and grander views of Christian truth. J have also come to know that certain social and economic questions have their roots in morals, and can be ignored by no Church which is true to the whole of Christ's Evangel. I have never preached polities and I never shall. All my work has, I hope, been intensely religious. Some people say that the Church is intolerant of plain sneaking. You have given the lie to 'this saying by a tolerance which has been very'beautiful. I have been supremely happy through the years of my service among you. This call to Christchurch is a call to nothing but hard work. Financially the propositions are identical, though there is a somewhat larger constituency there. Since tho call came you have overwhelmed rue with your expressions of strong desire that. I should remain. I value those expressions beyond words. They have come from tho learned and the unlearned. No other subject but the Christian faith could remain after eight years of constant utterance so engrossing, so fresh, as you evidently find the exposition of it to be. I havo been unable to contemplate a separation without much pain. I love this Church. I appreciate life in this great city. One thing alone ha?, urged mo. I 'find mvself spent physicallv, and the tonio of a chance, either in tho form of a oroloneed holiday or of a change of cohere, has become necessary. The f lrst is impossible just now. The second lies been offered me. T feel T shall he 'loinf the ri"ht thing in responding to •-.hi* call. The pillar of cloud tarried awhile at tho cross roads. Tt has now "<oved southwards. T contemplate with •i roil dismay separation from tho work nw] the peoplo I have loved so.doen.lv. T have two remaining pmhitions. The first is to open, before I leave. fr£ ; ot ,'pbt, the new kinder<rarten and Bible"lie,., ••o'xiis which we are about to build Tho peecmd is to *<=-« many/of v'nn runn-d defWtMv on Christ's .side. n.,VI fhvHiv/ in Christ true service, for +i„> o-ooci of human k'l* 1 -" ~ ... „ It is ww"*'"' 1 11l: "- fc Mr nrih will sav Farewell in Wellington on the first Sunday in February, 1913.