CONGREGATIONAL UNION

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 88, 13 March 1934, Page 8

CONGREGATIONAL UNION

LONDON AIISSIONARY SOCIETY

MEETING OF LADIES’ AUXILIARY

Tlie Dominion Ladies’ Auxiliary of the London Missionary Society assembled in the Congregational Church yesterday afternoon for tlie annual meeting. Airs It. Crawford, after taking the chair was elected president in lieu of Airs W. Mill and Aliss Small, Dominion secretary and treasurer.

Aliss H. Mill gave brief excerpts from the book, “Into the Sun” (Frieda Das). Routine business occupied the remainder of the time.

The male delegates attended a finance meeting in the school liall, when the budget was adopted for the ensuing year. PUBLIC ADDRESS.

The public meeting at 7.30 p.m. was presided over by Air J. A. 'Wilkinson, tlie speaker being Rev. Frank de Lisle, who took for his topic, “Our Church as an Instrument tor His Kingdom.” Air de Lisle pointed out that Jesus taught His disciples to pray “Thy Kingdom Come,” and He took certain steps to ensure that the prayer might be gloriously answered. “It is surely acknowledged that God does work through human agencies and institutions and that the Church has been not only the repository of truth, but the channel of blessing,” he said. The Congregational Clitucli had been used of God in the differing activities of Church life. The pulpit proved an inspirational, educative and evangelistic power; pastoral ministrations had been avenues of blessing; young people’s needs had been catered for; social and institutional work had been engaged in. But was this all? Air de Lisle said: “We do believe we have been entrusted with a special piece of work and a special witness in which we can be more effective than any other Church. We should face up to the question, ‘Would it be a loss if we ceased to exist as a denomination?’ Historically, Congregationalism is based upon the essential priesthood of all believers and the Christian rights and Christian obligations of each soul in the Church.” It was the presence of Christ in the midst that gave the fathers their authority. A Congregational Church had never been a gathering of people who came together and claimed liberty to do whatever they liked. They were Free Churches —yes, but with that freedom wherewith Christ had made them free. There were dark pages in the history of the free churches in which they broke down because they sought to use their freedom to do what they liked, not what Christ liked. “The witness of Congregationalism,” said the speaker, “is that we can have liberty only on God’s terms. What greater service can be given to the jvingdom than to give ourselves heart and soul to the task of calling our Churches to awaken to the present opportunity of witnessing the liberty in Christ and calling the world from tlie madness of its ways?” ■ Congregationalism also stood for the fade that a Church was a communion of saints composed ot men and women who had a great redemptive experience —therefore it stood for a very high ideal of Christianity, and had a very real contribution to make to the Kingdom in lifting the idea of Church membership to the highest possible level—the Christ-level. L

The preacher asked his hearers how did they measure up to these ideals ? The constant prayer of all should be “0 Jesus Christ, grow Thou in me, that I may thus more faithful be.” The leader of another great historic Church had expressed his conviction of the importance of the Congregational Church—far outreaching its numerical strength in its peculiar fitness to counteract reactionary movements in theological thought expressed in the revival of a crude literalism and a narrow dogmatism. Nothing could replace the Bible. Venerable standards were not termini, they were only milestones! As Milton said, “Let Truth and falsehood grapple, for whoever knew of the. Truth being put to worse?” We were faced with the necessity to-day of a new evangel —that of 'establishing the relevancy of the Christian message to the whole of life. Were the Churches ready for this great adventure? If the Church was to evangelise the world she had to sail strange new seas and peril of thought and life. She had only two facts to trust—the facts of Christ and of Christian experience, and the only compass to guide her, the Spirit of God. During the evening the Emmanuel choir sang the anthem, “My Soul Doth Magnify the Lord,” led by Mr W. A. Leet, the organist being Mr I. N. Leet. TO-DAY’S BUSINESS.

This morning’s devotions were led by Mr H. Thornley (Oneliunga). The business session opened at 10 o’clock, when the finance committee's report and budget proposals for 1934 were adopted. It wus decided to reappoint a director of youth work, to be termed secretary of the ioung People's Department, with four district secretaries to co-operate with him. Various remits were discussed and passed to the reference committee tor its consideration.