CRUSADER IN WHANGAREI

Northern Advocate, 3 May 1932, Page 3

CRUSADER IN WHANGAREI

APPEAL FOR .MISSIONS. SERVICE BV REPRESENTATION. In connection with the Church of England May missionary crusade which is being held in the Auckland Diocese this month, the Ven. Arch deacon Alonaghan, of Timaru, addressed a fair gathering of parishioners in the Parochial Hall last evening. The A'icar, the- Rev. H. T. Steele, in introducing the speaker, briefly outlined the objects of the crusade. In opening his'address, Archdeacon Alonaghan said that he had been thinking how silly it was for him to come all yio way from Timaru to speak on missionary work, when the Vicar was already here with 15 years of mission field experience. The speaker then referred his hear ers to a well known scene in the Bible, that of the rich man in his house surrounded by all the good things of this world, and the pool man at his gate with nothing. We were told that the rich man was not a bad man —he was merely thoughtless, and had not noticed the beggar at his j gate. When both these men died, it was the rich man who paid the penalty of his thoughtlessness.

“The story is told us," said the Archdeacon, “to show us the value of the human soul, no matter what a persona’s circumstances are in this world. The reason why we Christians get slack in our missionary zeal is that either we forget the value of a human soul, or we arc careless and thoughtless. ’ ’

■Continuing, the Archdeacon said that people made various excuses for not supporting missions, of the commonest being that we ought to convert more people at home before we thought of going abroad. In answer to that, he wanted to say that on his journey to Whangarcl he had noticed little churches dotted all through the country. Everyone in New Zealand had an opportunity of coming to. God. It was our duty to give opportunity to those in other lands. It was noticeable that those who criticised missionary work were the people who did least for their own home churches.

“Suppose," said tho Archdeacon, “that a doctor discovered a real re medy for cancer, and suppose that for some reason or other he did not give his cure to the world, would he not bo guilty of a grave criminal offence?" In exactly tho same way wo were possessed with the great Christian message, and, were guilty of a grave offence if we withhold that message from others.

“If you are not keen on mission work, if you are not anxious that the Gospel should be spread, you have vet to be converted yourself," he said. “We cannot all be missionaries, and we cannot all be preachers, but we can all do our little bit to help. God has,ever accepted service by representation, as witness the appointing of the tribe of Levi to be priests in place of .the firstborn sons of all the tribes. For the true Christian no arguments are necessary. If we follow Christ, then we must do what He commands. Christ said; ‘lf ye love Ale, keep Aly commandments,’ and almost the last command Christ gave us was ‘Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel unto every creature.’ "