WESLEYAN METHODIST CONFERENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 20, 24 January 1881, Page 2

WESLEYAN METHODIST CONFERENCE.

"Conference Sunday" ia a red letter day among Methodists, and it will lose none of its prestige on account of the services of yesterday. In the morning a very large congregation assembled in Hardy Street Church to hear the Rev J. B. liicbardsor Present of the Coherence. He took for tV a 'text i. Cor. i. 2, «> The Church of God." He referred to the Church as an historical, existing, operative fact, immortal though made up of mortals. He spoke in a Catholic spirit of the divisions of the Church, and claimed for his own a protnineht evangelistic position. He then proceeded to justify bis ecclesiastical eiistence. He could not allow that external unity, or historical continuity was the spinal cord of the Church. There was one Mediator, and as one member msy be joined to the body of Christ without human mediationt so might a thousand. A company of believers might therefore exist without drawing the sap of life from any other company of Believers. There was a clear providence traceable in the existence of some sects. Yet he deprecated the multiplication of divisions, protested against higotry, and forecast at length, a unity in diversity which should secure alike freedom and strength. The sermon throughout was the production of a theologian and a thinker. In the afternoon the Rev Edward Best of Dunedin addressed a large assembloge of children, in the presence of numerous parents and friends. The Eev. gentleman drew copiously upon his store of fact, incident, and illustration, and applied his lessous with the affectionate patho3 for which he is noted. Iv the evening the building was again densely crowded. The Rev Alexander Reid, was the preacher. He took for his text, "The promise is unto .... your children," Acts ii. 39. Mr Reid said that the Conferences throughout the colonies were engaged upon the question of the training of the young. He invited the attention of his hearers to the discussion that would take place on the subject duriDg the present session. Coming to his text he dealt first with the Btatus of baptized children. They were members of the Church, and potential Christians. There was j a better hope of the child who was trained I iv this belief, than of the one who was allowed to suppose that the sowing of wild oats was a necessary stepping stone to religious character. In regard to the question of training children, parents were the divinely-appointed agents, and sbpuld let neither pastor nor j teacher take chief place. A man's value to the Church was in exact proportion to his excellence as a father. Next in importance waß the Sunday school teacher. Let him be pious. We hear of Woman's Rights and the Rights of Man, but who will champion the children ? The first article of their charter was pious parents, the next, pious teachers. The pastor should also feed the lambs and be jealous of their being carried away by the ronring Hon. There should be a constant and harmonious progress from the mother's knee to the most complete Church membership. As an essential of good religious training, the preacher insisted upon storing the memory with Scripture. To interest children with stories was uot the way to train them. In the day school stories about mathematicians, geographers, and historians did not take the place of work. Parents objected to children learning lessons, as they had plenty to do. The Bible was already excluded from the day school ; this indulgence was almost equal to excluding it from the Sunday school. Parents who sought rank, wealth, culture, and beauty for their children to the neglect of religious teaching, were weaving garlands to deck the victims for sacrifice to Satan. In an e'oquent peroration the rev. gentleman maintained that in the right discbarge of parental duty lay the "promise and the potency" of the solution of the problems that perplex the Church and society. TC-DAY'S SESSION. After devotional exercises, the record of Saturday was read and approved. Some discußßion^ and complaint arose at the loss of time arising from the absence of some of the Candidates. It was resolved that Messrs. Gillam and Parsoneon be exempted from examination as Candidates owing to their having been examined and passed in England. A Committee was appointed to examine two other Candidates who were absent. On the motion of the Rev W. J. Williams, fraternal greeting was sent from the Conference to the Free Methodist District Meeting sitting in Christchurch, and to the Primitive Methodist District Meeting sitting in Dunedin. The annual examination of Ministerial character was then proceeded with. This examination has reference to moral character, discharge of duty, ability for ministerial work, and orthodoxy. Some technical points of small importance occupied considerable time. The Conference adjourned for dinner at 12-45.