THE REV. A. REID ON THE SOUDAN CAMPAIGN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7271, 9 March 1885, Page 3

THE REV. A. REID ON THE SOUDAN CAMPAIGN.

At the Pitt-street Wesleyan Church yesterday forenoon, the Rev. A. Beid preached a sermon on the subject " Ought young men of New Zealand volunteer for military service in the Soudan ?" The rev. gentleman took as the text of his discourse—Revelations 16ch. 12v. : And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates ; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the Kings of the East might' be prepared-" In the course of his address the preacher said : —" Whatever opinions may prevail as? to the action which ought to be taken with regard to the present crisis in the Soudan, there can be but one opinion as to the gravity of the position, the importance of the question to which we this morning invite your attention, as likely to affect the future destinies, and probably lives of some of the young men of this colony, as largely contributing to the character which we have to occupy in the community of nations, and as bearing upon the destinies of peoples belonging to this world, — it is impossible, we say,; to ove-restimate the importance of the question. We cannot afford to trust others to decide for us. It is of too much importance; we are too deeply interested, and the world is too deeply interested, to allow of our shirking our duty, and let others determine whether we shall take part in this way, or whether we shall leave it alone. As disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, we must endeavour to assertain what is the mind of Christ ; with open Bible, seated at his feet, it is our duty to address ourselves to. the solution of the problem which now occupying public attention. The preacher's position this morning is that of a dogmatist ; it is his duty to stimulate, and if possible to assist in guiding the opinions of our young men; to provoke thought. That is what we want, to do. If we succeed in this, it is all we care for. . Our question is not as to the lawfulness of war in the abstract : as to whether it is right for Christians under any circumstances to fifcht —except to say that the Churches have it in their power to stop war immediately if they will, and we will not cease to reiterate this, if people will listen, as long as we live. Nor is our question as to the propriety or otherwise of training our youths to the use of arms. We want to keep this question distinct. For our own part, if a young man came and asked me, I would say to him : As the world is at the present moment I would recommend all young men to learn the use of arms. • Why ? In the interests of peace. Mark yon, we say as the world is. We do not say that this ought to be the normal condition of society. Bat seeing things as they are, men must be able to defend their own and * their . rights when these are sought to be taken from them. Our question refers solely to the righteousness and the expediency of the young men of New Zealand volunteering lor military service in the Soudan during the forthcoming campaign. " The rev, gentleman ' then spoke at length of the historical interpretation of the Book of Revelations, urged the sending out of missionaries to the Mahometans, gave a brief sketch of .What led up to tho war, and pointed out how.the British Government had refused to adopt the recommendations of General Gordon for terms to be made with the Mahdi, and for a governor to be appointed ..over the Soudan. He also referred to the attempt to ( rescue Gordon and Gordon's death, and. said "We venture this opinion—which in us is a Very strong conviction — for a New Zealand youth, or a youth of any country, to invest -. his British sympathies, his fair expectations, his health, his intelligence, and it may be his life and his influence—to invest his all in the Soudan campaign would prove the most worthless investment possible in this world of living men. I do not know a class of characters' sufficiently degraded that I would appoint them to occupy the position of avengers of General Gordon in the Soudan, With all my admiration of the spirit which actuates the youth and older men who offer them-: selves, it is our firm conviction that a worse investment of treasure and life, and intelligence, and character, and influence it would be impossible to find -on" thiazide of hell, than that which is now proposed. This is strong language. We want. it to be criticised. We want our young men to look into it. Every man ought to make the best and the most of himself, so that the results of his efforts may be of the geatest advantage to the Church, ato the State, to his family, and to himself. Every man is 1 bound to do this. To go 'to the v Soudan is to make the least . and the worst that; a man can possibly , make of .himself. This is our conviction, as it is his duty to make the most and best of himself in the interests of truth, goodness, and honour, humanity and Christ." The preacher' that, on occasions, where a man felt he 'was doing the will of God, he would say, go. Continuing, he said: "To those who are going, I ask, what are you going to do? lam going to kill one or several—as many: as 1 Arabs, because one or several Arabs or Soudanese killed General Gordon. That is what lam going to do. Yes, that is all: the British Government ask you to do no more. Supposing you kill one, two, three, ten, a hundred—supposing the united, contingent of this colony kill as many, as the pyramid of Gizeh ? what good have you done to yourself, what good have you done to the Egyptians, what good have you done to God ? Do B you think Christ will say, well done. He says, i* Avenge not," "if your enemies hunger, .eed them," "love your enemies," " do good o them that hate you," and so on. After tome further remarks the preacher said, "If you had gone before, if you had gone to rescue Gordon, I should have said, go, in God's name. You would have had something , to do. Some people have the name of Gordon associated with this, and think it is all right because Gordon's name is in it. Gordon did not endorse this idea. Most people thought a huge blunder had been perpetratedand he ' believed there had ' been— but he would not be so ungenerous as to blame the men who been the agents in this blunder." The preacher said .the' Khedive had no more right to govern the Soudan than a district on the other side of the world. The Soudanese said he forfeited all claim to their allegiance, even if they ever gave it, by his action in introducing a foreign power to govern. The Soudanese, said they were not rebels, they were patriots. If they succeeded, they would. no doubt be spoken of as patriots. New. South Wales had sent 600 soldiers, more or less. He asked if New Zealand would send sixty missionaries of the. Gospel, ..and supplement those with sixty more teachers ? He urged, too, the suppression of vice near at hand. Within 150 yards of that church, the law was being violated and families ruined. He asked that : the law should be upheld in this respect ; ; also, those dens of infamy—one of which was burned down the previous week— should not be allowed to exist; and he asked all to be strong and influential against-the, gambling proclivities of the present day. He advocated study and improvement, but above all, beneath all, right through all, he asked his hearers to be deep-hearted, consecrated, loving servants of the Lord Jeans Christ, and then acting on the principles of riis Holy Gospel, their voice would be heard across the land, and their influence felt where the war was threatening, and the olive branch of peace would wave where scimitar, had been making havoc. -.:<■}) x:.-.?. V- s V". ,I"w.