CHINESE MISSIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20421, 25 November 1929, Page 12

CHINESE MISSIONS.

WORK OF THE CHURCH.

APPEAL TO THE MASSES

The Church's need of greater missionary service was emphasised by -.the Rev. Trevor Gilfillan, of tho Diocese of North China, in a sermon in All Saints' Church, Ponsonby, last evening.

" Wherever the Church has been truly Christian throughout the ages and ■wherever it has lived up to its highest ideals it has always been missionary," Mr. Gilfillan said. Much had been said in recent years of the awakening of the East, but in China during the past two or three years he had been struck by a large and influential section of the population which was expressing the belief that there was no God. There were no mass movements in China, such as were occurring in India,' where hundreds of thousands were being converted to Christianity. However, these conversions were the fruit of years of patient labour, and there were signs that China would yield similar results as the years passed. The Church was winning through- It was often that missionary work in China was useless, as it did not touch the mass of the people. This could not ba achieved in a day. The more thoughtful Chinese were realising that the wave' oi materialism was useless in replacing old beliefs/ and the question was being asked where the present tendency to religious anarchy would ultimately lead.