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New Zealand Mail, Issue 1189, 14 December 1894, Page 17

The Rev J. McNeill and Mr J. H. Burke opened a six days’ mission in the Skating Rink on Sunday afternoon, when the building was about three parts filled, Messrs McNeill and Burke have given a series of missions recently in the South, prior to which they visited the Australian colonies, where their preaching attracted considerable attention, their meetings being attended by very large audiences. The service was begun by a numerous choir, under the conductorship of Mr George, singing some hymns. Mr Burke, who possesses a well cultivated tenor voice, sang two solos, and the Rev J. McNeill delivered a discourse, taking for his text Rev., chap. 3, v. 20. Mr McNeill, although a very fluent speaker, does not indulge in any oratorical display either in speech or action. He possesses a powerful voice with a marked Scotch accent, and uses homely language, not disdaining now and again to use . the vernacular, or even the Scotch dialect, when he can demonstrate his meaning more clearly by doing so. His discourse is not always of the sombre type, for he some- | times brings to his aid humorous and quaint illustrations which cause his

hearers to smile; but this is only for a moment, for in the next he carries them on to some grave and all-important matter connected with their eternal welfare. In the evening another meeting was held, at which there were about 1500 persons, the order of the service being somewhat similar to that in the afternoon. Mr McNeill again preached, basing his discourse on the 23rd Psalm.