PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10619, 14 March 1896, Page 2

PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY.

' WESLEYAN CONFERENCE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. . . .

The Eev. J. H. Bimmoads (tha retiring president of the Wesleyau Conference), in the course of bis addreß6, said:—

In all our church councils we need to ba reminded that the bentljts of genuine and practical Christianity are as yet enjoyed by only a fractional part of tbe human race. There are thousands under the shadow of our own church spires, and at our very doors, to whom tho peace and gladness and sweet usefulness of true religion are unknown. They seek happiness as we all do, but they seek it in ways that can lead only t5 disappointment and despair. In this sea-girt land, uuder our soft blue skies, to tho music of gentle breezen, and vvitli incense rising from fragrant verdure, impurity, and gambling, and intemperance, and avarics are hurrying their victims to rain and untimely death. If we look away from our own shores, we Bee not only these evils, but othars of appalling magnitude and b.itflmg complexity. Great nations, with the doctrines of peace and universal brotherhood written in their books and preached from their pulpitß, are spending millions upon the most Bcientific and effective- appliances for destroying human life in warfare. Hundreds of thousands of men, nurßed alike by tender mothers, and reared up with air the best instincts and longings of a common civilisation and religion, stand ready to fly at each other in mortal combat. Hsn who, from the advantages of thoir training and the preemiDence of their position, should be .irnongst the most enlightened and philanthropic that have ever lived, have dared to suggest that the awful strife should at once begin. All nations have looked on in mutual jealousy of interference, while thousaudfi of brave men have bean tortured and murdered, and innocent women have been brutally outraged by stupid fanaticism and unrestrained passion in Armenia. Great Britain has continued to boast herself the friend of the weak and the pstrou of liberty, and yet she tolerates still in her great Indian Empire marriage custom* that are an offence against nature and a blot on the same of civilisation. The warfare. in which steam engines are the cannon and quick-tnoviiig looms and deft hammers are the machine guns and musketry, goes surging continuously on from battle ground to battle ground, leaving waats of wealth and wreckage of human rife and hopes behind. Hitherto Teuton and Gaul hava wrestled with each other ; soon they rnunt contend one to ten against the patient, frugal millions of Japan, and India, and Chiu-i. With tha world's storehouses already filled to overflowing, and the earth only half tilled, multitudes of msn and women work too hard and too long and still want braad. As nations increase in wealth and luxury an ever-iHCfeasing number of ttreir people hivu together in cities, to live snd multiply under conditions that are condemned alike by natural • law and human prudence. Nature is sure with her penalties, and in a few generations exbinguiGhes the offspriDg of those who sin agaicst her; but the tragedy is maintained by a contiguous influx of new life—new vietimg, we may s.ty—from suburbs and rural districts.v

Let us not live in any fool's millennium. We have as yet reclaimed from the wilderness only a few small corner plots and narrow margins. The dark shsdo of great forest trees still spreads over the land, and the tangled thorns fi&d creepers continually grow back upon ua. Bat, need we fear to face the truth ? Not if we understand our religion. The old heathenism pkcad the golden age in the far-off past. Christianity places it in the future. It learned thia optimism first of »U from that historic miracle of faith aud hope, Jadaisoi; it has since had the lesson confirmed with tenfold emphasis by the experience of ita own contnries, aud by the best researches of the human intellect. The social vices still prevail, but every year finds fewer to defend them, and more ■who denounce them. The nations still front each other in battle array; but war is universally condemned as cruel and uneconomical. The wrong 3 and hardships of the compstitioa for bread still follow in the track of all industrial activity and progress; bat they havo wakened up on the part of those who st\2er au irrepressible longing for a juater and happier order of things, and on the part of the fortunate and privileged aa uuresting sympathy. The old problem of city squaiour cud wretchedness remains, but science and Christianity are entering into league to grapple with it. Eight convictions aud right Beutimeuts must precede right conduct. The right convictions snd sentiments are slowly coming, aod the new life will follow. We look out upon uplifted wave aud tempeafe-driven cloud aod threatening rock, but the etonn is not quite as of old. John and Paul toiled ou with a far darker horizon thau ours. Shall we lose heart where they would have rejoiced and pressed forward ? What dosa faith bid us do ?

Some will sit with folded hands, and pray the good Lord to come and make the world righteous by a sudden miracle. We know that to be a? futile as to expect that he will plough our fields, or build our housei In the past all bettering of man and man's condition has been I>7 man as the instrument, ami there is not a trace of evidence to show that this l&w will ever be annulled or altered. In the churches we spend too much time and strength on our own little affairs—our tea meetings, our painful discussions of deficit balances, onr half spiteful gossip about the failings and shortcomings of our neighbours. A church life that oannot get beyond these things dwarfs the spirit and promotes our vices rather than our virtae3. Intense and efficient we most indeed be in our local efforts if we are to help the world, bat we must; know that there, ia a world to bo helped. A i introspective chnrch, like an introspective it.dividual, is narrow, timid, selfish, prone to quarrel. A church that looka out upon tho needs of others with open, loving eyes soon finds itself Btrong and happy within. In a world where there are still plenty of rogues and not a few people with impracticable fads philanthropy mns\ of course, know how to take care of itself. The highways and bv-waw of the nlanet are nnu Bwarmine.,

with people who profoss to be eoUoetmjj mon^y for goad and worthy objects. A few of these pfioplo and tha causes they represent merit oil the qncoaragement and help we oan pive them. Others are frauds; and some, thongh not exactly frauds, are too confcly for tho service they render. You can raflka a much better use of yonr moaey than spending it in giving naoh folk holiday tours round the world. Every church should look well to ito owa organised missions and age-ncies, and feu that these Ere adequately supported and efficiently worked before teaching out to other things. If wa of all the churches in New Zealand and Australia would do this, we should End that we have under these southern Bides one of tho grandest and most premising fiisidn ever presented to the enterprise of Ohristfs followers. Our work, on the one hand, is to plant iv new soil the beat Christian civilisation ; on the other, to uproot one of the worst of the old heathenisms. When the contributions of our New Zealand Wecleyans to tho Maud end New Guinea missions are announced in this conference, some of us will be ashamed lit the staallness of the total. I would that we might all feel ashamed, and that our shame might be transmuted into zeal and effort for the ysara that ore to come Bat hero again we must guard against being narrow. The redemption of mankind is a complex process, working itself oat by every beneficent agency and influence. In file past we have oft«-n" wasted our strength in fighting friends while the enemy has looked on and Rftthsred up the spoils. This folly must cease. What matters it though some of our allied do not hold and preach our view of things ? Shall we, therefore, refuse their assistance when'they "tosch and work for purity and righteousness ? The kingdom of God is wider than all sects and churches, and the means and methods by which its interests can be promoted are aa varied as the types of human genius. It must 6ver ba the chief business of the churches to appeal' to the individual conscience, and to bring men and women to personal faith in Christ; but our appeal must; barnacle in the light of all God's revelations and in cordial recognition of alt who are doing auy sort of work for Him in the world. Scieiv tiats and poets, and fiction writsrs and newspaper editors, and politicians, as well as teachers and preachers, can all speak tenth ; and it is the coustant presentation of truth, in its manifold aspects, and in an ever-wideniog circle of light, that is ultimately to make thopeople of the cations free, and to ensure for them that they shall not only find the meat that perishes, but that also which endure? unto everlasting life.