THE DUNEDIN EVANGELISTIC MISSION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18867, 21 May 1923, Page 9

THE DUNEDIN EVANGELISTIC MISSION.

THE MISSIONEB ON HIMSELF. Mr A. Lind, the missioner—who is at present out on bail in connection with .or serious charge—addressed the Dunedin Evangelistic Mission as usual last evCning, and announced the several meetings of the; mission .which are to be held this week. He said that he made these announcements because it had been suggested that while this charge was hanging over him he' should have ceased. preaching/ He might say that the mission would'go' on, and oven if wicked people succeeded in putting him in prison the mission would not be closed, because his wife, with the support *of the missioners, would carry, it on. His position, he said, had been a hard one during the last couple of months or more. It had also been very hard' for: his wife and his five children, the eldest ofi whom was 10 years of age. It was:,very hard for a man to be scandalised from „ one - end of the town to the other, and made out to be the wickedest and most immoral man in Dunedin. Sometimes the thought had come to him, Why not give it up altogether and go in for something elseVT But the Lord had called him to preach'-'the. Gospel, and he had to obey the Lord's orders. He could not give up the Lord’s, orders, as he had been ordered, to continue preaching. He had been pointed out in the street. He had feelings just the same as other people, and he had felt the stigmac; very keenly. He could look everyone ofi them in the face with a clear conscience.— (Members of the congregation: ‘■‘Praise the Lord.”) He could look everyone % ig..-.thei eye.—(Voices; “Praise the Lord!’V‘ Ha could look every man or woman in the face honestly and with no doubt in his • mind. He did not, however, want them to think that ho was a paragon. . It had not been easy for him to stand in the open, and preach, but the Lord had called him to it. It would have been an easy thing for him quietly to slip away, as some of'the people advised him, but he would not da it. He had come here from India A sqma years ago, and he had preached meetings. He had discovered that;most oE the preaching was a mere caricature of religion. He was a Jew, and at first-wa» against Christianity, but he had become a Christian. When he came here he hadnot understood this nominal form of Christianity. He hod begun to speak out against this, kind of Christianity and to preach the’’ Gospel of the Lord. People had come to him and said that they had not heard religion so taught for the {past 30 years. This kind of preaching [ had caused him to be looked on with disfavour. There , were many people who would go to any; lengths to get one “on to. you,” , Her knew. what. he was talking about, and hei would not mind having Tialf the money that, had been spent in Dunedin in tlia last few months. in order .to work up trouble against him—in trying to work tup this filth against him. It was not fdr>faimi to say much. He looked to th® Loidsto justify him in the right place. They- ( Bauab know that if they wanted to walk ..with Jesus Christ they would have troiiiife and suffer persecution. If they followed Jesus Christ the' world would hate them—the Bible told them', that. What were they to do?—'to' hate it back? No, to love it—to love their ehemies—to love those who hated them, and persecuted them, and despitefully used them'. He had tried to be faithful with the people and those who had been in their mission at all times. Soma of them had resented being spoken, ,to and had become ’ his deadliest enemy—because he had sought by the grace of God to no faithful to them One minister in Dunedin had come to him—there was only one. He had said ito this minister that if ha . went down no minister in . Dunedin would be safe. He had told this minister that the Lord would not let him go—that thS'-Lord. had told him to stand here, and that';’ha was going to stand.—(Voices: “Praise'the Lord!”) It would have been much easier to do, as others had done and to have packed up and gone away. But here* ha was and lie was likely to remain.—(Voices:. “Praise the Lord!”) A minister Was. atl the mercy of those he visited. If he rebuked or warned members of his congregation they often became his.bitter enemies, and they would go any lengths to get him down. He would give them the history of ■ men of God in different parts of the World who had suffered .tor years and years through wicked lies, and in some cases their re.puta- * tions had been cleared on th© death beictS-of those who had maligned them. Such" a state of affairs was worse than war, and he knew what he was talking about in this connection, as he had received three wounds when fighting in the Boer war. The people of Dunedin were divided Into sects. They were against each other, ■ but they united to get a man down, and then they went back to their own little Warfares. They had tried to get him'down,but they were not going to succeed. / God vjguld not let them. When he had:./..first come to New Zealand some people - who hod called themselves preachers had gone ahead of him when he was preaching through the country and maligned him. They had tried to injure him, but they, had not succeeded. It had been said that he did not convert people—that he hypnotised them; that he hypnotised members of his mission.—(Laughter.) It Was all jealousy. Nobody knew what he hud had to go through during the past few months —the'last few years, he might say—himself and also his wife, and .what they had. all had to bear as a mission. II it had nob bean for the laws of the ' country th® people would .have stoned him as they had stoned other preachers in the old days. That was because he had faithfully sought ' to preach the Gospel. As members of the mission they could testify that what he" had preached to them he had by the grace of God trjed to live up to. He had felt hia responsibility when he had preached to thaf people, and had tried to set. them ah example. He had tried to live justly, . and walk holily before God and to act'as” he had preached. Any success he had achieved he gave God the glory. Of the fallings he took all the blame himself. : .

Twelve of the congregation testified' to the great spiritual help which they * said they had received from the/ mission,- and expressed their confidence in Mr Lind. They stated that they had not known 1 him do anything evil, and one woman gave the emphatic assurance that he had oer< tainly hot hypnotised her.