EGYPT CENTRAL MISSION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19717, 18 February 1926, Page 2

EGYPT CENTRAL MISSION.

AN INTERESTING LECTURE A warmly appreciative audience filled the First Church Hall on Monday last to hear Mr Mill, of Auckland, deliver an address on the Egypt General Mission. The chairman, the Rev. J M. Simpson, opened the evening by prayer and some remarks concerning the mission. Mr John Wilkinson, chairman of the South Island Council, after conveying an apology for absence from the Rev. \V. A. Hammett, extended a welcome to Mr Mill, who, he said, had visited Egypt twice and was able to give first-hand information of the 'work, Mr Lawrence Cook added a few happy remarks and referred to the beginning of the circle of interest in Dunedin in 1904. Mr Mill, in responding, recalled the foundation of the first circle in Auckland 24 years ago, and mentioned that Miss Johnstone, of Port Chalmers, who was present, had been a member since 1904. An interesting sketch of the life history of the Egypt General Mission was then given by the lecturer, / who stated that the mission originated 28 years ago in Belfast, from which city seven young men commenced a work in Egypt which was now carried on by 45 European workers and a large native staff, which was working maiinly among the 11,500,000 Moslems. Schools and boarding accommodation for boys and girls, the provision of an excellent hospital for men and women, visiting the numerous villages, and the publication of a far-reaching paper called the Nows of Peace formed the main activities of tire mission. The speaker emphasised the responsibility resting on the British nation of giving these needy peoples the gospel of love. That responsibility included not only the liberty and justice which the British Government had given the mass of the fellahin, but the moral grandeur of God’s word as well. Ninety per cent, of the people was illiterate and was largely the prey of gross superstitions which degrade womanhood and leave the children in moral darkness. The evils of polygamy and free divorce pressed heavily upon the women and destroyed the sacredness of marriage and the proper contfcl of the children. Thousands of children slept out in the streets of Cairo through the failure of the home as un institution. Owing to th© religion of Mahomet failing to convey an adequate idea of the fatherhood and goodness of God and substituting God as an Eastern despot without morals or law, the freewill of man was denied and everything became “Kismet,’ or the will of God. For instance, the total blindness of a child due to dirt and flies was the will of God, and to ho caught stealing was the will of God, and so th© whole moral structure was undormim d. Beautiful pictures of Jerusalem, the Mount of Olives,_ Samaria, Galileo, ns well as those of the mission work in Egypt, were shown, and much appreciated by the largo number attending.