NICHOLSON MISSION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22101, 3 November 1933, Page 11

NICHOLSON MISSION

The evangelistic meetings conducted by the Kev. W. P. Nicholson were continued last night, when there was again a large attendance at the Concert Chamber. The subject of the address was “ Judas Iscariot,” and this admittedly difficult theme was handled in a very forceful and masterly way. The reading, consisted of various passages relative to the betrayal of the Lord by Judas Iscariot— Mark xiv, 10-11: “And Judas Iscariot, one of the 12, went unto the chief priests to betray Him unto them. And when they heard it they were glad, and promised to give him money. And he sought how he might conveniently betray Him.” John xiii, 18-27: “I speak not of you all, I know whom I have chosen: but that the Scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with Me hath lifted up his heel against me. . • . When Jesus had thus said. He was troubled in spirit and testified and said, 'Verily, verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. • . . He it is to whom I shall give a sop when I have dipped it. And when He had dipped the sop He gave if to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. And after the sop, Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly. . i . He then having received the sop went immediately out and it was night.” In his opening remarks Mr Nicholson pointed out that Judas Iscariot was a human being. Some people, he continued, had the idea that Judas Iscariot was not a human being. The speaker pointedly asked, “ What’s in a name? ” and then went bn to show that no mother had ever been known to call her child by the name of Judas Iscariot. To call an individual, a politician, or party by this name was resented the world over. A Unitarian, said Mr Nicholson, was one who denied the efficacy of “ the blood.” Cain was the first Unitarian, and Judas Iscariot was the second. The one killed his own brother and the other betrayed his Saviour. Why, asked the evangelist, had many Christians a kind of sympathy for the traitor, Judas Iscariot? Like all the other disciples, Judas was called, chosen and warned. He was a free moral agent. Mr ' Nicholson pointed out the awfulness of men and women, under the guise of Christianity, playing the part of Judas in this our .day and generation. Judas Iscariot, he said, was warned by the Lord Himself at the communion table and on various occasions during Christ’s mission. Seven times in all was Judas warned.

Mr Nicholson said that the Scriptures warned men and women to-day against betraying the Son of God. “The warning rings out to-day.” he said, “clear as ever, but the time will come when the warning will cease. Jesus said, ‘ What thou doest, do quickly.’ ” The speaker showed how these words sealed the doom of Judas. He had ignored the gracious warnings of His Lord—He had crossed the border line between God’s mercy and God’s wrath. Mr Nicholson closed his address by appealing to bis hearers to take their place ns lost guilty sinners and accept Christ as their own personal Saviour while the Day of Grace still held out. The meetings will be continued this evening when the speaker will de'al with the subject, “ God Limits a Day.”