THE WESLEYAN CHURCH CONGRATULATIONS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2300, 31 March 1898, Page 25

THE WESLEYAN CHURCH CONGRATULATIONS.

The Silver Jubilee Conference of the Wesleyan Church, recently held in Dunedin, passed the following resolution on the motion, of the Rev. J. J. Lewis : " Tho Conference congratulates the Presbyterian Church of Otago on the attainment of its jubilee; acknowledges with , thankfulness to God tho spiritual, educational, and material advantages that have attended its work ; assures ifc of fraternal co-operation and sympathy in all its ministrations, and prays that it may have an increasingly prosperous future." The deputation instructed by the Conference to convey the above was a large and representative one, consisting of the ministers and circuit stewards of the Dunedin, the suburban, and the Port Chalmers circuits. The Rev. J. J. Lewis, speaking on behalf .of the deputation, said: "Moderator, Fathers, and Brethren, the Wesleyan Methodist Conference, like other ecclesiastical assemblies, deals with not a few questions on which its members agree to differ, b\it when it was proposed to congratulate the Presbyterian Churcli of Otago on the attainment of its jubilee, the resolution was carried with a heartiness, a warmth, and a unanimity not more rare than refreshing. We beg you to believe that this deputation is not merely an expression of clerical courtesy or etiquette, a mere compliance with what is conventional and customary, but an honest recognition of the good work that by the blessing of God your church has done for this colony, our gladness at the prosperity that has crowned your ministry, and our prayer that you may be yet more abundantly blessed. If a personal reference maybe pardoned, m.y earliest associations forbid sectarian narrowness, for I was baptised and confirmed in the Church of England, was taught in a Baptist Sunday school, taken as a child by a Primitive Mathodisfc servant girl to prayer meetings, and brought to Christ among the people to whom I have consecrated my manhood. I claim therefore to embody in my person a whole evangelical alliance, and am consistent in my advocacy of the reunion of Christendom. One chapter in my life's history brings me very near this venerable . nd historic gathering. Although I did not come lo these shores by the John Wickliffe or the Philip Laing, yet before my friend MrPorter's elegant sancfoiary had been reared or the first stone of the Anglican Church in that district had been laid, I was sent as the pioneer missionary to reclaim the savage tribesr in the mountain fastnesses of Mornington. Would that all the people's hearts had been as soft as some of their roads. A lady, after hearing me one Sunday night, sank so deeply into the mud that she had to do one of two things — either slop there al l night or leave one of her boots behind, and chose the latter as the less of the two evils. My congregation was composed not only of Methodists and Presbyterians, but of High Church, Low Church, no church, Jews, Turks, and Infidels. I don't know what you ■would say if you were told how many of your people brought their babies to me for baptism. But I was neither sorry nor surprised when, having opened a buildingof their own in the neighbourhood, they transferred their allegiance to the churcli of their fathers. If, however, Mr Porter should find some of his members exceptionally amiable in. character he will not forget the good influence brought to bear upon them in their tenderest years. If I speak with imlooked-for freedom, in your midst, there may be a further explanation in blood affinity. If you look back on Caledonia, stern and wild, on heather-clacL downs, and rocky steeps robed with the mountain mist, the pride of the morning, I claim the rugged beauties of Cambria, cloud-pierc-ing Snovi'don and Bedgelert's torrent as my ancestral home. If with you hill and valley and croft have sent forth the men to whom the pulpit has been a throne, Wales has had her Christmas Evans, her John Elias, and that prince of sacred orators just gone to his reward, John Evans, fondly known to the Principality as Eglwys Bach. We have both found that no name so stirs the hearts oi our peasantry as the name of Jesus, while from the plough, the factory, and the fisherman's boat have come forth those who have lived and laboured and died with martyr-like fidelity to the truth. To return to the special business of the deputation on behalf of whom 1 speak, New Zealand Methodists are not forgetful of what they owe to your theologians. They have helped to train our rising ministry, and our probationei'3 are examined in Orr'a " Christian View of God and the World " and Salmon's "Introduction to the New Testament. Orr's review of tho Ritschlian theology has been one of my own latest handbooks, while I am indebted to Chalmers, the brilliant though erratic Edward Irving, to Dr Hodge, and to Dr David Brown for part of my mental equipment. For many years we have been

cheered by brotherly intercourse with members of this synod, and vie with you in revering the name of crar common friend, the beloved Dr Stuart. As we think of what this commemoration would have meant tor him, who can help- saying : " O for the touch of a vanished hand, And the sound of a voice that is still " ? Yet amid the varia 1 tributes to his worth not one has been bold enough to define his unique position in our community In stating wnat I mean you cannot misunderstand my phraseology. Your church is as staunch as my own in resisting all sacerdotal and hierarc .iio.il i»etensions. ~sTet in the late pastor ot Knox Church we saw how a man might, as the result of nature and of grace, fill a position to which no, prescriptive title and no traditional teaching could prove his claim ; in short. Dr Stuart was the God-anointed Bishop ol Otago. Taking the broad platform of our national interests, it is a caiise for thankfulness that the Jubilee 'of owt province has kept to the iront our indebtedness lo the Giver of all that is good. On the Biblical foundation laid by the - first settlers we would continue the superstructure ; in imitation of their virtues we would - cherish, an enlightened patriotism ; and sharing their faith we look forward to that golden age when. at the name o£ Jesus every knee shall •bow. My- parting word must be spoken, yet one would gladly utter at suoh a time some ■seed thought to fructify for tho good ot the , sister churches- so- happily brought together. iWell, sir, I cannot regard a meeting -such as ~this""as exhausting the possibilities of the future. Our ecclesiastical polity is essentially the same,- Together with the other free church ss we- 'present an unbroken front as we battle against the effort to- bring back the yoke of xnediisva] priestcraft on tire necks of those •whom the truth has made free. Our British Ijlood rebels agoinsfc spoil and incantation and 'incense-shrouded mystery, and disdaining the priestly absolution of a fellow sinner, our churches own no lordship but that of Christ. With no unfaithfulness to our distinctive doctrines, they admit of an interpretation that makes us near akin, and I don't despair of seeing the day when, under a combined organisation, we shalJ join heart and hand and claim ]STew Zealand for Christ. In the meantime wo take as our motto that by which the city of Glasgow has been so long and so honourably distinguished and cry. " Let Otago flourish by the preaching of the Word."