CHINA INLAND MISSION.

Otago Witness, Issue 2511, 30 April 1902, Page 14

CHINA INLAND MISSION.

A meeting under tho auspices of the China Inland Mission was hold in the Chor.il Hall on the 22nd, when there was a good attendance, and Mr J. Gibson presided. The Choral Hall choir was also in attendance under the baton of Mr Barr, and several hymns were sung during the evening. Mr J. Wilkinson announced that this centra had been able to forward £107 to Melbourne- for the first quarter of the year, to be forwarded to China in aid of the inland mission. He also read letters from Misses -VI. and H. L. Reid, now in China, conveying greetings to those interested in the work of the mission. The Chairman ?->riefly introduced the subject, and Mr Digby then addressed tho meotinjy. He spoke of prayer in connection with God's purposes, and ?aid that though all could not go out to the mission field, they might help mission work by prayer and in other ways. Mr Southey, a missionary from China and. member of the Sydney Council of the Chinese Inland Mission, referred to tho good work of New Zealand missionaries in China. Referring to the massacres of missionaries, he said that it might be askpd why had God permitted those awful deeds? but in replyhe would ask why, then, had God allowed His Son to be crucified on the Cross? To certain statements which had been made regarding the mission work) at the time of tho outbreak he gave an unqualified denial. China to-day was very different from 'what ifc had been some years ago, and cities that wero absolutely closed before were wideopen, now to the missionary. In Si Chuen, the mission workers had met with great trouble, and particularly so in the city of Wong Shen. Now tho people there were bringing in their idols daily in. coolie !'>?ds to K> destroyed. All over China the opposition was breaking down, and there was a spirit of, to say the least, inquiry. He feared this was not altogether a spiritual movement, but due in some measure to the oppression of the indemnities. It was the most poverty-stricken classes that had to find the amount* for the heavy indemnifies. He strongly condemned the prreat indemnities demanded by the Roman Catholic Church, and said tho Inland Mission had rpfv.'ed to take compensation. In conclusion, tho _ speaker urged the people to enprage in somo mission work, and said that 250 more workers were required in China in order to consolidate the work done. He believed! the present juncture was more dangerous,moro critical, than ever before, but a c the door 3 were open the 1 missionaries would go on and lake every opportunity to prosecute their goqd yroxk.