MEN'S UNITED MEETING

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19375, 13 July 1937, Page 3

MEN'S UNITED MEETING

MISSIONARY FROM INDIA AIR. 1). XEILSON’S LECTURE

Interesting sidelights on missionary life to-day were related at the Men’s United Meeting last evening by Mr. D. Neilson, a representative of the Ceylon and India General Mission, who is visiting Gisborne. Mr. B. G. Morris presided over a large attendance of the public.

In the course of his lecture Mr. Neilson stated that few realised how primitive was the conception of life held by many millions in India. Alongside tlie rajahs’ palaces lived the serfs in daily dread of an enemy’s power.

The divergent fields of civil, military and ecclesiastical life in which Westerners met shoulder to shoulder with all classes of Indian people was touched on by the speaker. “While it would be mentally disastrous to enter such a land without a sense of humour, infinitely more was required than the mere ability to see file funny side of life,” declared Mr. Neilson. “The effect upon the mind of an environment at once glamorous, festive, idolatrous, fanatical, animistic, reverent and poverty stricken, may be offset by a jocular attitude, but only a deeply rooted faith in the power of Jesus Christ to deliver men and women from the machinations of evil can maintain the equilibrium of the person who is called upon day after day to bring consolation to troubled hearts. The lecturer concluded by reminding His hearers that the service rendered to their Master was but the following out of an ambassadorship committed to them by God, demanding the highest moral and spiritual credentials. Mr. Neilson entertained the gathering for a short time with lantern slides of views taken in India.