THE CHURCH

Southland Times, Issue 20664, 20 April 1929, Page 12

THE CHURCH

NEWS AND NOTES, FROM PULPIT AND PEW. The eighteenth Dominion Conference of the C.E.M.S. will be held at Oamaru from May 14 to 16. The stone font of St Matthew’s Anglican Church, Auckland, is being replaced by a memorial alabaster one. The next party of lads to reach New Zealand under the Church of England immigration scheme will arrive about the end of this month.

“Rub your eyes and give the Bible the same chance as you do your newspapers,”' said the Rev. John McNeill, the evangelist of Los Angeles, when preaching at St. George’s Presbyterian Church, Liverpool.

On Sunday next harvest festival services will be held in the Otautau Methodist circuit, namely, Otautau morning and evening, and Aparima at 2.45 and 7 p.m. Rev. J. Thomas and Mr G. E. Turney will be the preachers. The Rev. S. Bailey will conduct both services at St. Peters Methodist Church. Strangers are heartily invited. All seats arc free and a sincere welcome to all. Knox Church and St. Peters will unite as usual in their Anzac service on the 25th at 7 | p.m. in Knox Church, both choirs will assist in the service. Padre Bailey will deliver the address. Sir Henry S. Lunn, in an article in the Review of. the Churches, referring to certain forms of evangelizing work, writes: “The whole of this money-making business under the guise of evangelism can be brought to an end if churches will unanimously agree to insist that the evangelists shall be paid a fixed salarj' by the society that sponsors them, and that all freewill offerings shall be duly accounted for and forwarded intact to the society.” Harvest thanksgiving services will be held at the Central Methodist Church, Leet street, to-morrow. A feature of the services will be the singing of the choicest harvest

hymns, with harvest festival anthems by the choir. Messages appropriate to the occasion will be delivered by the Rev. Angus Mcßean, and a solo, “Give Thanks and Sing,” will be sung by Mrs J. T. Macdonald. The annual sale of produce etc will take place on Monday evening. The Rev. J. Carlisle will be the preacher in the Eek street Baptist Church on the I-ord’s Day (morning and evenings). The | evening subject will be “The Unpardonable Sin, What is it?” Few sermons are preached upon this subject because many modern preachers deny the Deity of Jesus and the authority of Scripture. If there be such a . sin that is unpardonable for time and eternity men ought to know. The Bible is | clear in its teaching on this subject. Dr Sydney Nicholson, in orded to carry out his scheme tor the advancement of English Church music, resigned his office of organist in Westminster Abbey, and at once began operations which, as our readers have already seen, have made considerable progress in one short twelve-month. Already the School of English Church Mu«ic has its home in St. Nicholas College, Chislehurst, and with coming of the New Year, will open its doors to resident and nonresident students.-—Church Times.

The first mothers’ meeting was held last Monday afternoon in the Esk Street Baptist Church, when a happy crowd of mothers and babies enjoyed a simple Gospel service. A short address was given by Sister Alice. The mothers listened with deep interest, while their little ones were lovingly cared for by a band of willing lady workers. Afternoon tea was served by Mrs F. G. Stevenson, and a solo sung by Miss Dorothy Bennie accompanied by Miss Jean Allison. The meetings arc to be held every alternate Monday.

Passers by on Wednesday afternoon were interested to sec St. Andrew’s new church in South Invercargill surrounded by a band of enthusiastic men, each wielding a spade and endeavouring to keep up with the other fellow! As the new church is to be opened on May 8, and the builders are beginning to clear their machinery and timber from the scene of their recent efforts the Deacons Court thought it was time to commence setting the grounds in order. They unanimously decided to give their half holiday to this end with the happy result that a large portion of the ground has been turned over. The ladies, not to be out done, when they heard of the men’s activities came along with their baskets under their arms and provided their worthy Elders and Deacons with a refreshing cup of afternoon tea. It is expected that this will not be the only occasion on which a similar ‘working bee’ will take place.

Apropos the proposal to establish a College of Publicans, a correspondent sends the Church Times a copy of a letter addressed to a prospective'tenant of a house on her estate. It runs as follows:—“Sir, —l apprehend you are wishing to take the Navigation Inn, but as I wish the said house to be conducted after a different plan to public houses in general, I am disposed to think you cannot manage the concern agreeable to such desire. The thing I want is to have the house kept according to the laws of the Almighty God. Now, sir, a religious publican has it in his power to check a great deal of bad work, and there are now certain publicans at some distance from this place who are endeavouring to keep tb.eir houses free from swearing and drunkenness; but, of course you must expect they' are first able to set a good example themselves; and before this is properly effected, you, and every such person, must know something about religion, or you cannot so well tell others they must not break God’s laws.—Your well-wisher, S. Knapp.” That was the attitude of a century ago of an early disciple of John Wesley, and one given to good works after the manner of Elizabeth Fry.