THE CHURCH

Southland Times, Issue 22999, 19 September 1936, Page 12

THE CHURCH

NEWS AND NOTES FROM PULPIT AND PEW The Rev. W. E. Lambert will resume his ministry at the Esk Street Baptist Church to-morrow. The annual springtime commemoration will be observed at First Church on Sunday. The children of the church are invited to present gifts of flowers for the sick, and hospitals. This is usually done at the morning diet of worship at 11 o’clock. The Methodist Church in England has 1300 circuits. In addition to ministers, there are over 34,000 local preachers.

The annual assembly of the Baptist Church will take place this year in Auckland. It will open on October 7 and continue for a week.

Dr Sidney Berry, one of the leaders of the Congregational Church in England, on the invitation of the vicar, recently occupied the pulpit of Christ Church, Crouch End, one of the London suburbs. That “Jesus Christ is the only hope for a world in Chaos” is the theme upon which the Rev. G. B. Hinton will preach to-morrow night at St. Peter’s Methodist Church. His morning subject will be “Burden-bearing.” Mr Hinton will conduct the Clifton service at 2.45 p.m. At the Central Methodist Church, Yarrow street, on Sunday a spring flower service will be held in the morning. Appropriate music will be provided by both the adult and junior choirs. At the evening service the junior lyric quartette party will sing and a solo will be sung by the Rev. E. B. Chambers. At the monthly meeting of Knox Church office-bearers last Monday it was decided to thank Mr C. Pay for his assistance in carrying on the Georgetown Sunday service. By changing the time of meeting back to 6.30 p.m. it was agreed to relieve Mr Pay for two Sundays out of three. The Deacons’ Court unanimously agreed, on the recommendation of the finance committee, to restore the cut in the minister’s salary as from July 1. During the past week Mr F. Elliott, the Scottish evangelist, has held the first of his series of meetings in the Victoria Hall. The speaker held the interest of his hearers from first to last, and opened up many avenues of thought not usually explored. Mr Elliott begins his second, and last, series of five meetings on Sunday evening. A hearty response from an attendance point of view will be a great factor in bringing about anticipated blessing as the result of these evangelistic addresses.

The Rev. C. J. Tocker will be the preacher at St. Pauls, morning and evening, to-morrow. The morning sermon will be on Isaiah 61: 3: “Beauty for ashes.” In the evening Mr Tocker will preach on the text from II Timothy IV: 17, “Notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me and strengthened me.” At this service the choir will sing the anthem “All in the April Evening. The broadcast has been postponed until October 4, when St. Paul s will celebi ate its 61st anniversary, and the preacher will be the Rev. Llewellyn Williams, of Chalmers Church, Timaru.

At a commemoration service in St. Paul’s Pro-Cathedral, Wellington, on a recent Sunday, to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Y.M.C.A. in Wellington, Canon James spoke ot the conspicuous service the organization had given in promoting co-opera-tion among the youth movements m the churches. The main object of the Y.M.C.A., he said, was to supplement the influence of the home, the school and the church by strengthening the moral foundations of young people in giving them. an. ideal for their lives, and in providing wholesome recreative activity for their leisure hours. He urged the young men present to throw their whole heart into the greatest and most worthy cause they knew, and laid stress on one cause that was great enough to attract and hold their loyalty —the cause of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom.

“Matter” is the subject of the Lessonsermon in all churches of Christ, Scientist, to-morrow. The Golden Text is “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is bom of the Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:6) .Among the citations which comprise the Lessonsermon are the following from the Bible: “Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; lineuponline, lineuponline; here a little, and there a little.” (Isaiah 28:9, 10). The Lesson-sermon also includes the following passage from the Christian Science Textbook, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” by Mary Baker Eddy: “When we fully understand our relation to the Divine we can have no other Mind but His, — no other Love, Wisdom, or Truth, no other sense of Life, and no consciousness of the existence of matter or error.”

BIBLE CLASS WEEK.

baptist function.

The Baptist Bible Class movement of New Zealand recently held its annual Bible Class week. During this period the classes hold various meetings for the purpose of fellowship and further cementing the ties which bind them to the church. In common with the rest of the Dominion the classes in Southland, conducted Bible Class week in a manner which reflected credit on those responsible for the arrangements. Held under the auspices of the Southland Young Women’s and Young Men’s unions, the meetings were very well attended not only by the members themselves, but also by the general public.

On the Sunday the celebrations began with early morning meetings for prayer and the classes assisted throughout the day at the usual church services. The afternoon was devoted to rallies, one in North Invercargill for the young women and one at Georgetown for men. Mrs Wallace, of the Salvation Army, was the speaker at the former ‘ her theme being “The Upward Call,” while at tire latter the Rev. T. R. Page spoke on the subject “Holiness.” On the Tuesday evening a united rally was held in the Esk street church and the Rev. C. D. Gardiner (Gore) was the speaker. Bible Class members conducted the mid-week prayer meetircs

in the churches. In the Georgetown church, before a large audience, the annual oratorial contest was held, the Rev. E. B. Chambers acting as judge. Mr R. H. Osborne was president and the Rev. T. R. Page acted as timekeeper. The following were the results: Senior sermonette (10 minutes), C. Schroeder (75pts) 1, L. McKnight (73pts) 2. Junior sermonette (7 minutes), L. Cornwell 1, A. Ashley 2. Gospel solo (men), C. Lambert 1, C. Schroeder 2; (women), Mrs C. Schroeder 1, Miss A. Clifford 2. At North Invercargill Mrs L. Marchant presided at a combined rally. Mr H. Schroeder was the song leader on this occasion and Mr C. I. Lowery delivered an inspiring address on the subject “Revival.” The final gathering took the form of a spiritual social function. A large number attended to give thanks for blessings received during the week.