HICKSON MISSION

Te Aroha News, Volume XLI, Issue 6405, 20 October 1923, Page 5

HICKSON MISSION

THANKSGIVING SERVICE AT ST. MARK’S CHURCH ■-Jm A thanksgiving’ service for the blessings bestowed at the Mission of Spiritual Healing conducted in Hamilton by Mr J. M. Hiskson, was held in St. Mark’s Church on Wednesday > Raining last. The service was of a vwy reverent and devout nature, pervaded by a spirit of gratitude and Christian hope. The Vicar of St. Mark’s, the Rev. R. L. Connolly, officiated, and preached a very impressive sermon. Basing his remarks on Psalms 25: 1 and -2, Mr Connolly said that they were gathered together for the sole purpose of offering praise and thanksgiying to Almighty God for the blessings bestowed at the Mission of Spiritual; Healing. It is an act that is quite meaningless to multitudes of people. They looked at the Mission from start to finish through the jaundiced eyes of th£ materialist. They sought a physical result and nothing else. Like the Pharisees of old they said “show us a sign and we will see and believe.” This type of people stood round the cross and watched the dying agonies of God’s son and said “come down from the cross and we will then believe you.” And God did not gratify them. He never does gratify that’ type of. spiritual curiosity and religious scepticism. But for the most part'the majority of men looked upon the Mission in its true light. Personally I can never be, thankful enough to God Tor what I saw and what I heard. First of all God revealed in no uncertain manner once -v again His love and His, mercy. He removed that great black mist that has for so long hung between us and ' Him—the belief tfyat all human suffering and all human sorrow, misery and calamity—come from Him. Surely we can never be too thankful, for the removal of that horrible doctrine. It is wonderful how tenaciously we cling to that old superstition. We looked out on the world for everything that seemed gloomy and desolate—everything that brought sorrow and sadness in its wake—we blamed H God. When the clouds of discontent darkness overtook us on the journey of life, we said piously, “Thy will be "clone.” But when the sun shone and the world smiled, when everything went .well and health and happiness were ours, when we were up and it never seemed to strike us to say “It’s God’s will.” We are always reluctant to give'-God the praise i for the goodness and the pleasures and the blessings of life, and to condemn the Devil for giving us the sickness, the sorrow and the misery. Yes, we have doubted in the past. Surely we can never doubt again. God has once more revealed the fact that He is a God of love and mercy. Then the Mission brought us nearer to God. It taught us how to use God’s wireless telegraphy—prayer. It was wonderful to know men whom one 0 imagined thought, little about such things talking quite naturally of* singing and praying for their Master. We are told by the sceptics and those who sit in the seats of the Pharisees' that it was a shocking thing to parade the sorrow and the misery and to disappoint so many, who received no physical blessing. Now, that everybody who went to the Mission was not cured, is perfectly true. Nobody except the sceptics and Pharisees thought they would be. But it is equally true that those who went seeking a spiritual blessing—those * who put themselves into God’s hands those who went in the spirit of the L.eppers of old—“If it be Thy will”— received a great spiritual uplift. Now . we have been challenged' by these , people to produce a scientific proof for every cure which God worked during 'the Mission. For ryiy part I challenge these modern Pharisees to produce the great army of disappointed people whom they talk of. Personally I have not met any of them as yet, and I challenge their champions to produce them. Of course it hurts to be shown the amount of sorrow and sickness that is in the world. But because it hurts a few well-fed, comfortable materialists is thaWny reason why those who suffer should be prevented from seeing a great spiritual uplift and getting the grace of God to help them to carry their cross. You will doubtless remember the story of Dives and Lazarus. The only sin which could be laid to the door of Dives was that the poor beggar man, sick at heart and weary in body, lay at his door unrelieved! We can surely never slip back into the old slipshod method of treating God to a second place. We must learn with the /_almist of old to sing, “Praise the Loi* oh my soul and all that is within, and praise His Holy Name.” * .