SPIRITUAL FORCES

Taranaki Daily News, 28 December 1934, Page 5

SPIRITUAL FORCES

BIBLE CLASS MOVEMENT. HAWKE’S BAY CONFERENCES. By Telegraph—Press Association. Hastings, Last Night. Five hundred and thirty delegates assembled at Hastings to-day for the Presbyterian young women’s and young men’s Dominion Bible class conference. They were given a civic welcome this evening by the Mayor, Mr. Maddison. The Rev. D. J. Shaw, president of, the conference, also a local minister, said it was impossible to estimate from mere numbers the spiritual force that the conference represented. The Bible class movement among all Protestant churches of New Zealand now numbered about 50,000 and was growing, not only in numbers but also in an understanding of the principles for which the movement stood and of their value. He paid tribute to the local clergy of the sister churches for their helpfulness. Mr. Maddison expressed the hope that the conference would take some share in allaying the spirit of suspicion and distrust rampant among persons and nations. If the nations would give Christianity a fair trial, he said, the economic and social recovery of the world would rapidly follow. The Rev. R. B. Gosnell, president of the Hastings Ministers’ Association, extended a special greeting to a group of Maoris among the visiting delegates. The Anglican conference of 130 young men attending the fourteenth Dominion conference of Bible classes opened at Havelock North yesterday.