PRIMITIVE METHODISM.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 14014, 20 September 1909, Page 3

PRIMITIVE METHODISM.

QUEEN STREET CHURCH. ANNIVERSARY SERVICES. . The anniversary services of the Queen Street Primitive Methodist I, Church were conducted yesterday. The ,'preacher at the morning service was the , Rev. H. White, who took for his text '.the wprds "Mine house shall be called' ' a bouse of prayer for all people"— I Isaiah 56, 7. The pulpit in the evening was occupied by the senior minister, the. Rev. J» Guy, his text being Ist Timothy 1,15: "Thiais a faithful saying, and .worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.'' In the course of his sermon the preacher' said that sixty-five years ago this month' the late Rev. Robert Ward preached a sermon from the same words on the Huatoki Bridge, in the centre of New Plymouth. That sermon was the introduction of Primitive Methodism into New Zealand. The hand of death had been busy since then, and fe*, if any, remained who were present at that first service. The settlement was then in its infancy. It was only three* years before, on March 30, that the first ship, the "William Bryan," arrived in the, roadstead. The pioneers did not leave their religion behind them wheh they crossed the ocean, but many of them here in the new land worshipped the God of their fathers. Mr. Ward gathered a band of loyal men around him, who became bis most devoted helpers in the work of preaching the gospel in the districts which were opening up around the new settlement. When the Rev. Isaac Marsden, of the Anglican Church, visited New Zealand in the year 1814 he landed in the Bay of Islands. The first Sunday he spent abbore was Christina* Day, and he' preached to the Maoris ana the few Europeans who were present from the text, "Behold I bring, you glad tidings of great joy." The message was most appropriate, for the day was Christ's birthday, and those Maoris were men for whose salvation Christ also came. The message of the Rev. Robert Ward was equally, appropriate. Wherever men went there was' sin and Borrow, and they needed this message of a Saviour. The saying concerned salvation, >and ; it explained that' salvation came from oataide our race. There had been crises in history when some man or woman had stepped to the front and changed the course of a nation's life. But they left the human heart unchanged, and reactions set in and their work had to be done over again. It was so that salvation -came. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sini ners! The saying was. faithful*, it had a background of prophecy ; it recorded an historic fact'; and history confirmed it. Nineteen centuries experience lay behind it, and it was worthy of acceptation, without reservation, by all men to-day. The services will be continued on Tuefday, when » tea meeting will bo held in the schoolroom, followed by a concert in the church.