The Tabernacle in the Wilderness.

Observer, Volume X, Issue 629, 17 January 1891, Page 14

The Tabernacle in the Wilderness.

Of old time the Tabernacle was raised in the Wilderness of Sin, and it would seem as thongh the Auckland Tab were being carried in that direction. At last Sunday's service, Mr Seering H. Matthews, who is church secretary, made a special appeal, at each diet of worship, for the Lord's people to support the cause, which is eoing to the bad at the rate of .£5 per week, and the wicked banker refuses to give an overdraft, because certain godless trustees decline to beoome secuntyior it. He said if only 200 of God's children would give an extra sixpence per week, the deficit would disappear. This did not seem to please Mr William Birch, burglarbreaker and oil-healer, for he managed to drag m an allusion to Christian giving in the course of his morning discourse. He declared that there was no sense in making a special appeal to God's people, for they always gave freely. This sounded like a broad hint that those people who were withholding their donations were children of the devil, and of course their hearts have been only further hardened. But, on the face of it, the good pastor's explanation is a hard knock at his own supporters who still crowd into the Tab., while those opposed to him sta3r at home. If the thousand people who attend on his ministrations were to give an average of sixpence each, there would be more than sufficient to cover all expenditure and leave a surplus of £5. But as pew rents must produce considerable revenue, it is fair to conclude that an average offering of the orthodox threepenny bit would prove al Ehridently the ' boycott ' is more determined and general than was brought out by the congregational vote And if everyone is honest in saving up his offerings, they will require to enlarge the plates on the first Sunday after Pastor Birch leaves for Sydney. Meanwhile it remains to be seen whether God s peculiar people will make a special response to the appeal contained in last Sunday's Gospel according to St. Matthews. >