UNITED MISSION

Waikato Independent, Volume XLIV, Issue 1187, 1 October 1945, Page 3

UNITED MISSION

VISIT or REV. GARDNER MILLER PARADE OF CHILDREN The Word of God is being placed before the people of Cambridge most impressively and with some novel features asociated with the United Mission which opened yesterday and which will continue until Thursday next. Last night Trinity Presbyterian Church was filled with a representative congregation at a combined ser T vice under the auspices of the Mission and with which were associated the officers and congregations of St. Paul’s Methodist ' and the Baptist churches. The preacher was the visiting evangelist, the Rev. Gardner Miller. Youth Afternoon. Favoured with a delightful afternoon about 100 children assembled at the Post Office yesterday afternoon and led by the augmented Salvation Army Band, the children marched to the Presbyterian Church, being joined on the way by a number of children. The gathering at the church was a big one, the Rev. J. S. Waite presiding. Community singing, with the children’s favourite hymns, was enjoyed. Mr G. I. Vinall was at the piano. The Rev. Gardner Miller gave an impressive talk, his theme being the “Meaning of Your Name." He urged the children to follow Christ as their leader and to live lives of usefulness and service. At five o’clock a tea was held at the Parish Hall and this, too, was greatly enjoyed by the children and the young people of the congregations. Women’s Meetihg. To-day (Monday) at 1.30 a' Women’s Meeting will be held at Trinity Church and the Rev. Miller will deliver a talk. He will also address meetings each evening. “The Finger of God.” Preaching at the united services last night, the Rev. Gardner Miller took as his subject “Written. With the Finger of God.” “That God could write,” said Mr Miller, “should be as easily accepted as that He can paint a sunset in the sky or colour a butterfly’s wings. The Bible is insistent not only that God writes; but that what He writes can never be rubbed out. God -wrote in stone the Ten Commandments. The Commandments are not obsolete, they are still terrifying. No one could function without them. We talk about men breaking the law; but men don’t break the law; they break themsqjves against the law. Industry, home life and personal relationships are all bound up with the Ten Commandments—which nations and men ignore at their peril. God also wrote on Plaster. “Thou are weighed in the balances and art found wanting (short weight).” Here is an intervention of God against the cruelty and truthlessness of dictatorship. Anybody who desecrates a people’s religion and cheapens human personality brings judgment upon himself. Hitler, Mussolini, and Hirohita are modern examples of this. And God writes in dust.

“Here is the superb story of what Christ did when men who had not been found out attempted to destroy a woman who had been found out. The writing on dust is a vivid portrayal of the mercy, that refuses to keep a record of anyone’s sins- and misdeeds. The writing on stone is the Mv, on plaster is justice, on dust is mercy—and then where it matters most for eternity, God.' writes in the Lamb’s Look of Life. To have your name written there gives meaning and purpose to life now and forever.” Mr Miller announced that during the next four nights he would attempt to answer some of the questions the ordinary man is asking. To-day (Monday) the question would be “Is There a God?”