BIBLE STUDENTS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19732, 29 December 1926, Page 6

BIBLE STUDENTS

PRESBYTERIAN CONFERENCE DELEGATES IN WANGANUI Delegates from all over Now Zealand arrived in Wanganui yesterday to attend the Presbyterian Bible Class Conference. St. Paul’s Church held a big throng last night when the delegates of both sexes streamed in and took their scats for the welcome service. The Rev. W. Elliott, M.A. presided. The service opened with the men’s hymn,Dear Lord and Father of Alankind,” followed by a reading from Phil. 11. The opening prayer breathed devout thanksgiving for the glorious promise of the young lives gathered tor this special season and commended them to the consecration of life and heart to God.

Cr. W. A. Alorrison, in the absence of the Mayor voiced the welcome of the city to the assembled delegates. He reminded them that Wanganui ranked as the fifth city in the Dominion, land he was sure that with the advent of over 700 delegates it ought to be the best city in the Dominion. The authorities of Wanganui to give them the best of good times.

The Rev. E. T. Cox, on behalf of the Ministers’ Association, followed. They were very interested, he said, in what the Bible Class people did. He felt that their coming would help to lift the city to a higher land better state. Aliss Jessie Hetherington, in her book on Presbyterian Church history, had a remarkable statement of how in the early days a Supreme Court had been set up in Dunedin, but for eight years it had to close because there were no cases to try. There were some conservative elements in the Church who looked askance on youth work, but he felt every confidence that they would make good. The Rev. J. Paterson spoke on behalf of the Presbytery, and a dozen representatives of the Turakina . Maori Girl’s College rendered a chorus of greeting.

On behalf of the campers and teachers, the Rev. J. A. Thompson, camp father, returned thanks. Air Elliott, as president of the conference, alluded to the yeoman work done by the former youth representative, the Rev. W. McNeur, and that of the former secretary, Mr O. Warnock, Aliss Chisholm, the acting secretary, and Aliss Burnett, the registrar. Telegraphic greetings were received from a party of missionaries en route to China, from the Cambridge Convention, from St. Andrew’s, Hamilton and the Rev. W. AlcNeur. Alaster A. Alurray tastefully rendered la violin solo.