CHURCH OF CHRIST

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 178, 31 July 1933, Page 8

CHURCH OF CHRIST

SUCCESS OF THE MISSION A large throng of people heard Mr Harry L. Bell, of U.S.A., in the large marquee in the Avenue last night, when the Church of Christ mission entered upon its sixth week. The tent was entirely crowded. A remarkable interest has been manifested in these special services right from, the beginning. Mr Thos. Cave led in the great song service and alson sang, “Friend of Mine.” The missioner took for his theme, “What the Church Means to Me,” during the course of which he said in pan: “’Many people view the church through a knot hole. They see a littl e of it, know a little about it, and at once proceed to lambast it.” Among the many good things tho preacher said to the interested listeners was, “Churches do not differ about the great things of the Gospel, but about the little things. The whole ‘church agrees upon enough to keep it together and to win the world to God. All that is needed is that we leave out our theories, opinions, speculations, and not attempt to make them binding upon others, and to take the New Testament as our rule of faith and practice. Then we could get together. ” Declaring that the. church, meant to him a school in which he was to learn, Mr. Bell asked: “Do we need the Church as a school?” I do not have the figures of New Zealand before me, but in the U.S.A, there are 27 millions of children and young people under 25 years of age, who receive no religious instruction of any kind. Forty-five out. of every hundred adults in the States have no church relationship—Jewish, Catholic, or Protestant. Fifty-six per cent, of the youth of the States is not contacted by any religious education or instruction. “Think of the hope of those in the Church; the hope that is ours through the death, burial and resurrection oi Jesus. Because He lives, we too shall live. Day by day we are approaching —what? Some say sunset, but we say the sunrise. Some say darkness, but we say light. Some say everlasting nothingness, but we say personalily made perfect. Victor Hugo said, ‘The closer I come to the grave the plainer I do I hear the symphonies of a world that is beyond fne. Death is not a blind alley, but. an open thoroughfare. It. closes on the twilight, it opens on the dawn.’ This is the hope of every man who follows in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus Christ.” To-night, by repeated requests, Mr. Bell will preach on “The •Second Coming of Jesus.”