"HEREAFTER OF SLAIN."

Wanganui Herald, Volume L, Issue 14696, 30 August 1915, Page 3

"HEREAFTER OF SLAIN."

/ CRITICISM *CF SERMON. , BAPTIST MINISTER-.RESIGNS. , GISBORNE, August 28., : Owing- to a sharp difference of opinion concerning a recent sermon preached li'v the Rev. P. Ji Waiuwriglit in tluvßap-: tist Church on “The Hereafter .of',- the Slain,” and also because- of- the inability:' ni the clinrcli members to accept a- statement defining his views with greater clearness, Mr Wainwriglit lias tendered Ins'resignation as minister. This waiv the preacher- is reported to hard said, would revolutionise very muchin -our social, life: Many of our theories would have to change to meet new facts.. Picture the problem which arises when an old mother; bred, in -the stricter - Test iigious ■ school,: received the. fatal..e.tekpo gram about her- boy - in., the, , trenches; - hihe knows-that, ho has not. been a Ghr-is-v tian., in her'sense of that word.-He -bass never .been to prayer meetings, and- sujv.i rendered himself to - her .Master, and ; now ,be has given bis life for home andcountry. What has become of hint?. M hero is his spirit?,. She know,sj that;• according to all her beliefs—beliefs, inwhich she lias been trained, from earliestinfancy—her boy. must .now be inbell,, and yet. her mother’s heart contradicts her religions roiivictioiis. ■ I.t is a ter-; rihlc question for her to answer, and in ■thousands, of cases this problem is aris. ,ing. The preacher declared he was only rxnressing his own convictions in what followed, and he urged all to be.true to rheir intelligence and conscience. The neb who give their ail and miss out into flic beyond with shuttered bodies have sacrificed their life “for home and country,for freedom and fair plav. Will those millions who have thus died pass into an everlasting bell, because -they have never realised the beauty and the grace of Jesus Christ, and because through mountains of prejudice and ignorance -tliev have never understood- the. urgent--of self-surrender., to Him P “Tp nlf * such-a thing, is 'unthinkable, unbelievable,” said >the preacher. “Just as; Christ welcomed those, who did not knoH’ Him, tliov possessed' His spirit, so I believe. He will welcome those who. not knowing Him, shed theirblood for their country, gave their lifefor what seems .to them -right.-. Notiit the-higher ‘mansions of-heavenv perbans. will ;thev bo received, but in., sonubumble station,... where ,thev will - grow, and -develop into, saintliness ami Cbristiikfness.”i