MISSION AT ST. PETER'S HAMILTON.

Waikato Times, Volume LVII, Issue 7007, 11 May 1906, Page 2

MISSION AT ST. PETER'S HAMILTON.

The rule of increase has applied to each succeeding day's attendance, and the interest has been well sustained. I he Khv. H..R. Jecks was the celebrant of Holy Communion. At I'd o clock the Bishop took up his subject, "The Decalogue," at the third Commandment. The law was given that man might be able to form a right conception of the character and boing of God. Ihia is the foundation of social order, and to break this is an offence. So that, for instance, a lie is the contradiction of the nature of God, iu whom we live, and move and have our being. All depends for each man on what he meaus by the name of God. The Jews were a representative race, as first read of, they appear as very elementary in their thought and character, and the name by which He is known is " El," which is constantly recurring, as in Bethel, Israel. 2nd. As Israelites, God is known as Jah, the hternal One. 3rd. As Jews, they had learned to use the name, but had lost its meaning, and had become an unreality, and any reverence they felt, was as reverence pa'd to a corpse. "When words become debased and the nation has lost the reality of language, then has come a commensurate loss of the reality of God. Note with what severity the crime of perjury is dealt with in the courts. Are we careful then in guarding our lips, lest our unworthy interpretation of what His name means has its effect on speech, whether in our prayers, our talk of sacred things,or our every day conversation? The modern tendency is to regard God as an abstraction, which means that people's idea of a personal God is going, and its result is seen in impertinent enquiry into things not revealed. The whole teaching of the Church is based up)n the reverence for the name of God; we are'baptised, married and buried in it. So God's demand is to everyone, "My child, give me Thy heart."

In the evening, when the Church was again filled, the Bishop dealing with the story of blind Bartimeus, and stating that a miracle was a parable in action, said the condition of Bartimeus was the unutterably sad condition of many Christians today, including some who went to Church. Such persons, when they heard men speak of the friendship of Christ and the helpfulness of the morning Communion, when they heard the bereaved tell how God sustained them in their sorrow, or listened to those who told of the forgiveness of their sins, would say, " It may be true, but I can't see it." They were blind. Like the blind mar, too, they were dependent. For what religion they h;id, they relied on their wives, the clergy, their surroundings, or other people's opinions. The result of dependence was inactivity. Bartimeus, who had to be lei out of the city gate to ask for alms as an object of pitv, was a spectacle of an inactive churchman. Thrice every year, when the .Jerusalem pilgrims passed rejjicing through the gate, there came to him increase of sorrow and increase "f joy. So it was with those like him today. The festivals of the Church, the Sunday services, nr a mission ad ted t) their sorrow by making them feel more keenly their own " outsideness " aud yet gave them joy in the hope that Jesus of Nazareth would pass by. Many did not realise what it was that kept them outside. It might be drinking (the too frequent "nip''), or gambling, lax ideas of the sanctity of marriage, not giving enough, or living beyond thair incomes. Nazareth pissed by, but before Ho could do anything for a man, that man must speak to Him and say what was the matter, ills companions might toll him (aud some of them_ would, during a mission like this) to hold his peace, for the world hated religious earnestness. Lastly, Jesus stood still to help him, because Bartimeus persevered. That was the hardest thing of ali. It could only ba done by the grace of God the liuly Ghost.

In the after-meeting, the Bishop solemnly urged his hearers to make it an absolutely regular habit to confess to God every night all the sins of the day. The services to-morrow will be 8 a.m. Holy Communion, and 7.30 p.m. open air service. Just before the latter, a pr«»c«ssiou wiii btjforoidd au thtj Church, headed by the Bishop and clergy, in their vestments. All interested in the mission should meet at the Church at 7.15 p.m.