LECTURE.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 180, 22 April 1873, Page 7

LECTURE.

* — PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY: AS TAUGHT BY JESUS AND lIIS INSPIRED APOSTLES. The above formed the subject of a lecture delivered in the Town-hall on Tuesday last, the 15th inst., by Mr J. Neil, of Dunedin. We have been requested to publish the following report■ On rising, Mr Neil, said that, being a stranger amongst them, he wished his hearers to appoint a chairman. Mr James Taylor was selected, and, accepting the post, claimed for the lecturer a calm and impartial hearing. The Lecturer said he felt it his duty to speak a word or two about himself, as he was unknown to all present. He might say he was an “amateur” lecturer; not a paid, or in any sense a professional one. Like the Apostle of the Gentiles, he made his living with his own hands. Being on his way to Dunedin, he thought it his duty to call the attention of the people in Cromwell to that grand system of truth known as Christianity. From the heading of his discourse, as advertised, it would be gathered that he did not think that Christianity, as Jesus taught it, was the same as it was represented by the various denominations. Being an emanation of the Eternal Mind, it could not possibly ■cause such sectarian divisions as now dishonoured Christ and retarded his glorious cause. Sects were condemned by the apostle Paul in Ids epistle to the Corinthians, where he denounced them as the outcome of carnal men. As every system partook of the character of its founder, it would be profitable to look at the life of Jesus as revealed in the New Testament. Jesus needed not the testimony of men, for the Eternal Father acknowledged him : His beloved Son, in whom He delighted. Those who witnessed his private and public life were compelled to own him the incarnate God. One whose avaricious heart led him to sell his master for thirty pieces of silver was compelled to acknowledge tfhat master’s innocency. The bitterest enemiies of Christianity have written of him as the embodiment of all that was noble and good. Modern Spiritualists declare that they will allow no man to surpass them in their love and admiration of Jesus Christ. Still they deny his Divinity, which is equivalent to calling him an impostor. Spiritualism the lecturer believed to be infidelity under a new guise. The apostles of Christ next claimed the attention of the lecturer. They, like their Divine master, wore men of the most holy and blameless character. With the exception of one, they sealed their testimony to Christ with their blood. It was asked, Which Church would they associate with, supposing they should rise from the dead ? Would they go t > the Church of Rome, whose order and teaching were not scriptural 1 or to the Church ■of England, said to be the eldest daughter of Rome ? Would they recognise the Protestant sects, in their jarring discord I No ; thev would seek fellowship with the Church of Christ, which acknowledged them as its inspired teachers. That Church could be identified from the various denominations (human systems of religion) by the following marks: — 1. It bad no other head but Jesus, owning no other names but his, and being subject to no human authority, such as Popes, Cardinals, Reverends, as mother Churches, both

liotnish and Protestant. 2. That penitent believers, confessing the name of Jesus, were immersed in the name iif the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for the remission of their sins.—Acts' ii., 38. j 3. That the Church meets every Lord’s I Day to break the loaf, commemorative of the I Broken Body, and to drink of the fruit of j the vine, in memory of his Shed Blood, the price of their redemption. 4. That its teaching, exhortation, and ministry were open to all male member's competent to edify the Church in love, j His ro other authority than the herd. All creeds of human compilation it 'regards as schisnutical, and subversive of the Amity of the followers of Jesus. C. The free-will offerings of members were t' !e °nly means of obtaining money to support the cause of Christ. Bazaars, begging the world, Ac., were the invention of the man of sin, not the Man of Sorrows. The Lecturer concluded by exhorting his hearers to enter the Church of Christ by believing, repenting, and being immersed in the three holy names : assuring them from ood s word that peace in life, joy in death, mid endless glory in the world to come would i ee the portion of all the followers of the meek ! and lowly Jesus. | A vote of thanks was given to the Lecturer | after an earnest discourse of over an hour and a half’s duration.