DR. HENRY'S MISSION.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 804, 29 April 1910, Page 6

DR. HENRY'S MISSION.

EQJAL. MEETINGS IN WmdKGTON:

The find meetings of Dr. Henry's mission m Wellington were held yesterday. .-Before the main, meeting in the Town Hall hat evoning,,;a special meeting was ,held. of converts made during the mission, /of'whom' about 250 attended. Dr. Henry gave an address, and afterwards shook hands with the converts, each of whom was presented with a small book. '■ The. Town' Hall was crowded for theprmc meeting. Dr.'..,Henry's subject was The Half-way House." All those among his audience, he declared,' who "were not Christians were-in. some halfway house, and if-they died'in that halfway house they.were more certain to go to' hell than if they, had never been given an opportunity for •■ repentance. His ■prayer was that the Spirit Himself would explain to them the .peril of the halfway .house, and scourge them out of it. Altering the figure somewhat the preacher said that a great many people were dwelling onwhat might be called the Mount of Piety. : They were good neighbours, -kind parents, upright,citizens, and they deluded themselves with thinking that their good deeds would suffice foT their entrance into the presence of the Lord. 1 But. "by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified, saith the Lord." The first commandment was "Thou shalt love the Lord.. thy God . with all thy strength," and. if they disobeyed it they, committed .the deepest, sin. Some' of ; them were stopping in ■'.. the haDa.of pleasure; he speaking of the most refined pleasures of' Wellington, the opera, the playhouse, , the ballroom at their best, gambling in its most respectable_ form, drinking in'the'most aristocratic fashion. They, were-pleasures that poisoned • and amusements that killed.' He was not arguing with regard tb the inherent sinfulness of many of these things, bat if they, suffered one of-tliese halls of pleasure to stand between them and heaven,. between' them and. forgiveness of their sin, it became for them a place of., doom. Another point, about these measures was' that the from the highest to" the lowest of- them was very easy. The preacher told ; several anecdotes! to illustrate this contention/,'. Again-alter-ing the figure, .he.'.went on 'to-speak of the Valley of Indecision and,the Town of Timidity, the latter of which, contained 'two castles, Doubting Castle- and Cowards' Castle. Of these" Cowards' Castle was full, and a good many more would like to get into it if they could. Many : > of'.' those people were physical heroes, but they were moral cowards. A halfway house .'of.' any kind could only mean one thing—a lost soul and a lost world. No man was '■ half forgiven or half saved. The,.preacher then made an.urgent appeal to members of the audience to move out of their halfway house, and to dedare the fact by standing. , Mr. Potta assisted, the appeal by singing the solo, "Drifting Down." A considerable number stood. At the conclusion of the meeting the choir presented Dr. and Mrs. Henry and Mr. and Mrs. Potts with ' Petone rugs, and a greenstone ornament was presented to each of the ladies. The Eev. A. Dewdhey made the presentations, and the misskmers -feelingly replied. Dr. Henry and Mr. Potts will commence a week's mission in Masterton tomorrow. They will then leave for Auckland, and after the Auckland mission will,go to Christchurch and Dunedin.