MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1381, 6 March 1912, Page 4

MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.

ANNUAL MEETING. * ADDRESS BY BISHOP SPROTT. The annual meeting of the Wellington branch of the Church Missionary Association, held in tho Sydney Street Schoolroom last evening, wits attended by ovee oiie-luuulral persons. Tho Anglican. Bishop of Wellington (Dr. Sprotl) prosided. The first speaker was tho Rev. IT. G. Blackburne, who said that tho weakness of the New Zealand Church as compared with tho Church in England was the lack of a true missionary spirit. If they, wished for a Iruo spiritual revival they; must restore interest in missionary work. The greatness of tho Umpire was accompanied by tremendous responsibilities. Some liifll) Chinese lived in our midst in this country, but f>o fur as he could see, very little interest was taken in theso foreigners. Missions were carried oil with difficulty owing to lack of fninncial support. Efforts were being made to get a new Cliinosa missionary for Wellington from Melbourne;- Since the death, of Mr. Wong, tho mission luul been carried on here by the devoted efforts of his lyidow, assisted by four Chinese converts;

Miss Florence Smith, a missionary lately returned from India, where- sh» has worked for twelve years, also delivered an address. Sho told the slorj; of her experiences at a mission station in the. State of Hyderabad, 'and stated that, shortly before leaving, sho had witnessed such an ingathering of convert* as was not to be seen more than onco in a generation. Miss Smith told many, stories illustrating tho patience, emirage, faith, and devotion of Christianised inhabitants of India.

The liev. 0. .1. kimberley (New Zealand secretary; of the association) said (luit tho work of the Church Missionary Association might Ijs described as an allonijit (o form a great triple alliance of the Indians, the Cliiiic.'c, and the Japanese. In China missionaries were working at present almost under lire. In Japan, the danger was that tho people might turn to agnosticism instead of to tho true religion. Tho Church Missionary Association aimed at seeing these, threo grent nations wedded together and united also in Christian bonds to Great Britain. Last year the revenue of tho local association had aggregated .£2Ol-1, but it had ended the year with n debt of ■Mβ. The association desired this year to wipo oil this deficit, and, in addition, to send ono missionary to the Sudan, and a married missionary, with his wife, to India. Tho Bishop emphasised tho appeal which had been made for greater interest in missionary work. They were witnessing a movement which was without parallel in human history—the movement in China. At one time China had been the synonym for stagnation. They all knew Tennyson's lines "Bolter fitly years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay." Those lines would not stand to-day. If Tennyson wanted excitement, and were still alive, he could get more of it in a day in China than he would got in years in Europe. They were witnessing the most livmemloiis movement in human history. There was no knowing whether this ultraconservative people, with all its stolidity, was going lo throw the whole past behind, bul it was on the eve of establish•ing a democratic republic. It" was a highly significant tiling that a Christian (Dr. Sun Yat Sen) was being nair-od as (lie probable first proidont of China. They did not hopo that any of (lie ontovced conversions to Christianity <»»<; '""I occurred in the early days of Europe would ever lake placo in China. 1 lij-y hoped that conversions there would take nliuv n< a result of personal convictions. But (he fact that it. was proposed to make a Christian President of (lira hundred millions of people in Chum represented a great achievement. Xo more would bo heard of (lie travellers' tales which declared that missionaries only got hold of (he weal: and the feeble, who underwent instruction for the sake of what they could gel. There wore grounds for hoping that a majestic nation would rise nut of the present, turmoil and unrest, in China. ITe hoped that his hearers would take an increasing interest in this work, mid in all the work for which the Church Missionary Association stood.