RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1746, 10 May 1913, Page 9

RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY.

A GREAT PREACHER. PRAISE FOB A GLASGOW MINISTER. llio undeniable fact that men enjoy being preached at when a great preacner does the preaching was illustrated in a remarkable way at the Free Church Congress in Newcastle Hundreds ot hungry preachers sat for nearly halt-an-hour after the usual time tor going to lunch enthralled by the moving eloquence of a man who preached to them, although ho was oniy supposed to Biving tlicin what tho programmes call an address A Daily Express" correspondent thinks Plilfr '101I 01 n t0 ° tlla t the I'reo Church Council iolt it had made tho disco\eiy ot a land ot Cullinan diamond in tho 1-reo Church reef Before it stood a man ot extraordinary power, whoso face and nguro seemed to belong to tho ago of the great preaching friars. The newpreacher was the Rev J. A. Hutton, a Glasgow Presbyterian. Although ho has been preaching for twenty years, it was ielt that that day he took a new plaeo m tho national list of great preaching '"? n .\ His freshness of style, his simplicity of welt-cliosen words, his opt illustrations, his unexpected transitions from Celtic liveliness to Apostolic fervour, in ado an astonishing impression ou <thoso to whom for forty minutes lie preached. lie took as his theme the statement that the purpose of Christianity is "to encourage men," which, as he said, just means to put a new heart into them. Ho sugpi. t' 11 ' one the things ill ale is tor a man to go back with new courage to things which have mastered him and to master them. He suggested that tho easiest way of getting through a disagreeable task is to face it. "Tho best way of getting through a dull sermon, ho said whimsically, "is to listen I to It. He suggested that-the attitudo of tho world, towards faith has changed in recent years. "Thero used to be something of a suspicion that you were an ass if you believed," he said, "but you are simply not_ in tho crowd to-day unless you believe in tho spiritual basis of life.