A PUBLIC MEETING

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3080, 10 May 1917, Page 7

A PUBLIC MEETING

CHRIST'S MESSAGE OF PJ3A.O2. A public 7neoting'under the auspices of tho Omiroh of .England Men's Society whs Jjeld in t)ie Concert Chamber of tho Town Hall last, evening. The Bishop -.of Wellington presided.. and trherp wns ;i fairly largo ■ attendance. Tho subject of tho meeting was, "Tns Present, Crisis and Christ's Message of Fence." Tho first speaker \v;»a the Rov. 0. ft. Mutter, who alluded first to tho condition of military unpropa redness in which tho present war had found thn British Empire. Tho nation and th« Church, which was the soul of tho nation, had been drifting in ;i stale of carelessness and lethargy. Then the call of war had conic. 'Clio n.il.ioJi had responded on Hie military sidi?, and the Church bad to respond on the spiritual side. The Church had to awaken its enthusiasms nod go forward in glad de'tenninaMon lo ight and conquer in the cause of God. One of the great wsskueeßcs of the Church hnd been x lack of fellowship. The speaker referred in this onnnficuon to dhe decline in {lie number of comniunicants, and urged that Christ inust come , in greater poivor into the heiirta of Church people. The men of othe" faiths woio. uo!. ashamed of i.heir teligion. 'ilioy did not hide it or disguise, it. But tho members of the Church of England did not put forward their religion. Tboy. did not bold it proudly before the world, as they were entitled tfi do. Mr. Mutter made an appeal for 9, T-etnrn to first principles, and for ,tho development of an aotive, nulifcont

Christianity that, conM make itself felt, as a great power in the-world. Churchmen, nnist. be prepared to light, the good fight, and go forward with amended ways, filled with the spirit, of penitence and possessed by boundless hope. The Church was calling for workers and soldiers, and Church people must, say whether or :uoi> t-liat. call was to move them to action. The Bishop of Nelson (Dr. Stuffier) referred to the social difficulties of city life. He protested that the'newspapers did not give sufficient, encouragement, to religious movements. Touching upon industrial troubles, he said that he had used fairly hard words to the men who tried to Meed the nation, and so bleed the men who were bleeding for them at tho front. But he realisedthat the labour movement was not a question'of wages and not a question of conditions. It was an outcome of tho history of the eighteenth century. It was a demand for an entirely new social condition of things, and it ought to', be. faced in the light of that fnot. Tho.-sooner Churchmen adjusted themselves to tho new conditions! the better it would be for the Church. Bishop Sadlier proceeded to urge that the Church must become closer and more J compact. Ib must be a -body of spiritual j mind. "We shall never be strong as a i Church until wo are smaller in number," -he said. The census figures alleged that, a great mass of people belonged to the Church of England. The majority of those people appeared I in actual .fact to belong to no Church I until they were dead, when their relai tives asked that a Church burial ser- | vice could he. read over them. The ! Church of England was not benefited I or helped by mere "census members." He would like to see a clear-cut line between the Christians and the nonChristians. He would like to s«e the Church mndo' a compact, organised body, containing only real members. When that condition was realised, the 'Church could establish its. own schools for its own children. Hβ looked forward to tho time when ho could place a Church school in every parish in his diocese. He did not feel that the war had produced ft spiritual awakemnc in New Zealand. The Dominion had scarcely felt the war. Ho did not believe that the war was going to erd soon. The nation had still to puss through very deep waters. It would get peace when God knew that it was worthy. Dr. Marshall (principal of the Wanganui College) also spoke. He snid that millions of men were fighting desperately on the bloodiest battlefields the world had ever seen. They were fighting for peaco. But how could peace be produced by such means. The fact was that peace could never come about except by tho acceptance of the teachings, of Christ. He dismissed tho tendencies of German thought, and said ib was the. duty of true. Christians to repel the doctrines of force and domination which Germany had adnnted. The proceedings closed with the National Anthem.