Untitled

Hawke's Bay Weekly Times, Volume 2, Issue 56, 27 January 1868, Page 21

Prosy Sermons.— Various reasons are given why men do not go to church. The fact is they 1 are not fed when they do go. Human, nature is true to itself, and men vrill not go where] they jae /not fed. If there was a dfecriminatjganreacher in the pulpit, ]and he sent menjlway nrith better judgment, and with beifte'r morar convictions, and with better balanced states of hiind ; if he sent them away feeling, that irab sermon went home 'withthemr and that they needed it, the church would be a plaee to which people would resort far inore than they now do. And never was there a time when men wanted-religious truth as much as now. Never was a time when so many were hungry, for knowledge of things that pertain to manhood here and hereafter aB at this very day. And when they go to church, and get nothing but cut straw, and straw raised five hundred years ago at that, and will not come again, I honor them. I lay this law as .much to myself as to my brethren. I never scolded you for not coming to church, and I never will. Ido not mean here, for you almost always fill this house; but if my.prayer-meetings and lectures are not well attended, it is my fault and not yours. I know it. Ido not believe, as long as human nature remains true to what it is, that the herds will refuse to come to the’rsick when there is juicy fodder there;. and if they do not come it is because there is. nothing,to eat. Therefore, when our evening meetings have fallen off, I have, always said to myselfj “Yob are falling Off] 1 and not* the people.” Even when I have not remedied the evil I have knoWn thie cause of it all the'time. And, on the" other hand,' the momont my own spul Vas full, and my sympathies flowed out/ in ; overwhelming tides towards my fellow;men, I have noticed that my meet-' ings have gone up. If a man sleeps under my preaching I do mot send a boy to wake him up ; but I feel that a /boy had. better come and wake me up./ lam not speaking to watcbers of the sick, nor to. seamen who have just J landed, bbt of those “ pillars of the Church of God ” that make .sleeping a business !—Rev. H. W. Beecher.

The Latb Massacre at New Caledonia. —By the arrival of the schooner Industry yesterday from Noumea, we.learn that about 25 of the, natives who took part in the .murder of severahsettlers. of Phoebe; during the , mpnth ;of November last, had been taken prisoners, and were undergoing their,.triaL One r: of the principal witnesses, who, had tuineoi. Queen’s evidence,, was very] sick, and the-trial, had therefore been postponed for- a few days, -.About a dozen of the .natives, however, had been sentenced to aeath,by/guillotine,,and it .was expected the. remainder would Abare ; the same fatei *T^ .Zealand Herald,l3th Jan. ?,/ ■ ,

/We learn ;,that /Mr District Engineer at the Grey /River, has, had a very narrow. escape' while crossingithe Waiinea Creek; on hbrseback ; the. horae'-iTolledM over/and/Mr-Roobfort was came'd/out;.t6wards;:the-sur£.;/:being. a' good;! swimmer,she managed to,- reach/the tail,: -of; • thevebpit: a; few t feet from/the later and: he would have,bCeb/irfetrievablyJost in?the bui£— Grey,River- Argtw.:: ; T / y.C/'.V I iTiwas ran town: Greek;/on/Sundayi/whilstKAttempting/to pjreyrat-theirpwater/^ away bythedlood.—Grey rßlver.Arguß,7th Jpni i.