A GENEROUS GIFT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 882, 23 August 1910, Page 2

A GENEROUS GIFT.

BY THE MAYOR AND MAYORESS. At the trustees meeting of the Methodist Church, held last evening, it was decided to hold services at the beach during the summer months. While discussing ways and means, Mr Stiles generously donated the sum of for the purpose of erecting a church to accommodate 80 people. Eulogistic speeches referring to the generous gift were made by those present and the hope expressed that visitors to the seaside may find pleasure and profit from the services In the church. Mr Stiles, in reply, expressed a hope that if any other denomination, applied to hold services in the church, that a willing response to do so would be given by the trustees. Plans of a neat design have been prepared and it is hoped that the church will be ready for worship by the end of September. [Mr Stiles is an office bearer of the local Methodist Church, and a practical sympathiser in the various organisations connected with it. Such generosity towards the expansion of church work in so small a community is indeed refreshing. It is hoped that Mr Stiles’ action will be the means of awakening a similar interest on the part of other well-to-do churchgoers. The church—and by that term we refer to all denominations —does not receive the financial support it should from professing Christians who are able to unloose their purse strings. The “widow’s mite ” is acceptable and not to be despised, but that particular form of generosity should not be adopted by the prosperous. Anyhow, we desire to mark our appreciation of Mr Stiles’ generosity, and also the broad condition that the building may be used tor public worship by other denominations.—Ed. H.]