DR. HENRY’S DENIAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 909, 25 October 1910, Page 3

DR. HENRY’S DENIAL.

THE WAIHI INCIDENT,

The incident at the close of Dr. Henry’s Wailu mission, in which he was alleged to have accused the men of Waihi with having “less moral courage than heathen Chinamen,” has been widely circulated and much commented on. Under the circumstances, and in view of the approaching visit of the Doctor to this district, it is only fair to publish in full his explanation of the incident, which certainly shows how easily a statement can be distorted by leaving out an innocent-looking paragraph or two. lu speaking to a Wanganui Chronicle reporter Dr. Henry said that the Waihi report was distorted and fundamentally untrue. For example, the statement was made that there were about one hundred confessions of faith during the mission, whereas there were nearly, if not quite, three hundred, “ Then,” said Dr Henry, “I am credited with using the word ‘skunk,’ a word I have never used in the pulpit in my thirty years’ ministry, during which time I have addressed more than twelve thousand separate audiences. What I did say was this : Speaking of the people who were dying in Coward’s Castle, ‘You men don’t have the moral courage of your couvictious, and are afraid to face either the Truth or Jesus Christ. You are skulking behind the Cross like spiritual shirks.” In referring to the matter of moral courage, 1 used an illustration from Dr. Torrey’s ‘ Work in China,’ when, after delivering an address on how to become a child of God, he concluded by saying that every man was either a child of God or a child of the Devil, and that we are not children of the Devil by choosing and confessing Christ. At the close of his message one hundred and fifty Chinamen went into the enquiry-room, and Dr Torrey, through an interpreter, asked them why they had come ; to which they replied, ‘ We have come to show our confession of Christ; that we are children of God and not the children of the Devil.’ Then I said: You men who have heard the Word proclaimed during the mission, but who have refused to )be true, have not as much moral courage as those heathen Chinamen.”