SPIRITUAL LABOURERS.
Our Maori friends will remember that when the Redeemer came to the world as a "preacher of righteousness" his soul yearned over the multitudes who were as sheep without a Shepherd, and he said to his disciples, "The harvest truly is plentious, but the labourers are few." How widely different is the present aspect of Christianity ? Hundreds and thousands of labourers are traversing the globe with the everlasting gospel in their hands, and even, in these ends of the earth, the messengers of truth may be counted by tens, so that it can be said of the New Zealanders' "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light -, they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death upon them hath the light shined." In our own city and its immediate neighbourhood, there are no fewer than seven denominations and more than ten places of worship. We adverted to this subject in a former number of this journal but since that time, owing to arrivals and local arrangements, mauy more labourers have entered the vineyard of the Lord. We have no access to the statistics of the various denominations, indeed, we believe that only one of these religious bodies, ' the Wesleyans, publish the names of the persons CDgagcd m the ministration
of holy things, and by reference to their Plan we fin I twenty three preachers enumerated. We arc glad to recognize amonsr these gentlemen, several who are acquainted with the maori tongue, and it is only natural to suppose that the moral tone of the Maori inhabitants of the town will be raised by their exertions. That there is room for improvement, in this respect, no one, we presume, will deny ; and we may be permitted to say to our native readers, that their personal accountability to the Great Judge, is not affected by the fewness or otherwise of the labourers whose delightful business it is, to expound the Oracles of truth, for it is written, —"He that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes."
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Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume I, Issue 7, 1 September 1855, Page 24
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348SPIRITUAL LABOURERS. Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume I, Issue 7, 1 September 1855, Page 24
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