THE PULPIT AND THE SOUDAN.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 90, 19 March 1885, Page 3

THE PULPIT AND THE SOUDAN.

In the Pitt-street (Auckland) Wesleyan. Church, ou Sunday morning, the Rev. A. Reid preached a sermon on the subject " Ought young men of Ne^Y Zealand to volunteer for military service m the Soudan ?" The rev. gentleman took ;as the text of his discourse— Revelations IGch. 12v. : "And the sixth angel poured ■out ' his vial upon the great river "Euphrates ; and the water thereof was dried up, .that the way of the Kings iof the East might be prepared." In the ■course^of lengthy remarks, the rev. lecturer said : — " We venture this opinion — which m us is a very strong conviction — that for a New Zealand youth, or a youth of any country,.' to invest his British sympathios.his fair expectations, ' !his health, his intelligence, and it may "be his life and influence — to invest his all m the Soudan campaign would prove the most worthless investment possible m this world of living men. Ido not know a class of characters sufficiently degraded that I would appoint them to occupy the position ot avengers of General Gordoa m the Soudan. With all my admiration, of the spirit which actuates the youth and older men who offer themselves, it> is, our firm conviction that a worse investment of treasure and life, and intelligence, and character, and influence ifc would be impossible to find on this sido of hell, than that which is how proposed This is strong language. We want it to be criticised. We want our young men to look into it." Every man ought to make the best and the most of himself, so that the results of his efforts may be of the greatest advantage to the Church, the State, to his family, and to himself. Every man is bound to do this. To go to the Soudan is to make the least and the worst use that a man can possibly make of himself. This is our conviction, as it is his duty to" make the most and. best of himself m the interest of .truth, goodness, and honor, humanity and Christ." :