WORLD MISSIONERS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 20 July 1929, Page 2

WORLD MISSIONERS

JERUSALEM CONFERENCE

A CHEAT CHRISTIAN EFFORT ADDRESS BY NEW ZEALAND DELEGATE There was a good attendance at tho Methodist Sunday School Hall when the Rev. David (.'aider, Dominion Secretary for the British and Foreign Bible Society, gave a stirring address on tho groat ."•Jerusalem Conference of 1928. at which lie was the New Zealand delegate. Mr (.'alder explained that the meeting of Hit! International Missionary Council, held on the Mount of Olives, was possibly the greatest event in tbe history of modern Christian missions. The meeting had its best parallel in the. Apostqlic Conference on missionary problems held in the year A.D. 50, and related in the Mtl( chapter of the Book of tlie. Acts of tile Apostles. Modern missions had grown since the time of Carey, Livingstone, Molfat and Hudson Taylor to he great movements, and primarily among these had been til® student 'Christian, movement, which followed the dictum of Dr. VVhately, "If uur religion is not true we ought to change it; if it- is true we are hound to propagate what we believe to he the truth.” WORLD EVAXGRUSTIC SCHEME N o w had come the day of responding movements from the mission fields, for the new native churches were rising in their strength and asking to he recognised as of equal worth with those of tile older Christian lands. The meeting m Jerusalem was the church s answer to them, and was meant to give a new and clarion call to the older churches to advance in their splendid efforts for world evangelism. The meetings of the council were held in the Sanatarium, on the Mount of Olives. There were present such world leaders as l)rs. Mott Speer, Eargon, Stanley .Jones, Zwemer, Ritson, and Bishop Temple, and the following leaders from the native churches: Bishop Howells, Dr. Datta, Mr K. T. Haul, Professor Braga, of Brazil, and Bishop llzaki, of Japaiia. All could speak English except two, continued Mr Calder.° One was a German, and the oilier 'an African, who was a tall, dark-skinned handsome man. He spoke in his own language, and had to be interpreted. Tlie women were few and they talked a good deal, but they were listened to with the keenest interest. The subjects discussed included : ‘ I lie Economic Burden on Depressed Nations by the Hand of Western Industrialism”; “War”; “The Protection of Missionaries” ; *“The Christian Message of 'Joday”; "The Status of the Native Churches”; “Rural Problems”; and “Home Base Conditions.” “THE CHRISTIAN MOTIVE” Of these and other questions, Mr Calder added, the central theme was “The Message of To-day,” and a powerful statement on the subject was made by Bishop Temple. Its substance was a new affirmation of the old Gospel. No movement at the council meetings was so thrilling as when that Easter gathering of 240 representatives of 50 nations Ajid of every Protestant missionary cause and movement unanimously received tinmessage and made it its own. They had come together to lie friends, hut not at the price of truth or conviction. It. was to he the old Gospel, with no apology for it, but rather with a new confidence in its victorious power for a world appallingly in need of it. “Uur meiftage is Jesus Christ,'’ Bishop Temple declared. “He is tlie revelation of what God is and of what man through Him may become. We believe in a Christ-like world. We know nothing better, we can he content with nothing less. We do not go to the nations called non-Christian because they are the worst of the world; we go because they are part of the world and share with us the same human need. Our fathers were impressed with the horror that men should die without Christ; we share that horror; we are impressed also with the horror that men should live without Christ. Herein lies the Christian motive; we cannot live without Christ, and we cannot bear to think of men living without Him. W e cannot he idle while the yearning of His heart for His brethren is unsatisfied.” FIGHTING SECULARISM “The results of the council meeting,” added Mr Calder,; “will also be seen in new methods of education, and of approach to native peoples. The native churches will be recognised as having ‘come of age.’ They will be helped with prayer, advice, money, and especially by ever-increasing supplies of the Scriptures in the vernacular. In return they will bring to the older churches a new and vital experience of Christ and may even contribute to the coining day* the men who will be its leaders in the expression of Christian truth. We want a glad confidence in victory. We are not lighting tho old faiths, but tlie lack of faith which is secularism ; we have and must produce a new massing of tho evidence that Christ lias been doing and is doing tremendous tilings in I hese days; wo must bring evidence ol a new readiness to meet changing conditions; and above all tilings we must hasten our work of producing the Bibb 1 in every form of human speech and language.” A hearty vote of thanks was accorded the speaker at the conclusion of his address.