SANKEY AND MOODY.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume III, Issue 303, 1 September 1875, Page 2

SANKEY AND MOODY.

It is not unlikely that before the termination of the year 1876, New Zealand, as well as Australia, will have been visited by Messrs. Sankey and Moody. At a public meeting, convened for the purpose, the Presbyterians and Wesleyansin Dunedin, have expressed an earnest desire that these world famed evangelists should extend their labors to this Colony, and telegraphed to them to that effect. A favorable reply has, been received, and the revivalists may, therefore, be expected to make their appearance in as many of our larger towns, as time and opportunist may permit, after their sojourn in Australia ; and it is to be hoped that thousands of our people will derive lasting benefits from their visit. Of all the religious awakenings that have taken place in the British Isles, since the Reformation, those produced in connection with the works carried on by these American laymen, are the greatest, the most general, and the least characterised by denominational prejudices. All sections of the Christian Church, and all classes of the community, from royalty downwards, are represented at the immensely large gatherings at which Messrs. Moody and Sankey preach the gospel with such marvellous effect. Sectarianism seeqis to be altogether ignored—the result being so overwhelmingly gratifying as to sink minor differences into utter oblivion. It is, however, somewhat strange that good men should be divided in their opinion of the character of this great work, but such is, unhappily, the case. A minister of great influence in the North of Scotland—Dr. Kennedy—inarecent pamphlet, attacked the whole movement, with great keenness and severity. It seemed to him to have most vital defects, and should not, therefore, have been spoken of so elogistically as it was. Dr. Kennedy, it would appear, had seen but very little of the work, and had taken no active part in it, and his conduct in severely criticising it has been vehemently denounced by Dr. Bonar, of Edinburgh, who, in a reply to Dr. Kennedy’s pamphlet, spoke of the experiences he had witnessed, as being of the most genuine kind, and did not entertain a shadow of doubtastotherealityof agreat work of the Spirit. Mr. Spurgeon also bore similar testimony to the work, and condemned the impropriety of making it a subject of public controversy amongst clerics, in strong terms.— Contributed.