LABOURERS WITH GOD

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 887, 3 February 1930, Page 14

LABOURERS WITH GOD

METHODIST OFFICERS HOLD REDEDICATION NEED FOR CO-OPERATION There was a large attendance of officers for a rededication service in Pitt Street Methodist Church yesterday morning. Taking his text from Cor. ix., 3, “We are labourers together with God.” the Rev. W. Walker made an earnest appeal for the co-opera-tion of every department of the church. He instanced St. Paul, the outstanding evangelist of his day, an intellectual giant who was prepared to take the humblest position in the Kingdom of God, and who laboured incessantly to keep the Church free from all dissension—a united body. The speaker emphasised that all must work. It was a mistake to think of God as sitting on a throne, serene in His majesty. “Think of Him as busy in His universe, working to uplift the human race,” advised the preacher. “God is a worker.”

Professor Drummond used to say: “A religion of effortless adoration might be suitable for angels, but not for men.” The great privilege of the Christian life was that men were coworkers with God, continued Mr. Walker. 'We were not meant to be isolated units, but a co-ordinated body, all working for the common end. We must cultivate the habit of working together, irrespective of class or creed, subordinating our individual differences to the common cause, which is Christ’s cause. The motive which impels us to go forward is that it is for Christ’s sake.” The speaker closed his address with the story of a doctor who was moved to give his whole life to the cause of humanity after witnessing successive, waves of New Zealand troops annihilated iu a fruitless attack on the heights of Gallipoli. The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper was administered at the close of the service, more than 100 participating.