MR VARLEY AT ST. STEPHEN’S.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 465, 23 April 1890, Page 5

MR VARLEY AT ST. STEPHEN’S.

NOVEL-READING DENOUNCED. Auckland, April 21, On Sunday morning Mr Varley preached to a crowded congregation at St. Stephen’s Presbyterian Church, Ponsonby, from the text, Galations 4bh chapter, 19bh verse, “ My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.” Mr Varley explained the meaning of this passage, and spoke in eloquent language of thab great Christian model and author of the quotation, the Apostle Paul. In the course of his remarks Mr Varley laid great stress on several points, notably the necessity for doctrine, and the absurdity of certain forma of High Churchism ; that the Christ alluded to in the text was the risen Christ; that the peace of God is not a feeling in the breast, bub a condition of friendship and amity, in which the work of Christ is brought forward, thab believes the Gospel of Christ ; that man’s atonement by himself is impossible, but that he may receive atonement, while if he reject the Lord Jesus Christ he is undone for ever, and thab there is a very marked distinction between eternal life and immortality. Mr Varley said, en jjcissant, that he had nob a high opinion of either the young men or the young women of the present day. The young ladies, he said, wanted a good deal more grit, and more of thab character that belonged to the women of God of old. What they bad got to a large extent was a very enervated kind of life, and their yellow-backed novels were a disgrace to the intelligence of the population. He admitted a distinction between novels, but as for certain women of mark who had written that which tended to degrade the taste and intelligence of the sex, it seemed to him thab six months’ imprisonment with hard labour was a punishment fib for the mischief they did. These wretched novels were bearing fruib in the lives of young people just coming to manhood, and it behoved those who spent their time in this way to beware of the results. At the conclusion of the sermon a collection was taken up, the surplus over the ordinary average collection being given towards the furtherance of Mr Varley’s mission.