REV. JAMES FLANAGAN'S MISSION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 85, 30 March 1908, Page 3

REV. JAMES FLANAGAN'S MISSION.

The Theatre Royal was packed last night when the Rev. James Flanagan opened bia missions- On the platform was the united choir, conducted bv Mr, Stephens, Mr. Guiding lieinjt < • There were also gathered on the pintform Reva. S. S. Osborne, T. G. Brooke, K. Guy, and A. J. Reed. After congregational hymns and prayer by the Rev. Flanagan, Mr. T. M. t-tephens contributed a solo. Then the »|Ktial missioner took the meeting in hand, announcing hi« text and explaining it quietly, slowly, plainly; directing it, so to speak, and laying the foundation of the lesson to he

drawn from the words and the circumstances. And as he warmed to his theme the preacher's utterances grew more rapid, yet still plain and without any of that cheap evangelistic exciting hell-pointing display which this lifetime missionary views with disfavor. Quotations from the world of books, stories taken from the volume of his experiences, all went to illuminate the text. It was a masterly sermon,-conveying home truths in a straight-out, unhesitating style, and making an appeal for submission.

Rov. Flanagan based his remarks 01 15 Luke, 10: "But when he came ti Himself." adding four words from verm 20: "He came to His Father." The in terrening words lull tilled up the pictur drawn by this marvcllou- artist. In th New Testament, he slid, there ver three primary and supreme truth: Around these three. planets aroun the sun, all the truth of revelation oi) cled. These three were three diseoi eries, or, keeping more closely to Xc Testament phraseology, they were tiin "finds." The first was for man to fln

for himself; second, for man to find his God; and the third for man to find hie brothers. All else was secondary. Po when this man came to himself he came to his Father. And a <)ueStion waß whether a man could find himself—his true self—without finding his God. Reverse it. Could man find his God with-

out finding himself? They wen' told in St. John that when a Hsherinan named Andrew found Christ the first thing he did was to find his brother. Could a man who had found himself and found his God keep back from finding bin brother! "If you tell me you are a Christian and that you have made an attempt to find your brother, do you know what I should call you? 1 don't want you to think me vulgar, but I should tell you at least that you are a storyteller.'' The man who professed Christianity and did not use that Christianity

for the benefit of his brothtrs was a liar, and the truth was not in him. When » mail found himself lie found his character, his destiny. And wlien a ' mail found his brother lie found hitnseif in the large manifestation of expression,. for God had so built life , that no life was complete in itseif. ,<ome men had | been lost who had never been found, others had been lost anu found: TUmlly, there were some men who were lost and were found, but tliev had 1"-' themselves again; fourthly and he spoke it softly—there were some men who were lost and who might never be found. Some who were found and lost again—were they here? He was looking for them. It was not the dead men outside the church who were the problem of God. It was the dead men in the eburcli. He mentioned several men, well-known in literature, who, whilst living in deceit and behind a mask, yet received the strange warning, "You are dead." He was touching a point, he said, which Xew Zealand churchgoers should think about —the man 'lnside the church, dead, dead, dead! Where wa? their passion for (Sod, their eagerness for service, the love that made them leap to do good, the anxiety to do good to others? In the Old Country they may have known the meaning of the word "glory." Did they know it now? Would that thev could keep the youth fu'

___ passion, the fire and zeal for God? The Minister for Education, Hon. (i. Fowlds, had adjured him to speak out and criticise where he thought this country deserved criticism- And here he had found something to criticise. lie had missed the old enthusiasm and flame and fire that somehow one expected to find in the New Land. lie didn't want disorder and excitement. He ioved calmness, but alongside peace and ea lmness he wanted to keep the old passion for souls. "Always keep the dew fresh upon your heart-/' a missionary once wrote to him. In a country like this, where everyone was anxious to get on, things Divine were liable to be pushed into tht* iackground. Tin* preacher drew a powerful picture of ;n» incident in hi* own career. It was on a winter's Sunday morning, in a town near sheflield. A gentleman was just shaking off the -b> -t from his coat prior to entering the church, when lie saw in the shelter ot a wall on the other side of the street a pitiable object which wan. fortunately, not m common a- in the Old Land. In waa the doubled up. haggard figure of a man. ragged. hugging his b«»dy a* though to retain >ufli'ient warmth to keep hia h«*art bating. Vt*t th'-tv uere still tracer of a fonnrr physical gin;i-

deur. This was the wreck of ammi if good education. The gentleman 'i' •d the road, and found the man bad »■' where to go, no money to buy food *.vit ii. and he had had nothing to eat ■■ ' •' ;>'• "But it wasn't the -torni that puiM ;,ie up," he (aid, ''it was th't.' pointing ro a placard which announced thai tin liev. James Flanagan was to preach til -re that day. The wanderer claimed to j have grown up with the pre'eher. ■•lint ! he took the right way, and I t■ >k the wrong way. H-e what he is now, the preacher. And see me, with bleeding face, and black eye. to show how they punched me last night in the Doncaster fodginghonse."' Invited to go inside the church, he declined, saying. ou don't want such fellows as me in your churches. Look at iny rags. Look at lny face. They wouldn't give me a seat." Persuasion prevailed, and the outcast sat with his newly-found friend In the lattcr's seat. The preacher, cast tug his eye over his congregation, saw this man, bruised, ragged, and wet, and altered his plans. Instead of a nice soft little talk with Christian friends, the usual .Sunday morning discourse, he preached right at that man as he surmised the Master would have preached. And at the conclusion of the sermon the ragged individual staggered out of his seat, and up the aisle. Nobody touched him, for was he uut ragged and dirtvr—and the narrator smiled. In the vestry the stranger threw his arms round the preacher's neck and cried, and a-ked to be guided to a pit wherein to bury his sin. That man '-came to himself.'' Those were the moments, concluded the speaker, when a minister of God was lifted into the seventh heaven of delight. Then the sermon was drawn to a close, and the lesson again appliedAnother hymn was sung, after which the Benediction was pronounced.

To-night's meeting in the Theatre Royal commences at 8 o'clock. Sankev's hymn- will be used. lin Tlmr-day afternoon at -1 o'clock Jim. J. Flanagan will address a children's meeting in tin- Theatre Royal, when hj" wiil depii-r ;«>i- tin- children of New Plymouth tin- manner in vvltir-!= vheir les- fortunate brother- and -i-ter-live in the slum-, of London, the capital j of the Empire.