REV. JAMES FLANAGAN'S MISSION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 87, 1 April 1908, Page 3

REV. JAMES FLANAGAN'S MISSION.

LAST NIGHT'S SERVICE. The Rev. James Flanagan's evangelistic minion was' continued last night, when there was another large gathering in the Theatre Royal. After the singing of hymns, the offering of prayer, and a sacred nolo, "What tlieuS" by Mr. Stephens, the missioner adilresscd the meeting, basing his remarks on Paul's' Epistle to the Hebrews, eh. 3, verse 13, I taking the last part ot the verse: "Hardened liy the deceitfulness of sin.' The preacher announced his intention of speaking especially to those who were not Christians, and he asked them to shake off their unbelief, of which lack of sympathy, pride, and prejudice wero but varying forma. The truth of God, he said, could have no effect upon the heart and mind when his hearers put on this spirit of unbelief. Explaining the text and the reading of it, he referred to the different impressions on the mind created by the different emphasis placed by different speakers upon one set of

words, the different treatment by two musicians of the same piece of music. One man might read a text so that it presented to the hearer just the merest commonplace, and another preacher read the same text and unfold to his audience worlds of beauty and blessing. Tha,t great evangelist Robinson Watson, who thirty years ago was in England what Gipsy Smith was to-day, had one of his greatest gilts and gathered most of his power and success l'a preaching—so far as the human heart was concerned—in

I lie way in which he divided up his text by emphasis. The missioner, returning to his text, said there were three emphatic words, and he wanted them to see the truth lor themselves as he sawit, pointing out that "the truth you discover yourself is infinitely more precious and valuable to you than the truth

which may be discovered to you by the preacher." The world was richer today as the result of nienhaving brought into their actual living the truths emphasised in the Bible, and those abstract principles were th« ruling principles in the world today. The three outstanding words in tiny text were: "Hardened . . . deceit . . . sin." Sin hardened. Some men actually prided themselves on the fact that such meetings as these amused more than interested them; that any preaching had lost its power, and particularly that side of it which showed the penaltiis and consequences of wrongdoing. Did they consider that n sign of manhood ''.— a sign that they had passed out of babyhood and reached mental manhood? it rather proved that the soul had become hardened, and that if they continued to play the game as they were doing the soul would become petrified unlit the spirit of God would play upon the conscience and they would feel no compunction. Moral mortification would set in. One sign of mortification ol I lie body was the loss of pain, lie related an incident of his sick visiting. The patient, a young man of 2.i or 2(> years, expressed his conviction that he was improving because his pain had left him. A few minutes later the physician came, and he announced to the sobbing mother and sisters, "No hope."

Mortilicatiuu had set ill. There had been hope so long a-- the pain lasted; now there was none. There was such a thing as mortification of the soul. There was such a thing as the hardening of the soul by sin. lie instanced the pitiful plight of a physical wreck, a hanger-oit of the liquor liars in one of New Zealand's towns, an M.A. That old sot, with his greasy trousers, his dirty dress, his unwashed chin, had honestly won his degree, and in the prime of life had walked erect through the college hall;. Now, what did ho say* "God help me, Flanagan. (!oil help mc. I wish I were as 1 once was. Hut I can't give it up. 1 haven't the power to break the appetite. I would, but 1 can't." Sin hardened and deceived. Let them look at Oscar Wilde, the dilettante, as the speaker lirst knew him, the dandy, whose every action was a classic pose, who moved amongst scents and cosmetics, to whose eye a base design was repulsive, whose feet dukes and duchesses were almost ready to kiss, who moveu through Society almost ns a god amongst mortals. That man was going to teach a better idea of humanity than -lesus Christ, saying that the aristocrat could do without God. See him later, in the prison celt; or at Claphani Junction, in convict garb, chained to other convict felons, bearing tire broad arrow's stamp of humiliation. What wrote he ill bis cell? This Giaecian poser who would do things that devils would blush at—if devils could blush—wrote: "I put the pearl of my soul into a i-uplnl of wine, ami I ipiall'ed it to the brim.'' And the mail who had thus treated bis God-given soul was -enteuced to two years' hard labor, chained to the poorest scamps of the criminal world. The devil's programme was freedom for man to do as he liked: God's will was that man should do a< he ought. The devil's idea would soon bring hell upon earth. Sin, continue 1 the missioncr, was a direct hit at God, a matter between man and his Maker, and it could not he measured by man's standard. All correct definitions and interpretations came from above, pupils and students taking advice, instruction, and criticism from superior minds. "You cannot hit God a blow, and undertake to say how much yon have Virt Mm."- He hoped that God would lead his hearers to grasp His conception of ■On, and they would give. His words and thought- a place in their hearts.

The mission will be continued this evening at the Theatre Royal at eight o'clock.