PRIMITIVE METHODISM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 194, 20 September 1909, Page 3

PRIMITIVE METHODISM.

ANNIVERSARY SERVICES.

The anniversary services of the Queen Street Methodist Church were conducted yesterday. The preacher for the morning was the Rev. H. White, who took for his text ' the words " Mine house shall he called a house of prayer for all people"—lsaiah 66, 7. The pulpit in the evening was occupied by the senior minister, the Rev. . J. CSiy, and the text chosen was Ist Timothy I, 15: " Thi» js a laitliful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." The preaeher went on to say that sixty-five years ago this month the late Rev. Robert Ward preached a sermon from the same words on the Huatoki bridge, im the centre of New Plymouth, and that sermon was the introduction of Primitive Me.hodism into New Zealand. The hand of death had teen busy since then, and few, if any, remained who were present at that first service. The settlement was then in its infancy. It was only three years before, on the 30th of March, that the first ship, the "William Bryan," arrived u.me roadstead. The pioneers did not leave their religion behind them when they crossed tie ocean, but many of them here in the new land worshipped the God of their fathers. Mr. Ward gathered a band of loyal men around iiini, who became his most devoted helpers in the work of preaching the gospel in the districts which were opening up around the new settlement. The first message of a pioneer in any ..lavement for the public good \\ws ahvavs a thing of interest. When the Rev. Isaac Marsden, of the. Anglican Church, visited Xew Zealand in the year 1814 he landed in the Bay of Islands. The first Sunday he spent ashore was Christmas Day, ami he preached to the Maoris and the few Europeans who were present from the text, "Behold I bring you glad tidings of great joy." The message was most appropriate. The day was Christ's birth day, and those Maoris were men foi ■whose salvation Christ also came. The message of the Rev. Robert Ward was equally appropriate. Wherever men

■went there was sin and sorrow, and they j Deeded this message of a Saviour. The saying concerned salvation, and it explained that salvation came from outside our race. There had been crises in history -when some man or woman had stepped to the front and changed the course of a nation's life. But they left the humaa heart unchanged, and reactions set in and their work had to be done over again. It was not so that salvation came. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners! The saying was faithful; it had a background of prophecy; it recorded an historic fact; and history confirmed it. Nineteen centuries of experience lay behind it, and it was worthy of acceptation, without reservation, by all men to-day. J Appropriate hymns were sung at both | morning and evening services. The anniversary services will be continued on j Tuesday, when a tea meeting will be I held in tht schoolroom, followed by a j concert in the church.