THE BAPTIST CHURCH

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 153, 7 October 1910, Page 5

THE BAPTIST CHURCH

ANNUAL CONFERENCE. } By Telegraph.—Press Association. - Dunedin, Last Night. At the Baptist Conference to-day, tt motion was adopted as follows: "That the New Zealand Baptist Conference desires respectfully to remind the Govern* ment of the extreme urgency for anti« gambling legislation this session, in view, of the fact that we have been assured that we have thirty times as jnany race days to our population as England has, and, 50 per cent, more than New. South Wales has; in view also of ther fact that we gamble 100 per cent, more per capita on tlhe totalisator than South Australians; in view also of the national outcry and recent resolutions in Parliament, the Conference believes it will be a real calamity if the session passes without drastic legislation being placed' upon the Statute Book." , The Rev. W. Hay delivered his presidential address to-night, (his subject be« ing "Spiritual Conscience," \vhich ! he interpreted as conscience • dominated by . spiritual idea's. Baptists stood ,firmly on this principle. Mr. Hay also dealt with the reaction of extreme cast iron theolog-, giving birth to a subtle and" mislead < g tendency to go bock to as an academical teacher when, the Human heart sought not a pedagogue gut .a saviour. The thing essential to Chris-,: fcianity was something more than ejthic% and on that ground alone it was- pejjrless. Religious sentiment without a strong commanding spiritual conscience I'niust be utterly ineffective. SentimentfiWitihout religion was humbug. Mr. Haj| also spoke on the claims of Christianity upon pastors and laymen, and the missionary spirit that had welded, impellm and multiplied the Baptist ranks, jj .