THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 181, 10 November 1910, Page 5

THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

ADDRESS BY THE NEW MODERATOR. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, Last Night. The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand was opened to-night in St. Andrew's Hall. The retiring moderator, the Rev. I. Jolly, M.A., pastor of St. Stephen's, conducted the service. After the service, the Assembly

was constituted, and the moderator elected. The Rev. J. IT. Mackenzie, of Nelson, was installed in office.

The new moderator, in his inugural address, dealt at length with the subject of "The ruling elder," being a plea for the better recognition of the position and functions of the ruling elder. The speaker's treatment of his subject consisted of a historical study of the evolution of Presbyterian government by elders, and a dissertation upon the qualifications for and duties of eldership. The subject, he said, merited attention from the fact that last year it had been reported to the Assembly that the numbers of the ruling elders in the Church

had decreased by 08, the principal fallingofi' being in the South. Not a decrease but an increase was much to be desired in the present age. In conclusion, the moderator said the Church had nothing either to learn or to fear from the modern spirit of democracy in its representation and government. Tt already had what every nation aspiring to be free demanded. Progress and change of form were necessary in many directions outside the Church. While it might be expedient, it would never be necessary to change a simple form of worship for one more ornate, but it was neither necessary nor expedient to depart from the constitution of the. Presbyterian Church, built upon the representative principle as embodied in the ruling of the elders and buttressed by the example of the apostles.