BAPTIST TABERNACLE.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 June 1920, Page 5

BAPTIST TABERNACLE.

REV. A. H. COLLINS COMMENCES MINISTRY. The Rev. A. H. Collins, late of Adelaide, who recently accepted a call to the pastorate of the New Plymouth Baptist Tabernacle, commenced his Ministry on Sunday, when he was very cordially received by the officers, members, and friends of: the congregation. There were good congregations, some extra hymns were sung by the choir, and the cervices -were of a deeply inspirational character.

Mr. Collins preached two impressive sermons, his discourse at the evening service being entitled "The Preacher's Central Theme," based on the words "Christ is all and in all" (Col. 3, 11). These words, he said, although, so familiar, supplied such a concise and complete expression of religious truth as to involve all that was worth preserving; and it was, moreover, an epitome of every evangelical ministry. The preacher therefore asked that his hearers wou]d help him to redeem the text from the category of pulpit platitudes. All humanity was one in Christ, and in Him was found the only brotherhood that would last. The Church was false to its mission that did not supply an example of Christian fraternity and a home for all classes. The only socialism that would be preached from his pulpit was the Christian socialism summed up in the words, ''Christ is all and in all." • ... Any solution of social problems which ignored the ethical teaching of Christ and His spirit was doomed to failure. The root evil of social and national misery was in sin. Mid in Christ was the only hope of remedy for that. The preacher also stressed the importance of Christ being "all and in all," both with regard to religions doctrine and in the matter of personal religion. The thought of Christ being in all tilings and in all men 6Weetened human life and tapped a deep spring of hope for the future of the race.

A public reception will he tendered to the. Rev. A. H. Collins in the Tabernacle on Thursday evening.