METHODISM.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 June 1921, Page 12

METHODISM.

THE CENTENARY MOVEMENT. ITS CALL AND CLAIM. (By Rev. W. J. Elliott, New Plymouth.) The Methodist Church in New Zealand will celebrate next year the first century of its rise and progress in this country, and the preparatory work for thie notable event has already begun. Although it is the latest born among the leading denominations, it enjoys the unique distinction of being the largest Protestant organisation in the world to-day. During the period of two hundred odd years, its enduring vitality and expanding growth have been prominent features of the world's general progress. It wan conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Wesley family, and crowned by the benediction of the Triune God. Its holiest seal is found in hearts touched by a live coal from the Divine altar, and its highest credential is its redeeming, and saving operation. Its ministers have been ordained upon tangible proofs of ‘•gifts, graces and fruits,” and its laymen appointed to sacred office and spiritual function under similar unction and grace. The preachers are of various types, and the polity of the Church truly catholic, and well adapted to the great end in view. Indeed, it is no empty boast that no denomination has a machinery more perfectly constructed for practical work, in the expression of life, energy and glow. Its capacity for Divine unction is great, and therefore its claim to be in the Apostolic succession cannot lightly be set aside for lack of jurisdiction. Its present need is an inflow of heavenly inspiration. NO MEAN AND TRIVIAL THING. And yet it may be claimed that Methodism is no mean and trivial thing. Its scale and stateliness are not easily realised, nor the exhaustless energy and growth which beat in its life. When we attempt to take an intelligent view of its extent in Great Britain, Canada, the United States, and Australia, we find it has fifty thousand ministers in its pulpits, and over thirty-five million hearers in Its pews. The lay preachers number 110,000, the class leaders 122,000, and the Sunday schoo’l workers at least 10,000. Methodism throughout the world to-day lias 100,000 churches, and teavhes in its Sunday schools every week some nine million children. It has been said that money is a crude test by which to measure spiritual facte, but it ought to impress a practical age to remember that in the year 1901 the Methodist Church in Great Britain raised a thanksgiving fund of one million in money, and at the same time the Methodist Church of the United States raised the magnificent sum of four million pounds. This was a church record, for it constituted the largest single sum raided by a single chttreh in a single effort in Christian history. SPIRITUAL POWER WANTED. The mental, monetary, and moral equipment of this Church is great, undeniably great, but the pressing want is spiritual power. She is indebted to many sourced for her present status and influence, and other denominations are under heavy obligation to Methodism for the inspiring power of its hymnology and lay agency. Many of the beautiful hymns composed by Wesley are the common heritage of the universal church, such as “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing,” •’Christ the Lord is Risen to-day,” “JesU, Lover of My Soul.” "Ggwtle Jesus- Meek and Mild,” and others. The Methodist Church enjoys the honor of having produced the two noblest hymns in the language on the birth and resurrection of the Son of God. Some of the most expert sermonisers and theologians in Christendom have been in this church, and from this standpoint also she has a strong claim upon the gracious regard and generous support of other bodies. In many parts of England, local preachers prepared the way for Wesley and his ministers. They broke up the hard soil, planted the first gospel seed, and reaped the first fruit before Wesley came. An Irish layman, aroused to a sense of duty by a pious woman, preached the first Methodist sermon and organised the first society in America. Local preachers, marching with the tide of emigration, carried the good news from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The result is that to-day the Methodist Church in America is second to none in power and spiritual triumphs.

THE LOCAL PREACHER. The local preacher has intensified the vitality and catholicity of Methodism, and made every other church her debtor. Some of the greatest non-con-formist preachers, as well as clergymen of the Anglican Church, have frankly acknowledged their obligations to cultured and unlettered laymen. Oftentimes the pulpits of Presbyterian, Congregational, and Baptist Churches are filled by local preachers, and it tends to preserve a spirit of concord and comradeship. By this means, also, other denominations have been encouraged to make larger use of lay agency in |he preaching of the evangel. But onj? of the main eharacteristics of the Methodist Church is her missionary zeal and propaganda. Almost as soon as the little band of followers heard John Wesley say “The world is my parish,” many of them left their country, their kindred, and every earthly tie that bound their hearts at the call of God and duty. . The Imperial call wooed them to America, to India, to China, to South Africa, to. Australia, to New Zealand, and to the lone isles of the sea. Hence, Methodism has been a salutary and saving force in this country for well nigh one hundred years. In fact. Wesley founded the first missionary society and quickened the whole universal church to renewed and richer service for the race at large, for he was a marvellous incarnation of evangelistic zeal and propagandism. Augustine Birrell says: “No man ever did such a life’s work for England,” and his wonderful life presents us with, as a great writer has well put it. “the experience of one who was never paralysed by sorrow, never chilled by doubt, never despairing because of man’s betrayal, carrying through all toil and battle an unequalled and translucent flame of love.” The church of such a man, such a character, and of such a creed and polity is amply justified in doing its uttermost to worthily celebrate one hundred years of service for native and British-born in such a land as New Zealand. A century of prayer and preaching, of falling and rising, of sinning and saving! Yes, the trials, toils, and triumphs of a limited section of the church militant, even in a small area such as this district represents, supply an indubitable reason for the grateful recognition of the hand of God. "

METHODISM IN NEW ZEALAND. Methodism was introduced into New Zealand by the Rev. Samuel Leigh in the year 1822, the memorable scene being Whangaroa, north of Auckland. During the next decade the British Conference sent out the Revs. Nathaniel Turner, John Hobbs, John White, and the Rev. John Whiteley. They labored chiefly in the Auckland province, but in the year 1838 the Revs. Samuel Ironside and John Aldred were put down as missionaries for Taranaki, and in the following year the Rev. W. J. Watkin. But the first minister was the Rev. C. Creed, and the first immigrant vessel, the William Bryan, arrived on 31, 1841. Among its passengers was Henry Gilbert, and very soon Mr. Creed requested him to conduct Divine service. This he did, and as the Rev. Robert Ward was early on the scene, Mr. Gilbert became one of the helpers. The first church of the Taranaki area, and under Methodist auspices, was erected in New Plymouth, and constructed of raupo, but in a brief space of time a stone building was purchased from the 'Rev. Mr. Croube, a Congregational minister, and it served a useful purpose for several years. * IN TARANAKI. A great and gracious work Was accomplished among Natives and Europeans by Revs. Creed, Ward, Turton, Buttle, Ironside, Fletcher, Cannoli, and others, but a chief place is assigned to t'he Rev. John Whiteley, Native missionary. He was zealbus, heroic, and vigilant to a high degree, and was finally murdered in a raid by the very Natives for whose sake he had made superb sacrifices. .When the Whiteley. Memorial Church of New Plymouth was opened on December 15, 1898, the following seemly resolution was passed at a public meeting in the evening:—“That this meeting heartily approves of the action taken by the trustees in connecting the handsome church opened to-day with the revered name of Whiteley, the Rev. John Whiteley, by his life and death, having bequeathed to the colony a name worthy of perpetual remembrance.” The first quarterly meeting of Taranaki wad held in the year 1857, and many of the laymen were of a superior type, and proved themselves excellent citizens. Thereafter the church gradually widened out from these historic associations over the whole district, and the first services in and around Wanganui were conducted by the Revs. Hobbs, Stennard, Skevington, Kirk and Hammond. The cause in Wanganui and its more distant environs made good progress, and after the appointment of . the Rev. A. P_. Fitchett, his fervent and cultured presentation of the evangel attracted large congregations. The first advances and overtures in the Hawera part of the district were made by the Wanganui ministers, and circuit responsibilities assumed a definite form Under the administration of the Rev. R. 8. Bunn in the year 1887, though a church had been opened some dozen vears earlier. The spiritual fervor of New Plymouth overflowed to W’aitara, and about the year 1872, and then in the year 1875,.churches were opened there and at Inglewood. The church extended more and more, and soon Stratford, Marton, Opunake, and the entire area known now as the Tara-naki-Wanganui district was brought under the benign influence of Methodism. A SPLENDID RECORD. The good work has been going on for some eighty odd years, and the progress has been such that the president pf the New’ Zealand Methodist Conference (the Rev. W’. Grigg, of Wanganui), is. the chairman of this district. Within his district we now have throughout Taranaki one hundred and two places of worship, twenty parsonages, twenty-four ministers and home missionaries, two thousand eight hundred members, fortyseven Sunday schools, two hundred and fifty-three teachers, two thousand five hundred odd scholars, and about seven thousand attendants on public worship. M hen we think of the many privations and difficulties the early pioneers and preachers had to cope with, the record attained is a source of very pardonable jubilation. M e have a goodly heritage, rich in sacred memories and sanctified endeavor, and while we believe the best things are still before us, we can rejuvenate. ourselves by this reference to the glorious past. „To this end the supreme court of the church invites us to celebrate our first century by raising a sum of forty-five thousand pounds as a thanksoffering to God, and for church extension purposes. It will be applied in an equitable manner to the supernumerary ministers’ fund, the erection of two new colleges, the church building and loan fund, home missionaries’ retiring fund, deaconess’ work, Mapri girhs’ college, foreign mission fund, and the local preachers’association. Every form and phase of the great work embraced within the activity of t'he church will be greatly inspired and enriched if we reach the point we are aiming at. The objects for which we are to pour out a sacrificial oblation are worthy of our sublimed effort, and the price of success is fervent prayer, diligent labor, and liberal giving. There is no other way. Nothing less than the full measure of ability is the full meu-. sure of Christian obligation, and power to its last particle is our duty. If the foreground of our vision be filled with high and worthy motive and purpose, then the fountains of beneficence will be opened and precious gifts will flow into the storehouse. THE TRUE MEANING OF LIFE. It is true the world of to-day is stimulated, as no other ago has been, by manifold interests that both attract and distract it. New points of view, scientific, historical and practical, are being presented to its imagination in a succession of bewildering swiftness, and we seem to live in a chaos of dissolving views. Too often the proportion of things is lost; the true meaning of life is obscured. We must learn to discriminate, and to put first things first. Let us do the duty nearest to us. It is a time of committees and conventions, of conferences and councils, and no doubt some good comes of these. But much physical and spiritual impulse will peter out at such. The people who achieve the most satisfactory results are the men who concentrate themselves adhesively on their own field of work. There is, of course, a place for committees, but we must beware lest we give too much time to talk as to how work should be done. It is all summed up in praying earnestly, working diligently, and giving liberally. This will crown our century effort with forty thousand gems of gold. If the glory of God. the interest of Christ, and the best weal of our fellow-men will not put intensity and passion into our prayer, I do not know what will have this effect. Divine Revelation declares it will be in answer to prayer that the church will increase. LABOR DILIGENTLY. “Ye that make mention of the Lord keep not silence, and give Him no rest till He establish and till He make Jerusalem a JjralsjHn the earth.” But we must labor

diligently. As it is a denial of God to labor without praying, so it is a temptiiig of God to pray without using the means naturally fitted to effect His purpose. We have every motive to animate us, and encourage us in the big task before us. and to prompt the most grateful expressions of liberality. Think for a moment of the resources at our cominand. In territorial extent, in variety of climate, in diversity, beauty and sublimity of scenery, our country presents an ideal sphere, Within the confines of this lovely isle are all the resources of soil, forest and mine, of land and water, of mountain and plain, that are the essential conditions of life and prosperity. Our form of civil government secures to every citizen the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and he is just as free to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience as the lark that carols , its morning -praises to its Maker. Our educational facilities are such as make it possible for the poorest man’s poorest child to receive a sound 1 education. WHAT THE CHURCH IS IN NEED OF. The gold and the silver, and the “cattle upon a thousand hills,” the sheep in the pastures, the earth and all we. see around us, are a part of the church, and our duty is to dedicate all to the glory of the infinite Proprietor. The church is in dire need of soinething more, and .it is • not so much our weal i, our learning, our eloquence, our patronage. It is for a double portion of the spirit of her ascended Lord she cries aloud. This is the pearl of greatest price, and we must Seek it to inspire men and means and to help us to use our resources to the full. Nothing is more desirable than money, but nothing is mure essential than the rejuvenescence of the early Methodist spirit, and a revival of the sanctified passion of its prayers and hymns. They are old, but we should ihse old means if they are good, new means if they are better, and every means wholesome and adapted to the supreme end in - view. Let us try and get the old spirit and note of the early pioneers of this country into our ministry and emulate their fervent piety, fine generosity, and fullness of spiritual life and devotion. The Church is rich in intellectual, social, and ual possibilities, and includes U body of the most generous, noble and devout laymen in the land. She is strong in the living and strong in the memories of her people who have died in the Everlasting Anns. The judgment of God and x>f meu will most righteously condemn us as recreant and insensitive if we fail to rise to the standard of faith and devotion, of sacrifice and generosity, the occasion demands from u«s. If, on the contrary, we are true and loyal to her floctrineS, maintain her traditions aright, Mud discharge our obligations in the strength of noble resolution, then the rising generation will inherit a Methodism which shall renew its strength, mount up with i wings as eagles, run and not be weary, and walk and not faint. ■ '