MR MATTHEW BURNETT'S MISSION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2335, 1 July 1886, Page 2

MR MATTHEW BURNETT'S MISSION.

Mr Matthew Burnett, who is to strive in Masterton on Saturday next, ip now lecturing in the Hutt to crowded houses and doing good work. . It is impossible withiu the very limited space at our command to give more than a. glirpso of Matthew Burnett and his work. From a largo number of sketches and reports of Mr Burnott's work, published in England and the Australian colonies, we make the following selectionMr Burnett is a native of Cloughton, Scarborough, Yorishire, England, where he - was born in January, 1839. At the age of 14 he entered into commercial persuits, and ere he had attained his 18th year he had become a victim to the terrible', dangerous drinking customs. He signed the pledge in his own strength again and again, andbroke it; but in May, 1857, in the strength of Almighty God, he re-signed it, and from that day to the present, covoring. nearly 29 years, uiidßt s.unshino and storm, he has never- violated his solemn obligation. Simultaneously with the signing of the pledge, . Matthew Burnett experienced a change of heart, A few months after 'his conversion, impelled by the Holy Spirit, he commenced to speak first in the villages and. towns'of Yorkshire, on Temperance and Christianity. Crowds gathered togother, to hear him ; many took the pledge of abstinence, others became Christians. In the year 1861, Mr Burnett abandoned, all commercial pursuits that he might do the work of. an Evangelist. The first scene of his labors was White Haven, in Cumberland, where he'' laboured for sixteen months, gathering' many for,, the Redeemer's crown, and rescuing many of the colliers and iron ore miners from the terrible curse of intemperance aud gambling. In May, 1863, Mr Burnett, at the call of God and duty, embarked for Melbourne,- where he arrived in the month of August. He labored in Victoria as Evangelist and Sooial Reformer for uino years, until his health and voice failed him. Two yoars of comparative rest and quiet in the, Mother Country had the effect of restoring him to complete vigor, both of mind and body.. Hb resumed his muoh-loved work in. Victoria, minaining at his post of duty until the close of 1879. During those.'years Mr Burnett devoted six days out of seven exclusively to Evangelistic work, averaging 500 addresses • each year, reserving his Saturday nights exclusively for Mass meetings, when ho apoko on Temperance. Monday afternoons wore devoted to Mothers' meetings. As the direct result of those Bocial gathering no less than sixty thousand signed the pledge. Ten thousand took the "Red Ribbon Badge," (thon Mr Burnett's colour), 'whilst one thousand separate familios, chiefly in Melbourne and its'suburbs, received "Family cards." One outcome of the Reformer's work in Victoria is tho Ballarat Town VI ission, Collingwood Coffoe Palace, and South Yarra Homo for the Fallen, South Australia was the next scene of Mr Burnett's labors, every part of which lie visited in the prosecution of his twofold mission. During those three years Mr Burnett delivered fully 1500 addresses on Religious and Temperance subjects, and added thirty-three thousand new names to the Temperance pledge, and invested-thirty-five thousand with his Red Ribbon Badge. The Reformer then proceeded to Western Australia the first Evangelist and Temperance advocate who, up to that date had visited the distant Colony, After six months of continuous labor in the principal centres and provincial towns and villages,-- seven thousand five hundred signed the pledge, and ten thousand took the Red Ribbon Badge. In South and West Australia. 12i50 families received family cards, giving in the aggregate a grand total of over one hundred thousand pledges in the Australian Colonies, fifty-five thousand of whom were invested with the Red Ribbon Bad?e whilst 22E0 separate families received family cards.