The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1887. INTENDED RESIGNATION OF THE PRIMATE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1693, 22 October 1887, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1887. INTENDED RESIGNATION OF THE PRIMATE.

The Primate's announcement of his intended resignation will be leceived by all classes of the community with mingled feelings of regret and satisfaction — regret, that the Church is about to lose the active services of such a distinguished prelate, and satisfaction, that, m the evening of his days, the Primate is about to enter upon a season of well-earned rest and repose from active duty. The announcement was not, we believe, wholly unexpected. We Bre assured on the best authority " The years of man are three score and ten, and though men be so strong ihat they come to four score years, yet is their strength then, but labour and sorrow, so soon passeth it away and they are gone." The Primate has already passed the allotted span, with the supplemental decade added, and has advanced half through a second supplemental decade, so that m the natural course of events the evening of his days cannot be far remote. With what pleasurable feelings the venerable Primate will be able to look back, through a long vista of years, upon an honorable and well spent life, didicated to his Master's service ? Our contemporary, the " Lytteiton Times," whose New Zealand experiences stretches back years beyond our own, pays the following graceful tribute to the Primate's career : — " When he landed on these shores m the infant days of the settlement, he brought with him a simple mind, a vast I devotion to duty, and a courageous, j ever present, recognition of the respon sibility of his high office. From that day to this he has always been m the front at the call of duty. When there were pioneers he was amongst them, sharing their hardships, ministering to them, keeping before them the beauty of the spiritual life; when cities grew up m the young land, he was at his post, organising, watching over the development of his flock, securing the dignity of worship. The farmer of the plains has the same good word for him as the dweller m the towns. The miner of the west, like the bushman, never fails to speak of him with reverent admiration. We all saw him the other day hale and hearty m th? carriage, out to do honor to the Queen's Jubilee, and j we all heard the shouts that greeted him from every point occupied by the densest and largest crowd that Christchurch has ever assembled. Not one of us but Knows the reason for that

universal respect and affection. How many has he baptised, how many has be married, and how many even of his old companions of his early days he has buried ! While they followed their busy careers, rising many of them to fame and attaining to fortune, falling others of them into adversity, the Primate kept on his simple way of duty, exact m all his undertakings, punctual, unflinching, caring for neither weather nor obstacles. And, at last, when they were laid to their rest, be was at their side, pronouncing solemn words at their graves, with that earnest voice of his thrilling the hearts ( of ihe sorrowing hearers. As he did his work m the days oi his strength, so he does it now m the days of his splendid old age — ministering at the altar, preaching the gospel, visiting the sick, attending ta the many duties of his high station — the light of Divine Charity m all his actions." Few of our Anglican prelates can show such a long, honorable and unblemished tenure oi high episcopal positions, and we are quite sure that none of our readers will begrudge the Primtae that rest and cessation from toil, upon which he is, we trust, about to enter, but that all will unite with us m wishing that 11 good Bishop Harper " may long live to eojoy his otium cum—caritate, — a hope, which his exceptionally vigorous constitution does not forbid us to entertain, despite his very advanced years.