THE REV. MR DAVIDSON.

Evening Star, Issue 3597, 2 September 1874, Page 3

THE REV. MR DAVIDSON.

To the Editor. Sir, —I had often been almost persuaded to go and hear the late minister of North Taieri preach in dr Copland’s church. At last I complied. Considering the poor exhibition he makes in the Ecclesiastical Courts, [ was not prepared to expect anything above the most ordinary at his hands. I was however, fairly taken by surprise. He is an altogether different man in the pulpit from what he is in the Presbytery or Synod, HL timidity and hesitation completely forsake the preacher, and he stands forth fearless and clothed in the full panoply of the Christian armor. His preaching is manly, earnest, and impressive. It is characterised with good sense, and redolent of Scripture illustrations. In preaching and praying, in doctrinal exposition and devotional exercises, he has few equals, and no superiors in Otago, In style, he resembles Dr Begg more closely than any other man in the Synod His command of Scripture and Church history is very extensive. The worthy minister is certainly a living illustration, in the pulpit, of his own text, to wit “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.” Like the late Dr Muir, of St. Stephen’s Church, Edinburgh, Mr Davidson is a child in the Church courts, and in the pulpit a man of mature understanding and full of the graces of vital j Christianity. It is a burning shame to Otago that such a man should be without a church. He is a verita e soldier of the Cross. His sermons breathe the odor of Evangelical religion. arnesb hunaelf, he brings conviction to the minds of the most thoughtless, worldly, and irreligious.—l am, & c ., T \ r ~’ , J- G. S. Grant. Dunedin, September 1.