OPENING OF ST. MATTHEW'S CHURCH.
The ceremony of formally opening St Matthew's l< piscopal Church, Stafford street) was gone through this morning, the Right Rev. Bishop Nevill, Archdeacon Edwards and the Revs. HI G. Penny, R. L. Stanford’, Beeson, and Dasent being present and assisting. Mr Biohardson presided at the or^ n . T he building was richly decorated with flowers, and presented a very handsome appearance. The attendance was not large, there not being more than a hundred people present altogether. The organist played the “ Kyrie Eleison ” from Mozart’s Twelfth Mass, after which the 164 th hymn was sang—" Lord, I have loved the habitation of Thy house, and the place where Thine honor dwelleth.” Archdeacon hdwards then read prayers and the Commandments ; the Key.' Mr Stanford the epistle (Romans xiii. 8) ; the Rev. Mr Dasent the go pel (Matthews xxi. 1) • and the Kev. Mr Penny the Creed. The lastnamed gentleman alsp gave notice that divine service would be conducted in tbp chur.h on Sunday next, morning and evening. Hymn 34 was sung. Bishop Nevill then preached a sermon from the following text:—"desas went pp into the temple of God and cast oUt all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and the seats of them that sold doves, and said unto them ‘ It is written, My house shall be called the bouse of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves.’”—(Matthew 1" and 13). H:s Lordship remarked that this chapter formed the gospel appainted to be read on the first ."uuday ip Advent, and said that no doubt it had been chosen because the incident related ocouired on two different occasions—at the commencenieut and at the close of Christ’s earthly ministry. It was a typical action, symbolismg lus mission to the world, viz, to cleanse and purify the temple of God in the hearts of men. Another thing set forth clearly was bow the power of divinity of Christ shone through his humanity. Though then a " meek and lowly ’ one, yet the refulgence of that divinity was so impressive that it was felt by all the bystanders, who could not retrain from crying, ‘Hosannah! Hbsanpah
Blessed is He that comes iu the name of the Lord;’ while single-handed He drove out those who had polluted the temple of God. This showed that though Christ c vme then to the earth in great humility, He will next come in glory and power and with an aven -ing scourge. The preacher thought this subject applied to the opening that dav of a new temple or house of prayer, as they would learn thereby what Christ would have His house be. Satan—the prince of this world, the usurper -hid. as described in that chapter, assaulted the city of the Lord. He had gone into its holy place and claimed it for his own. That crafty one knew that he must not say or do anything against the worship of God, fso he took possession of the temple by causing the introduction of legitimate traffic in an improper place. Tt was necessary for the purposes of sacrifice that there should be sellers of oxen and doves, and also money changer- 1 , in the vicinity of the building, and this fact appeared as a justification of the juxtaposition of these to God’s house; but there was no necessity for such business being carried on inside the temple, bow this had an application to that day’s ceremony, though many might say—“ Such things will not be seen here.” Let them look beneath the surface and see if there was no danger of worldly business coming into contact with the worship of God. Were they not taught to look on the principle circulated by the narrative as showing the purpose and object of God’s house? Was it not built that they might have intercourse ® prayer, thanksgiving, and participating in the sacrament ? They would sin against Him, as those others did, if they allowed their worldly thoughts and affairs to come between them and the worship of G'd. His Lordship then went on to say that he would like to see the church attended on more than one day out of the seven. They hung upon God day by day. and depended upon Him day by day, yet only once out of the seven did they go and acknowledge that dependence, Couventionalitv had set apart but one day, bub he would like to see service held every day in the week. To those who bad exerted themselves in getting the building erected, he held the Church of the Province owed a debt of gratitude, for the very stones cried out against the infidelity of the present day. and this additional place for the worship of God was a protest against the want of faith. He was glad of the completion of the most important work undertaken since his coming amongst them, and hoped the time would soon he when the sittings in the building would be entirely free from end to end and open to all people for the service of God. They must keep that object before their minds, as those who could not afford to pay for seats were practically thrust out from God’s house, and with God there is no respect of persons They might say it would be impossible to support the Church without the sittings being paid for, hut he could assure them such could he done if they strove earnestly for it. The offertories should be the sole m j ans of raising funds for the church ; not only for cleansing and lighting it, bu also for paying the minis ter’s stipend. They had no cause to hesitate, but should use every effort to at ! ain that position a d clear off the encumbrance existing on the building. They had a great and heavy responsibility, but they should he stimulated rather than discouraged by the greatness of their needs, if they knew their motives were good in incurring their liability. Then the debt of L 5,000 would not be found too much, and the hand of man would be taken from off the house of God which is held in it, and, released, the church would be consecrated to His service. Hymn 320-“ He is the Head of the Body, the Church ” —was then sung, and the ceremony concluded with the administering of the sacrament. A full choral service will be held this evening at half-past seven o’clock, when the joint choirs of St. Paul’s and All Saints’ Churches will assist. Mr A. T. Towsey will preside at the organ.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ESD18741203.2.10
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Evening Star, Issue 3676, 3 December 1874, Page 2
Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,110OPENING OF ST. MATTHEW'S CHURCH. Evening Star, Issue 3676, 3 December 1874, Page 2
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
No known copyright (New Zealand)
To the best of the National Library of New Zealand’s knowledge, under New Zealand law, there is no copyright in this item in New Zealand.
You can copy this item, share it, and post it on a blog or website. It can be modified, remixed and built upon. It can be used commercially. If reproducing this item, it is helpful to include the source.
For further information please refer to the Copyright guide.