REV T. TAIT.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16488, 2 March 1914, Page 9

REV T. TAIT.

FAREWELL SERMON AT ST PAUL’S. The Rev Thomas Tait, who has accepted a' call to Adelaide after a ten years’ ministry at St Paul’s Presbyterian Church, preached farewell sermons yesterday to large congregations. At the evening service the congregation overflowed, and extra seats were occupied in every part of the church. The minister took his text from Paul’s second epistle to the CormtlHaiis, “Finally brethren, farewell. ’ These words, said Mr Tait, were probably the least studied of all. Hg himself came before them with no studied words. Never had ho. written a sermon, except once, when he had to write it afterwards for the 1 ress. He had a theory of' his own about preaching, and it was that a man must have something in his soul that he was restless to get out, without making his sermon dead or alive days and hours before he came to preach it. His ideals had been given to the congregation at the welcome meeting tendered to him in the Canterbury Hall a little more than ten years ago. The church, according to Ins ideal, was something wider than a sect. Though he' was proud of his 1 resbyterianism, it had always been Jus desire never to exult in or to exalt Ins Presbyterianism so as to forget that it was but a camp in the great «WV iat l’ e was brother with the Methodist, the Baptist, the Anglican, the Roman Catholic, the Unitarian and any man at all on God’s earth who honoured God and loved Christ. Church of Jesus Christ was an institution that could never be dispensed with, any more than, one could dispense with kindred institutions of lesser value and importance; but all other institutions that played upon man for good along the line of character building were defective for obvious reasons, for they tried to patch men up from the outside. There was not another institution: that could play on ; man from tile inside like the Church ol Jcsr>; Christ when it was true to its Lord and its mission. This was his ideal of the Christian Church, and he could not be an ecclesiastical puppet, doing certain stereotyped things or preaching a certain stereotyped thing. He would leave the ministry to-morrow if that were so. He was in the church because he had sonie-t-hnig from the Lord. Jesus Christ in Ins own. life .and would be compelled to proclaim it.. •

■ Similarly with the ministry, Mr Tait continued. He believed that the minister was called iirst of all to proclaim something and to preach something; secondly, to go to people when lie way wanted, to comfort the sorrowing, lift up the weary spirited, bring gleams of light in upon the wilderness of man’s mind. Only if there *was the need of it, would he bother about going to see people in their houses. He had never had the time for it, and lie i believed that at the Judgment Seat of j God he would not he called in question lor not going to drink cups of tea with his. .congregation, and listen to j gossip. For friendliness and homeli- ■ ness .he did not think there was a more sociable creature in Christchurch, and lie had given his cdii- ! gregation the best he could give, | willed he could never have given if he I had gone round drinking tea. He rei joieecl to testify, however, that few | days in his ministry had passed without a visit to somebody who really needed a minister’s help. He thanked God for the pleasure lie had, had in some oi the hollies of the cider people of the church. He had never preached what had been to hi hi a dead sermon. Others might have thought so, but he could not possibly preach a sermon . tlidt was not alive to himself;' and he could say with honesty-.that, he had preached Christ—there was nothing tise to preach. He had no room for a Christian whose Christianity was confined within the four walls of a church. Christianity was spiritual. It was not content with squaring the surface life with a written law. There must be individuality. The Church was not decadent. -If any one of the Socialist dreams were realised to-morrow, and man had still unchastened malice in his hcayt and unclean lust ..in his soul what did it matter if his nous of labour werp reduced and his renditions improved? Socialism could never compass what the! Church aimed at compassing. The Church was .icing it slowly, hut the best things in, He world were those that grew slowly.

“ f have no -need of letters of commendation from you,” said • the preacher, taking the words of the apostle in conclusion, “for ye are my epistle.”. If his gospel.with ail Bs faults in tho preaching had proved ac-

ceptable to the aged, the sorrowing, the broken-down, as well as to the young and the youngest, he did Tint flunk that after all it had quite failed