CONSECRATION OF THE BISHOP OF MELANESIA.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 43, 19 February 1877, Page 2

CONSECRATION OF THE BISHOP OF MELANESIA.

A very interesting and impressive ceremony was performed afc Christ Church yeslo.day mo ning ranely, the consecration of the Rev John Richardson Selwyn, M.A., son of the Bishop of Lichfield, late Bishop of New Zealand, as Bishop of Melanesia, special interest attached to this service from the fact that Mr Selwyn is the first Bishop who can call New Zealand his native country, he having been born at the Bay of Islands in the year 1843. He was sent home for his _ education and graduated at Cambridge, where, taking after his father in " muscular Christianity," he for two years in succession was one of the University "eight" in the annual competition with Oxford. At first it was intended that he should adopt the law as his profession, but he changed his mind and determined to enter the Church. Prior to being ordained, he came out to see his father, and sat as a lay member of the General Synod, representing Melanesia, in 1868. He then returned home and was ordained, and on hearing of the lamented Bishnn Patteson's death he and a. friend, (the Rev Mr Still) determined to come ont and join the Melanesian Mission, which they did about four years ago. From the old associations connected with his father's name, and from the eminent fitness he displayed for the office, having been previously recommended by the members of the Melanesian Mission, he was generally approved of by the Synod in 1874 as the successor of Bishop Patteson, but there were many who thought him then too young for the post, and consequently his consecration was postponed until the election was reaffirmed by the present Synod. Possessing large private means, moving in the best of society, and being in a position to thoroughly enjoy life iv the Home country, Mr Selwyn showed his earnestness of purpose and thorough sincerity in coming out to devote himself to the service of his great Master amongst the savages of Melanesia, aud it would have been impossible to find for the office to which he was yesterday formally appointed a man whose heart was more in his work or who was in any way better fitted for the trying and arduous life he has selected than John Richardson Selwyn. At eleven o'clock yesterday morning, by which time Christ Church was closely packed in every part, the Bishops and clergy entered the building at the centre door, and/preceded by the Churchwardens, walked up the aisle to the chancel in the following orderClergy— The Revs J. P. Kempthorne, T.'s. Grace, T. Fancourfc, E. A. Lingard, C. Moon, J. Leighton, W. Ronaldson, A. Penny, B. T. Dudley, and R. J. Jackson; the Van Archdeacons Harper, Stock, and Williams; the Very Rev the Dean of Christchurch; the Bishop elect in his cassock; the Right Revs the Bishops of Dunedin, Wellington, Auckland, and Nelson, and the Most Rev the Primate. The hymn « Christ is gone up, but ere He passed" having been sung, the Primate read the Communion Service, the Bishop of Wellington the Epistle, and the Bishop of Nelson the Gospel. The Nicene Creed was sung to Sir John Goss' setting. A most appropriate and eloquent sermon was then preached by the Rev. B. T. Dudley, Incumbent of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Auckland, and formerly of the Melanesian Mission, who took for his text the first epistle of St. John, 111., 16. After the sermon the offertory, which amounted to £31 s. Bd., was collected in aid of the Melanesian Mission. The Bishop elect, the Rev Mr Jackson, and the Churchwardens then retired to the Vestry, and the hymn « The Church's one foundation" was sung, and before it was concluded the Bishop elect, in his "rochet," preceded by the Churchwardens and the Rev Mr Jackson, walked up the centre aisle, and was met by the Bishops of Dunedin and Auckland, who presented him to the Primate, the Bishop of Auckland saying the following words:-- --" Most Reverend Father in God, we present unto you this godly and well learned man to be ordained and consecrated Bishop." The oath of obedience was then taken, and the mandate of the Primate to proceed to the consecration was read by Mr Acton Adams. The Litany was then read by the {Bishop of Nelson, after which the Primate, sitting in his chair, examined the Bishop elect in the form prescribed by the Prayer Book. The anthem " How lovely are the Messengers '' from Mendelssohn's Oratorio S. Paul was then sung by the choir, and the Bishop elect, having in the meantime put on the rest of bis Episcopal habit, knelt in front of the chancel, and the Primate and Bishops, taking alternate lines, having said the Veni Creator Spiritus, the consecration prayer was read after which the Primate and Bishops placed their hands upon his head, the former saying:—"Receive the Holy Gho»t for the office and work of a Bishop in the Church of God now committed unto thee by the Imposition of our hands. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen. And remember that thou stir up the grace of God, which is given thee by this Imposition of our hands: for God hafch not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and love, and soberness. The exhortation was then i;ead by the Primate, the hymn " From all that dwell below the skies" was sung, and a very solemn and impressive service was brought to a close by the administration of of the Holy Cmmunion.

The following is that portion of the Rev Mr Dudley's sermon which had special reference to the morning's ceremony. The subject of his discourse was Christian love aud the power to sacrifice self that it bestowed upon all whose lives and actions were influenced by it. He concluded as follows.— And now let us apply our thoughts more closely to the subject of the Melanesian Mission, brought under our special notice by the solemn service in which we are engaged. The whole history of that Mission is an illustration of love going forth in self-sacrifice and proving a marvellous power. Look first at its founder, the first and only Bishop of New : Zealand, with us in spirit, as we all know, this day, and with his whole heart offering up his son for this work. Which of those of us who were privileged to live and labor under him does not remember with admiration and thankfulness the many and rare gifts wherewith God had endowed him? And yet, which of us would attribute his greatness and his world-wide influence to those gifts, and not rather to the spirit of love to God and man in which they were exercised; to that spirit in which he ever gladly devoted himself to the sick, the prisoner, the mourner aud the destitute, to the lonely settler in the backwoods, to the native of this country, and the Melanesian Islander? lt was not a mere cold sense of duty, but a spirit of love that took him from his arduous pbst as spiritual ruler of this country to visit the islands of the sea: in that spirit he pleaded for his Master with the seamen who navigated his mission ship till their hearts were melted and the teaia rolled down their feces as he spoke to them, in words I can never

\"c;VN v forget^of the lerigthfand' strength and depth and height of the lovb N 6f\ Christ; in that spirit it was that, like St. Gregory of old* When he saw the. yonng Angles in the alav&J market at Rome,; he looked; at each group of' dark-skinned natives .as.; they gathered toy ineei; him on the [bright coral beach of their isla'dd.* and by faith discerned among thepli those who hereafter;; should be brethren IgF the faith, and the Chrisfcianisers of their countrymen; in that spirit he spoke, as with the words of Jesus, to the young Mr Patteson, and drew him from his father's side in that happy English home to join him iv his arduous, and anxious worlfat the Antipodes.-" In the same spirit 'it.wasjftoo, that Bishdpl Patteson was enabled to sacrifice so many of his natural tastes and inclinations, and to throw himself and alibis varied powers, and gifts heartily into this missionary enterprise; that he .taught himself to love his native , pupils and companions Avith an affecfcion'th'at drew their hearts mightily to him, and, through him, to the Saviour. This spirit in him ifc was, in which as one of his pupils said of him after his death, "He loved them allalike;" this, and npfc his linguistic skill and other talents, gave-him his marvellous power. This spirit, going forth from hini;- explains! the deep interest that was awakened , in hiswork wherever he went to describe it and to plead for ifc. This drew towards him as helpers that-, earnest and devoted band of men. that theMelanesian Mission is so happy in possessing; this helped our friend beforje us to that choice of a vocation for .life, for. which we all 'thank God this day. And thi* same spirit when it, went forth with power from the martyr's grave in the. Southern } seas drew our friend brick from his mother country to engage in this work, and has ever j since drawn after him from all parts of Eng- ! land such abundant freewill offerings that the Melanesian mission ! finds itself (at least as compared with some missions)^ opulent. Again, what can it have been but~the constraining love of Christ that; has kept at r his post, to the great . comfort and benefit of the Melanesian Mission, that wise and good man, some time connected with this diocese, whose headship of. the mission, through his own will and choice, ends with the act of this day? (You know I speak ;of : Mr. Codringfcon.) No less power than that of Divine love will make men choose, and cheerfully continue, in, a life that is to them in many respects most trying. It, is -because they yield to this power and seek to be more and more under its influence in'~all they think, and speak, and do, that it pervades their lives and goes forth from them to others even more abundantly. It is this to constraining influence, we are persuaded, and to the call that .has .come to .him as with Christ's authority in the unanimous voice of the Church that he has yielded who is now before us, for the purpose of being solemnly set apart to fill the Apostolic chair vacant by the death of Bishop Patteson. Brethren, what shall we say to him? It seems to me that we' can say nothing better to him 'than this: Go forth, brother, (Father in God, aa you will be ere this service is concluded) to your work of faith and labor of love among those your father cared for and first sought out, to whom Bishop Patteson devotedhimself, and by whom i his life was in ignorance tyken. We wish you good luck in the name of the Lord. We trust that the life you this day surrender to Him more fully than ever for work . in this sphere of labor maylong.be spared for His service; that every needful gift may be bestowed upon you; and that in all your perils by .land, and water, in, weariness and painfulness, in the disappointments you must experience, ' and in the difficulties, impossible to be foreseen, that must arise, you - may ever be cheered by the sense of His love who neverleaves nor forsakes one faithful servant; abd we ,-will follow you ever, and those with. you, with our thoughts and our prayers and 'our freewill offerings. And we ask you ever; to remember that the work God is' doing through you is not confined to Melanesia, but that, as the signa of an apostle are wrought out in you (as we are assured .they... will be), and as the power bf Christian love '.' is more and more shown" in your complete self-consecration, that power, even though its ! apparent effects be but slow and tardy in Melanesia, will be felt here in New, Zealand, it will be felt in Australia, it will be felt in England, yes, wherever the English Church has her faithful children, ancl men will bless God for you, and will be cheered in their own troubles, perhaps, acd will bestirred themselves to new devotion, and will recognise in the reports of your labors one more token of the reality of Christ's presence, and of the" unfailing ' fulfilment of his parting promise— -" lam with you alway, even! unto, the end of the world*"