BISHOP SELWYN.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 97, 24 April 1878, Page 4

BISHOP SELWYN.

Tbe brief telegram announcing the death of tbe Bishop of Lichfield will be the signal for mourning throughout the length and breadth of New Zealand. Thousands who knew him during his ministration in this colony will mourn the loss of a friend, and in |him the parent Church of England will 'lose one of its brightest ornaments. Bishop Selwyn wag in every sense one of the pillars of the church. His profound scholarship and eloquence, earnestness of character, indomitable energy and will, his great courage and perseverance, his patience under trials, his physical powers of endurance, bis humility, and never-swerving trust in his Divine Master, marked him out ss one of the foremost missionaries and churchmen of his life and time. His life is ODe long record of patient selfsacrifice ani devotion to the cause of Go-d and the welfare of his creatures. HIS PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE . George Augustus Selwyn was the son of an eminent barrister, who was entrusted with the important duty of educating the Prince Consort in English Jurisprudence and Constitutional Law. His father had two brothers, Canon Selwyn and Lord Justice Selwyn, both eminent and distinguished, as all the family have been, in various honorable professions. The subject of this memoir was born in 1809, and was educated at Eton, and afterwards at St, John's College, Cambridge, where he was distinguished for bis studious habitP, combined with great powers as an athlete. He took degrees as junior opiime in mathematics, Bnd first class in classics. He was celebrated for feats of strength, and as ao oarsman and swimmer, and he rowed in the Univereity Eleven. His first preferment to the Church was ns curate to Windsor Palace, in 1841, wbere he was brought into intimate relation with tbe Royal Family. He was very successful in organizing the parish, which had got into an embarraßssd state. APPOINTED BISHOP OP NEW ZEALAND. From this he was called to the Bishopric of New Zealand, and it was remaiked at the time that he was very young for an ofllce so high and important. He was consecrated in October, 1841, being one of tbe five Bishops who were consecrated mainly tbrough the efforts of Bishop Broughton, one of the first Bishops of Australia, On the way out to New Zealand he studied the Maori language, and on his arrival at the Bay of Islands on May 30, he preached his first sermon in the native tongue ; the force and earnestness of his discourse, his commanding fiaure and his eloquence, making a deep impression upon his hearers. Shortly after tbe burning of Eororareka Bishop Selwyn removed to Auckland, and busied himself in the establishment of St. John's College. His far-seeing and eminently practical mind formed the project of combining in tbis institution sound learning with useful industrial pursuits ; aod tbe plan which he then initiated has since been followed in Cornell's University in America, and other similar institutions. His aim was to make the College self-supporting, the students recouping from their labors the cost of their education. While under the direct superintendence of Bishop Selwyn, the soheme was very successful, but when the wide sphere of hiß labors called him away on distant visitations, there was no one who combined the necessary, qualities to carry on the work. At one period St. John's College mointHined over a hundred students, all of whom were receiving the benefits of a liberal education, with training in various trades and callings, and many young men who have attained to higb and honorable positions in the community owe their early education to Bishop Selwyn's wise forethought and fostering guidance. In those days he waß an indefatigable worker in the mission field, travelling long journeys on foot, encountering dangers by flood and field, preaching the glad tidings of the Gospel in the most remote corners of tbe Island, and generally infusing his own indomitable spirit into his subordinates and co-workers. THK WAR. The Waitara war of 1860-1 was a great blow to tbe hopes of tha missionaries, as it disturbed tbe native mind, aroused the worst passions of their nature, and retarded the work of Christianity. Tbis disaster wae followed by tbe Waikato war of 1863 which still further impeded missionary labours, breaking up most ofthe schools, causing the churches to be abandoned, and the natives to relapse into their old barbarous habits. Nevertheless, throughout that trying period Bißhop Sewlyn, ably assisted by Archdeacon Maunsell, the Rev. Lloyd, and many other devoted labourers, continued to work with unwearied energy and undaunted zeal. Bishop Sewlyn's efforts were always in the direction of a peace-maker. He was often seen in the midst of strife succouring the wounded and administering spiritual consolation to the dying. He read the burial service over the dead, and preached to the living, always inculating Christian moderation, and the avoidance of unnecessary cruelties. BISHOPRIC OF LICHFIELD. He returned to England on important Church business in 1866, and a. vacancy occurring in the Bishopric of Lichfield was pressed to undertake the onerous of that high office. It was felt that it needed no common man in those days to preside over the Bishopric and to conduct the affairs of

the Church in the "Black Country." Some people at (he time ignorantly supposed that the preferment to Lichfield was a promotion and a pecuinnry benefit, but no more mistaken notion could be entertained. At firat he absolutely declined, on the ground tbat his heart was wedded to the distant missionary field at tho antipodes. Mr Gladstone, however, advised Her Majesty the Queen to request Bishop Selwyn's acceptance of the bishopric of Lichfield, and accordingly he received a letter from Her Majesty, in which sbe expressed a hope that he would see hia way to accept the office. The Archbishop of Canterbury wrote :— I do hope, whatever claims your New Zealand work may bave, tbat you will see in the invitation that is now given you the call of God fo do Bome work for him in the Mother Church of England." Bishop Sewlyn was imbued wilh the strongest feelings of submission to authority, and accordingly, as was his custom, at once made up his mind, though evidently the prospect of partiog from his beloved charge afiected him most deeply. He at once set to work to wind up his affairs in New Zealand. FAREWELL TO NEW ZEALAND. As an illustration ofthe deep veneration in which he was held in this colony, we give the following extracts from the farewell address presented to him in Auckland, and his reply thereto : — " "We know full well that you will never cease to pray and labour for us, and you need no assurance from us that we will ever remember and pray for you. How can we ever forget you ? Every spot in New Zealand is identified with you. Each hill and valley, each river and bay and headland is full of memories of you ; the busy town, the lonely settler's hut, the countless islands of the sea, all speak to us of you. "Whether your days be few or many, we, as long as we live, wili ever hold you deep in our inmost hearts. All will pray for you and yours ; the clergy, to whom you have indeed heen a father in God, the old tried friends with whom you have taken counsel, the younger men of both races whom you have trained, the poor you have relieved, the mourners whom you have comforted, the sick to whom you have ministered, the prisoners whom you have visited, all think of yon now, and will think of you always, with true and deep affection; will offer for you always their fervent prayers. "We humbly pray God, who has given you the wisdom to conceive and the power to execute your great designs, that your high and noble example may be ever affectionately remembered and dutifully followed by us all • that the mind and spirit of its first Bishop may be stamped for all generations upon the Church of New Zealand; and that the multitude of the isles may learn, in years to come, the name of their first great missionary, and rise up and call bim blessed." (Signed by all the members of the Synod.) THE BISHOP'S ANSWER. His Lordship said "He might say, in tlje words of Wordsworth, u The praise of men has often left me mourning." It was most difficult and most painful to one placed in his position to have to reply to such kind expressions as were contained in the address, but in this case the pain was no doubt much mingled with pleasure. Suffice it to say, that he had sought for support and counsel from many whose services were not so conspicuous as hi., own, though they deserved equal praise with himself, if not more. He could say, as had been said on a very different occasion, " Give God the praise?; we know that this man was a sinner." All the prosperity of the Church in New Zealand was the work of God. The finger of God had been manifested in all that had taken place in New Zealand, from the time Mr Samuel Marsden landed in 1814 until then. It was the comforting prophecy fulfilled, that the little one should become a thousand. It was a comfort that what* one man had begun, should become in a little more than half a century what the Church of New Zealand now was. He looked around, and looked at our New Zealand Church, and thought of the time when he came to Sydney and found Bishop Broughton there with a small number of clergymen around him ; and when he reflected that now that little band had extended into all the provinces of New South Wales, with its various dioceses; Tasmania, Western Australia, South Australia, and these provinces of New Zealand, with all its satellites in Melanesia, he felt that the power and influence of God's Holy Spirit was being manifested upon earth, and that it had pleased Almighty God to enable them to see His power with their own eyes, so that they need not walk by faith alone, but by sight." Those who heard his impressive farewell sermon at St. Paul's when he fairly broke down with emotion, will not forget the scene. The tenderness of his words of parting, when he spoke of " aeeiDg each other face to face " io the world to come ; his earnest expressions of hope for the welfare bf the church io New Zealand and Melanesia, and his deep prayerful confidence in the ever-watching guidance and protection of the Almighty, went to all hearts ; and when his last words were spoken there were few dry eyes in the church. H<j went down to the ship, followed by a great multitude of people, who uttered heartfelt prayers for his future welfare. (To be Continued),

A titled lady in Russia, the Princess Manweloff had a habit of striking her governess, a lady of noble birth, and the latter complained to the local justice. The Princess was let off with three days' detention in her own house. Tbe governess was dissatisfied, and appealed to a higher Court, which sentenced the defendant to three months' imprisonment in the common gaol. " The light of other days is faded," for the glories of science of the present age of marvels have eclipsed and the barbarous usages of the past, and poor svfllering humanity no longer remains the victim of gross maltreatment from unskilled and blundering quacks. The triumphs achieved in the world of physics have led to the production of thoae marvellous medicines known as " Ghollah's Great Indian Cukes," by whose instrumentality the most astounding cures have been effected, and innumerable valueable lives saved. Testimonial— -Pier Hotel, Dunedin, 27th May, 1876. Sib,— Having been much benefitted by the use of your Indian Medicine, I have great pleasure in adding my testimony as to its efficacy, and can recommend others to try it. , Some of my f rien ds who have also been using these medicines, speak very favourably of them, and have received much benefit from their use. (Signed) Ophelia Bennett.