OPENING OF THE NEW PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4597, 14 December 1875, Page 1 (Supplement)

OPENING OF THE NEW PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

Last evening the tea and public meeting in connection with the opening services of this church took place. The tea was provided by the ladies, in a manner which ladies who have their hearts in the work, and who are striving to sustain a prestige for liberality, only can provide teas. A very large number sat down, indeed the school was thoroughly crammed, and even then others remained outside and had to come in as a second relay. After tea a nibnster public meeting was held in the new church. The pastor of the church, Rev. J. Paterson,' occupied the chair, and on the platform, besides himself, were the Yen. Archdeacon Stock, Kevs. W. Morley.. Ogg Sidey, Elmslie, Ross, Ward, Moir, West, DeCastro, and Mr. Woodward. The choir was unusually stron", and Mr. Raymond presided at the harmonium. After the Old Hundred had been sung and the Kev. Mr. Ward had engaged in prayer, The Kev. J. Paterson welcomed the gentle"inen who had accepted his invitation to be present, and then read an apology from the Kev. B. W. Harvey, who, owing to a prior engagement, could not attend. Mr. Paterson expressed deep thankfulness that they got so far on in their j work as to be able to meet in the new church. He passed a very high enconium upon Mr. Tumbull, the architect, who had proved not only his skill and genius in architectural taste, but had also shown that he had a thorough mastery of all the details. The building was eminently suited for a place o£ worship—easy for the preacher to speak, and easy for the worshippers to hear in. It reflected very great credit on Mr. Tumbull—(cheers)— on Messrs. Murdoch and Kose, who had given great satisfaction, and also on FMr. Barton, the painter, who had so handsomely decorated the church. The rev. gentleman then reverted to the financial position of the church, and said the first expense had' been the enlargement of the schoolroom, at a cost of £4OO, and which was required for use during the time the new building was" in course of erection. The first contract for the church had been £3300, but other necessary expenses brought up the cost to a total of about £4OOO. On the other side, they had received a sum of £1904 10s. Sd. by way of subscriptions ; proceeds of the old church, nett, £97; ladies' sewing meetings, £55; and last tea meeting, £22 13s. 10d.; proceeds of Young Men's Society's entertainment, £l3 2s. lOd. ; and collections on Sunday, £lsl ; making up a total of about £2244. An overdraft of £945 had been obtained from the bank, so that £3139 had been actually paid away. On the subscription list there was £250, all good marks ; and thus they calculated they were about £ISOO short, but probably £SOO would soon be wiped off, leaving a sum of £IOOO, which they trusted to quietly work off in the course of two or three years. (Applause.) After some further remarks, in which he urged upon the congregation that the church was but a means to an end which they should never lose sight of, he then called upon The choir, who sang "Awake, put on Strength," &c. . The Rev. Mr. SlDETthen said:—Dear friends, gratulate the adherents of St. John's Church and the inhabitants of this city generally, on the handsome and useful church they have secured. It is an ornament to [your city, and fitted to help it in its onward march to greater refinement and beauty as the capital of our colony. I regard it as specially creditable to the adherents of St. John's that they have secured for themselves, by their liberal and generous efforts, so handsome a house in which to worship God ; and above all, I congratulate them on securing one so thoroughly useful in relation to the geniu3 of our ecclesiastical system. Its speaking properties are remarkably good and effective. The preacher can make himself heard to its remotest corner with perfect ease, and the hearer can catch the weakest whisper. If there be any objection in this respect it will be found in the fact that it will not suit the thunderer, inasmuch as its acoustic properties will make him drown himself. This is no drawback in my judgment, but a -very important recommendation, as, in the words of a venerable leader in the Church of God, it "|is not the thunder that kills but the lightning." For clear, calm, and incisive speech, the preacher will find the house everything he can desire. Permit me, then, again to congratulate the Church of St. John's on the beautiful and useful church which they have secured, and the architect and builder on the skill and care which they have displayed in their respective departments. There is just one regret left to me in connection with it, and that is the debt which [necessarily remains on the building. Well as you have all done, I could have wished, for practical purposes, that there had been less. Still there is every reason to hope that this debt will soon undergo reduction and extinction, and if you will only be quick about it, while I am in the way of talking among men, it will give me very peculiar pleasure on returning to Wellington to help you to consign it to a decent tomb. Prom my heart I rejoice with you. We must not confine ourselves this evening to congratulations, however. There is a great deal of work to be done for the cause we seek to promote, and it is desirable that such a season as the present should be improved so as to give an impulse to Christian energy. Permit me then to ask your attention for a little to a question of great present importance; —the tendency of a pure Christianity to rectify the politics of nations. I have been informed since arriving in Wellington that there are some of your leaders of public opinion here who think that Christians, and especially Christian ministers, should have nothing to do with politics. We should leave that to the men who make it their science. It will be a dark day for New Zealand when Christian men and Christian ministers consent to leave the politics of our country to the men who espouse it as their province. Religion and politics have a very intimate connection with each other, and move together as handmaids in the well-being of the community. By a law which is steady and uniform, and on a principle which lies embedded in the relation between God and man, the political condition of a nation takes the type of its religious condition. They interpenetrate each other at a thousand points, and it is just as necessary that the religious teacher at certain times should set himself to instruct men in their political duties as he would in their connubial, or parental, or filial duties. Your guides of public opinion in this fair city will excuse me in saying that Christian teachers of true public spirit and heartfelt consecration to the well-being of man, have displayed in the past as much fitnes3 for the work as any order of the community, and have left their mark upon the character and history of the nations In as great a degree as any other order of men in securing the unspeakable blessings of civil and religious liberty. No calamity could be greater than that such men should consent to leave all political questions to the taste or caprice of the avowed politician. Let us turn then and glance at the bearing of a pure Christianity on the politics of a nation. You are all familiar with the points which the science of politics contemplates. Its object is to secure the well-being of the nation, to restrain crime and violence, to make the life, property, and liberty of the subject secure, and generally to promote those objects which make a manly, intelligent, and vigorous community. The sphere is a magnificent one, and well-fitted to call forth the highest intellects and the noblest characters to its occupation. In few positions will a man of power accomplish greater results for the welfare of the race if he has skill enough and weight enough to meet and harmonise the somewhat discordant elements with which ho has to deal. Much has been done in this region by public spirited men. Unspeakable blessings to society have been obtained by their earnest and enlightened efforts. Yet I need not add, very much remains to be seen to. There is the keeping of that which has been so sorely won, and the carrying of the same principles which have secured what is best in society to their legitimate consequences. Many influences are at work which tend to the corruption of society and the contamination of our political institutions. Politicians are abundantly plied with these influences, and not unfrequently display too "reat readiness in listening to their advisers, leading to gross abusea ol all that is right and

o-ood. It is here that a pure Christianity comes in with its living protests and its resistless remonstrances against all that is wrong. It tends to keep administration in the of the right and the true. The Christian faith does not propound any special form of earthly government. It simply accepts what it finds existing, and sets itself' to make it of that description which will secure the best interests of the people' that are under it. Governments must depend in a very great degree upon the intelligence and character of the people they rule. What would be a blessing to one nation would be a calamity to others. Everything in the region of rule is dependent on the condition of the people; and what the faith of Christ contemplates is once to develop the nation and bring the government up to the position of doing its best to promote its elevation and freedom. It is a remarkable circumstance that the Lord Jesus Christ introduced a new principle of statesmanship into our world. He was the first legislator that ever based His Kingdom upon mankind as such. He took the poor as well as the rich into the conception of His estate. The men who ruled the world before Him never entered into the imagination of this. They simply sought to rule men by obtaining control of the courts and the schools, and if they succeeded in that they, felt themselves sure of power. Hence legislation with them was narrow and of a class order. They never went _ beyond the sphere in which they were peculiarly interested. The poor formed no part of society with them. They were the simple drudges of the great without any rights or privileges. The religion of Christ comes in here with immense effect, and insists that national legislation shall be for the race—that it shall contemplate the well-being of the whole nation as such. It is ever insisting on this point, and working with all the influence of a constant momentum to help it on. It acts as a rectifier of all abuses and of all evils, in all orders of earthly government, and strives to promote all that is good and pure and true. With unswerving devotion it works for the well-being of man individually and socially. But the Christianity that does this must be pure and true. It must be free from the contamination of those admixtures that are utterly foreign to itself. There is a great deal of that which goes under the name of Christ that has very little relation to the principles of the great Founder of the Christian faith. It has a large amount of the elements of heathendom inwoven into its texture. It goes away out in the region of the arbitrary, and sets itself to promote sectional and class interests rather than the welfare of the social body. It is far more concerned with the power of its organisation than the advancement of the race. Wherever that phase of Christian life exists be sure it will be found contaminating the streams of political action, and corrupting it in all its avenues and influences. -With a remorseful exclusiveness it will seek only its own ends, which will all be as arbitrary as itself, and utterly indifferent to anything beyond. ' Does not the action of the most eminent politicians in Germany, Belgium, and England, and other nations, at the present moment proclaim this fact with a trumpet tongue. They find a secret influence at work leavening the whole fabric of their rule directed by Ultramontane heads in the distance, and they are compelled ruthlessly to resist the monster. They are ever forced to go very much further than their wishes would lead them in order to arrest it. They find a subtle and powerful agency working in every hidden way to sap the springs and streams of all political and natural life, and like true patriots they rise to the occasion, and labor to destroy it. They cannot suffer that the whole political fabrics of their countries should be directed and controlled by a power that is hostile to the well-being of man, and one of the greatest difficulties they have to encounter is "just the goodwill with which these parties set themselves to corrupt the channels of political action. Wherever men live under the power of exclusiveness the end \vill justify the means. The Christianity that tends to rectify the politics of nations must be pure. It must have the stamp of the Master upon it. It must seek the welfare of man as man, and not the advantage of the class over the whole. The great agency which is everywhere promoting this object either directly or indirectly is the religion of Christ. The question is one of great present moment in our own colony, as well as in the regions of an older civilisation. We have reached that point in the development of our national life when the direction of our educational and other institutions become a matter of some importance in the future. Ecclesiastics of true sacerdotal temper long to get them under their baud. They wish to control the future, and to suceeed they long to bend the youthful mind in their direction. The politician must not educate the young except as they direct. He must not open to them any work that would make them noble men, and good citizens, simply because it might interfere with their policy or power. He must not suffer them to come in contact with that which God has given in love to the world, lest it contaminate them. And not only so, but he must not let them see anything in the region of human thought or life that is not Catholic, and make liberal provision to enable them to teach all the children that are under their direction, as well as all the others that they can entice by fair promises in all that is Catholic. They would sap and mint- the whole region and manipulate it to secure the advantage of sacerdotalism, either a 3 it exists in the Church of Rome or in the Church of England. Nor is this the whole. They give out the edict, if we are to credit the statements of the Press, that not one of the faithful, as they value their spiritual %vell-be.ing, must vote for any candidate for political honors who will not serve their purpose on this question of education, and promise a block vote to all who will be sufficiently subservient. It is hard for poor human nature to be blind or deaf to such blandishments, and some yield to the voice of the charmers. It is a matter of small moment how their action affects the future of their country if it serves to help them to political position. And many in the community seem equally blind with themselves. They sing out, what a free liberal fellow he is. See how generously he acts to those ultramontanes in helping them to power and influence through all the future of the colony. He is a good liberal soul that gives himself to help the distressed. The Christianity of Christ protests against the whole course of its action, from its beginnings to its endings. In its first elements it is corrupt, and in all its results it tends to corruption. It were well if men who sought political position had some just judgment of the immensely responsible position they assume to occupy, and that they set themselves to carry out its duties in the spirit of Christ.' It would be equally well if all who have the power of giving to those persons the opportunity of directing the political life of the community were acutely alive to their duty of sending only men of sterling and genuine iutegnty to administer our national affairs. Of one thing we may all rest contented, that the tendency of a pure Christianity is to rectify the politics of a nation. j Choir : " How beautiful upon the mountains." I The Rev. Mr. Moitt congratulated the congregation upon the beautiful church thf.y had raised, and said they must feel as did the King of Israel, who desired to build a house for the glorf of God, and who had expressed his thank- ] fulness to God that he had been able to do ho much while on earth. He hoped and believed there would be no difficulty in extinguishing the debt, but he trusted this was not all that would be done, but that the end for which the church was built would be gained, and that there would bo many hearts turned to God. (Cheers). The Vcn. Archdeacon Stock said ho had come to bo a hearer rather than a speaker. He had been very glad to receive an invitation to be present, for lie wished to show his pleasure at seeing another church to help on the work of Christ in the city. He was glad to see the new church for many reasons ; one was that it would give his people a spur in the work of raising a church. He hoped his new church would be a better one than theirs (a laugh), for it was but proper that each new building should be an improvement on those prc-cxisteut. It was said that this church was tho most handsomo in Wellington and that his church was the ugliest. (Laughter). It might bo so, | but hs thought his church mwt beautiful. He

then,went on to speak of tho historical connection between the Church of England and the Presbyterian Church in the time of the Reformation, and said the Church of England must always fell indebted to the Presbyterians for the help it received in troublous times. The Kev. Mr. Paterson, confirmatory of the remarks of the last speaker, mentioned that there was reason to believe that John Knox, the great Scottish preacher, had had a hand in compiling the English Prayer Book as it now stood, and had he remained in England he might have been a bishop had he chosen. The Rev. Mr. El.m.st.ie spoke on the subject of " Modern Evangelism," and delivered a telling address. Anthem by choir. The Rev. Mr. Ogg briefly congratulated the minister and congregation on the acquisition of a new church. The Rev. Mr. West, 8.A., followed in the same strain, and expressed great pleasure at hearing what had fallen from Mr. Sidey—he felt quite convinced that it was the duty of ministers to impress upon their people the duty of paying attention to politics, not to tell them how to vote, but to teach them to take an interest in these matters, to recognise their obligation to the State, and to act conscientiously in regard to questions of a public character—questions which had moral roots, and if neglected would have a baneful influence upon the future of the colony. (Cheers.) The Revs. Messrs. Ross and Morley and Mr. Woodward also addressed the meeting, which was closed by singing and prayer shortly after ten o'clock. The collection which was taken during the evening amounted to £24 Bs., and the proceeds of the tea-meeting were found to be about £34, thus making the total receipts at opening services to be at least over £2lO.