BISHOP OF AUCKLAND.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 5, 12 May 1913, Page 6

BISHOP OF AUCKLAND.

VISITS STRATFORD. The Right Rev. Bishop Lloyd Crossley, of Auckland, arrived in Stratford by motor car from Inglewood yesterday evening, and is at present the guest of tho Vicar of Stratford, the Rev. W. A. Butler. The Bishop preached at tho Whitsuntide service in tho Parish Church in tho evening. There was a moderately large congregation, considering the exceptionally bad weather conditions. The Bishop, who took as his text the words from Acts 11. 47: “And the Lord added to the Church daily,” mentioned tho day as being tho anniversary of the birthday of the Church, and recounted the history of the event, telling how a number of men, terrified by the Crucifixion; were, by the Spirit of God, embued with the courage to preach Christianity. His Lordship then compared this spirit of courage with the lack of it at the present day. Those who held with the Church were silent because they feared the ridicule of their associates. This backwardness he attributed to their failure to grasp the real conception of prayer. He emphasised the difference between “saying one’s prayers” and “praying,” and the necessity of having the true and inward spirit of faith—“ The apostk prayed unceasingly,” and everything was possible with prayer. The Bishop, at the conclusion of his sermon, exhorted the congregation to join with him in offering up a prayer for “tho largest nation on earth”— China. This people,- he said, who had persecuted and tortured Christians, now asked for the prayers of Christians. In connection with this evidence of a new spirit amongst the Chinese, the Bishop expressed his opinion that the British people were now at the parting of the ways, and were likely to be overshadowed by the Western nation. One *of the principal factors in its rise to Christianity was tho national idea of respect to elders by the younger generation—a deference to age and authority, now not too common amongst us. .At the end of tho service, the Bishop licensed to tho office of lay readers, Edgar Lionel Harvie, Walter Vaughan Wilson, and A.. D. Stanley.

Tho Bishop will bo present at evensong in tho Parish Church at 7.15, and will afterwards attend the social at tho Parish Hall to enable the parishioners to meet him.