THE SELWYN CENTENARY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 74, 23 April 1909, Page 4

THE SELWYN CENTENARY.

SERVICE AT TE HEXUI OHUROH. There was n small congregation lust night at the Anglican Church, To Henui, when, a special service was held in commemoration of the late George Augustus Selwyn, who as Bishop of New Zealand founded Te Hcnui Church in 1845. lie was also the founder of St. Mary's at a later date. The service was held at Te Hcnui, his first church in Tarauaki, the primitive House of God standing on the site .of'the present nave. When it is remembered that here in this district his work.was so complete that, with the exception of acquiring a few building sites and erecting churches, practically nothing has been done in the matter of endowments sine? the days of the great liishop, it is to be wondered nt that so few churchmen and churchwomen assembled last night to do honor to him who had made the paths so easy for the succpejfing generations to tread. The Rtfv. Spencer, the incumbent, read the service, Rev. F. (I. Evans (vicar ot Si. Mary's) and Rev. rf. O. llnnliy read -the lessons, and Kev. G. C. Cruickshank delivered the, address. Rev. Wi I'ako, Maori home missionary, was also present. Mr. F. Renaud, organist of St. Mary's, directed the musical portion of the service, the choir including a large number of members of St. Mary's choir. The evening service of Lloyd in E flat was used, the anthem, " How lovely arc the messengers," from St. Paul (Mendelssohn), and the Festival Te Dcum (Dykes in F). The processional hymn was "The Church's One Foundation." Rev. G. C. Cruickshank delivered an eloquent address upon the life of the late Bishop Selwyn, taking as his basis the words, "I go, sir," from Matthew xxi, 30. That passage they would find in the letter of Bishop Selwyn to the Archbishop of Canterbury when he accepted the bishopric of New Zealand. When they met to celebrate the lives of great men like Selwyn, they naturally looked for lessons which would prove helpful. ''Lives of great men all remind us we can make our lives sublime, and departing leave behind us footprints on the sands of time." 'mere were two-points in the life of Selwyn which he would like to make. Nowadays in Xcw Zealand the people wore rightly eulogising him, speaking of him as the greatest bishop Xew Zealand had known, and of his wonderful policy; and yet during his lifetime he came in for a fire of criticism that was perhaps unknown bv another Bishop of Xew Zealand down to the present day. So when people were tempted to judge "our ■fathers spiritual," they should remember that though the late Bishop Selwyn came in for all these unkind words, such as •wore said about bishops and other servants of God, he was now acknowledged to have been sent of God, and that his life was almost beyond reproach. Cnfortnnatelv, every man considered himself an expert upon matters of religion. The first lesson, then, to be drawn from the life of Selwyn was that we should withhold judgment upon those in authority over us in the Church, remembering that bishops were appointed by God, and that in judging them and speaking unkindly of them we were sinning not onlv against man but against God. Another lesson to be drawn from the life of Selwyn was his absolute humility. If ever the're were a man in this life who buried himself, Selwyn did. A young man, well connected, with brilliant prospects in England, he accepted the call of God to Xcw Zealand, then an almost unknown toil. The bishopric had been first offered to his brother, but he was in many ways unfitted for the work. Selwyn was an Eton man. Of hiui it had been said that he was "always ready to row the heaviest oar." Iu those davs Eton had no great facilities for rowing, and one oar used in the boat was awkward and cumbersome. The oarsmen fought shy of it, and it became a custom to leave it for the last man down. And the man who got it was disheartened right from the start, and could not put in his best work, It soon became noticed that Selwyn win always tiie last man, and at length he admitted that he was taking the oar purposely, for if he put his best work into that and the rest of the crew did likewise they would get the very best out of the boat. That.was a great trait in character. Where there was a hard oar to row, he rowed it; where there was hard work to do, he did it. It had been said that Selwyn was very hard on his clergy, but that was because, being indefatigable himself, he failed to understand physical exhaustion in others; and because in all his doings he had the glory of God at heart. What could we do now to further the ideal of Selwyn! Much could |be uone. Never in her history had the I Church of the Province of New Zealand I been more in need of men. He appealed to his heavers not to stand in the way of anyone desiring to enter the ministry. 'Which was by some people looked upon as a less advantageous calling than commercial pursuits. Assistance could be given, too, in the matter of alius, and by their united prayers. If every man ■lould seriouslyi pray, and if every one had faith even to the extent of a grain of mustard seed, what a difference there would be! The speaker dealt with the manner in which the late Bishop used the human being as an instrument to the Divine end, explaining how he had first managed in several voyages to interest the natives of the Melanesian Islands before endeavoring to introduce his Divine message. At first he must have appeared to those natives little but a commercial tiavtller; but afterwards he must have appeared the inspiration of God.

Rev. Cruieksbunk said Unit even in this life such living had its reward. Si-1-wyn rowed the heavy our; lie represented lis college hi the Cambridge eight, the height of the young oarsman's ambition; he buried himself in a bishopricthat was almost unknown; he was commanded to take the important See of Lichfield. By many it «■«„ siyd thai, tiring of the work'in Xcw Zealand, he took a "isoft job'' at Home, .is u matter of fact, he tried his utmost to remain in charge of New Zealand, and it was only when her .Majesty the Queen, in a. private interview, said: "Dr. Sclwvn, i want you to take Lichlield." that he consented. "1 go, sir," was a sentence that must be said by everyone of the congregation at some time or other. Let them do it in the spirit that moved Oeorgc Augustus Selwyn. liev. F. G. Evans pronounced" the Beuudiction.

A CHEAT PERSONALITY. LIFE AND WORK IN XEW ZEALAND 'THE CHURCH CONSTITUTION. One of ihe great monuments to Hilltop Nclwyn's won; in New Zealand is tile li'iistltutioii of the Church of the Province of New Zealand. This Constitution was only drawn up after long consultation with the most distinguished churchmen at Home and in New Zealand, and n says much for the care with which it was drawn up that its main features have been copied by Australia, Canada, Sontli Africa, and Ireland. When the Bishop left Xew Zealand for Lichlield, Lie (ieneral Synod placed on record its testimony to his great work, a- follows : " Hon ca.i we ever forget von r Every -pot ill New Zealand is identified witir you. Each hill and valley, each river and bay and headland is full of memories of you. The l.u-v town, Hie lonflv settler's hut, the countless islands of the sea, all speak of yon. Whether your days be few or many, we—as loin* as we live—will ever hold you deep in our inmost hearts. All we pray for you and yours ; the clergy to whom you have been indeed a father in (lod, the' old tried friends with whom you have taken counsel, the younger men of both races wnoni you have trained, the poor whom you have relieved, the mourner:! whom you have comforted, the sick to whom you have ministered, the prisoners whom you have visited, all think of you now and will think of you always with true affection, and will offer for you always their fervent prayers.'' THE BJSIIOF'S CAREER. J u his excellent work on the great Bishop's life and work, the liev. 11. W. Tucker gives the following interesting particulars : Born in 1800, at llampstead, the son of an eminent lawyer, lie was educaced at Eton, and St. John's, Cambridge ; was second ill the classical tripos ; and was elected a fellow of his college. lie re-

turned its private tutor to Eton, and there was remarkable for his Christian earnestness and energy of character. In 1840 New Zealand became an English colony ; in the following year the Colonial Bishoprics' Council was founded, and the new colony was one of the first places to which they desired to send a bishop to regulate the work of the few missionaries of the Church, of England already there, and to lay the foundation of a church contemporaneously with the establishment of British rule. Selwyn was chosen to the position, and fruiu the first great things were, expected of him. lie travelled indefatigalily over iiis great diocese, walking through the bush, swimming the rivers, cruising round the coasts in small boats, which he himself navigated. ■•Whenever ho stayed m a settler's house," writes one of those whose guest the bishop had often been, "his great desire was to give no trouble. He would insist on currying his own travel-ling-bags, would always tidy his own room, and make his own bed. and 1 have known him surreptitiously to wash his own clothes. This was done with the knowledge that in New Zealand servants are scarce, and that the ladies of (lie household do many things for themselves and their families which ladies are not accustomed to do in England. His own hospitality was profuse but simple ; indeed, he kept open houses ; everyone who came to Auckland was welcomed, and knew that formal invitation was not needed. ' I give good advice, but bad dinners,' the bishop used to say to his guests ; the badness of the dinners being only a synonym for plain roast anil boiled." a It happened that the Colonial office had, in drawing up the bishop's letters patent, assigned to him, per incuriamJ a diocese stretching from 50deg. south latitude to 34deg. north. This bishop accepted the error as ail opportunity of doing missionary work outside the limits of New Zealand. In IS4B he embraced the opportunity of a voyage in H.M.S. Dido, to visit some of the islands in the Pacific on a voyage of inspection. In the following year the Bishop had procured a little vessel of his own, in which he visited many islands, and brought back five native boys to be educated, in his school at Auckland, m 1851 the dioceses of Sydney and Newcastle had provided him witli a larger vessel, the Horder Maid, in which he cruised amo'lg liie islands of the Pacific, sometimes swimming ashore in the presence of natives of doubtful or even hostile disposition, and winning them by the manly dignity of his presence, and the attractiveness of his manner.

The !)oth occupant ~i t?e "f Lichfield, and succeeding so good and earnest a bishop as Lonsdale, Selwyn yet found ample scope for ids genius for ecclesiastical organisation. lie removed the episcopal residence to Lichfield; secured the help of two suffragan bishops; established a scheme for the training of candidates for ordination; and put new energy into the hearts of the wovicers, and into the work of the diocese generally; besides making Lichfield a centre of foreign missionary spirit. Tn his last illness, ''amid the wanderings caused by bodily weakness, his thoughts were with the distant islands for which he had done so much, and to whos? evangelisation, when his otvn active labours there were ended, he had given his son." At one time lie would exclaim with kindling eye, "A light to lighten the Gentiles;" at another he would murmur, "They Trill all come back," referring to the Maoris wlio had apostatised during the war, and then in tiie soft Moari language, which, for a quarter of a century was familiar to him as his mother tongue, lie would sav, "It is all light.' He died April 11, 1878, anil lies buried in the churchyard of Lichfield Cathedral. A LEADER OF MEN.

"Links in Mv Life on Land and Sea,' is a title of a' very readable and interesting autobiography by Commander W. .1. Gambler. In this book he gives the following impression of the famous "George Augustus":—"The Bishop was a man of most fascinating but dominating personality. T always think he was « great admiral or general thrown away. He was a, born leader of men, and in the Roman Empire he might have been Marcus Aurelius, acclaimed Imperator by the army, and have been borne on their shields to don the purple at the Capitol. As it was, his incomparable energy and power of organisation fizzled out in starting missions. The Maoris adored him, and he held them In th' palm of bis strong hands'. He was remarkably handsome and well made, excepting that bis legs were too short. He had rather a brusque yet charming manner, whilst the highest virtues of man, including unselfishness carried to selfabnegation, seemed to live ill him. 1 have never seen or known any man like him. There is no shade of doubt that by his power of will and the influence he exercised over the Maoris, he saved Hie entire while population from massacre at a critical moment.