MEMORIAL SERVICE.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 September 1921, Page 6

MEMORIAL SERVICE.

TO THE LATE REV. DREW. A large congregation was present at the Baptist Church, New Plymouth, yesterday morning when a memorial service to the late Rev. William Drew was conducted by the Rev. A. H. Collins. The building was suitably draped, special hymns were sung, and Miss Ivy Campbell rendered “Oh, Rest in the Lord” as a solo.

In the course of his sermon Mr. Collins said: “By the translation and promotion of our friend the Rev. William Drqjv this church has lost its first minister and New Plymouth one of its most honored citizens. This congregation is poorer, the town and district, and even this Dominion are impoverished by his passing. Faithful as a friend, zealous in all that makes for good citizenhip, loya] as a Britisher, and devoted as a minister of religion. Mr. Drew was the very type of man needed for moulding New Zealand. His outlook on life was. not narrow, nor was his- patriotism pinched and parochial. He was a man of deep convictions, a-id lie had courage to express them, blended with a beautiful spirit of toleration towards other mens thoughts. He was too big a man to cherish a grudge. His friendship was of a practical order, and his greatest pleasure lay in giving pleasure to and helping other folk, out of a heart which overflowed with simplicity and kindness. His spirit was as young as that of the youngest of us, even after he had passed the age of four score years, in that he was quick to recognise latent ability, and would help to develop such by discriminating praise. You know better than I how lovingly our friend served this church as its founder, its minister, and as its revered and honored member right down to the end. How he loved this church, loved its services and prayed for its prosperity .... It is not for one,” said the preacher, “to lift the veil from his home life, to toll what he was as husband and father, more than to s.ty this: That those who knew hifn best loved him most. 1 will not shame h:s gracious memorial with a word of that flattering which was so .oreign to nis nature. It was my privilege to come near my friend—who was your frimd—in regard to those great questions, the deepest and noblest in shaping men’s lives, and I tell you in weighed and measured words, that my friend —'who was your friend —wa6 a good man. Simple, brave and. st -iig, because in the reverential recognition oi the Word and Will of God, and supremely because of his simple trust in his Saviour Christ his Lord. ... So I lay my simple

spray of immortalles on the grave of my dear friend, and pray for grace that I. may be as good a man, and as faithful a minister as was he.