TE HENUI CHURCH.
A MEMORIAL TABLET. UNVEILED BY BISHOP AVERILL. The Bishop of Auckland. (Dr. A. W. Averill) performed the unveiling ceremony of *Te Henili Hol} - Trinity church’s memorial tablet to fallen soldiers during the course of the morning service yesterday. Boy Scouts from tile Te Henui troop, under Scoutmaster E. F. Burgees, formed a guard of honor, and tvere inspected' by the Bishop at the close of the service. The Ven. Archdeacon F. G. (Evans, Bishop's chaplain, read the lessons, and the Rev. G. T. Beale conducted the service. After prayer the Bishop unveiled the tablet, saying: “io the glory of God, and in memory of the men of this district who gave their lives in the great war, we unveil this tablet in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.” Taking for h'is text a passage of the 24th verse of the 24th chapter of the second book of Samuel: ‘'Neither will I .offer burnt offerings unto God of that Which doth cost me nothing.” The Bishop said a burnt offering was the highest form an offering to God eould take, in that it consisted of a whole or complete offering; nothing was kept back or left over. In the days of David burnt offerings were the accepted sacrifices made to the Almighty when seeking forgiveness for transgressions. Because it was Advent Sunday, and in view of the unveiling ceremony, he could not speak on a more suggestive or impressive subject than burnt offerings. How pour a thing prayers often were, and how perfunctory a worship that cost nothing. People had been heard to eay they could not spare the time, nor afford the means. In other words they were too self-centred to consider their God. Sacrifice was only apparent when an offering demanded sacrifice, or a gift was made which eould not easily be afforded. LEAVING FOR TRUE RELIGION.
To those who did not deny themselves, God was not real, neither wa" His worship sincere. The thought of God as a supreme landlord, who, sitting above in judgment, often caused unrest and He had noticed a recent article in the local morning paper dealing with a criticism of the church. It was an excellent article, and those who had not read it should do so. It was a sad but true statement and set forth very plainly the weakness of constitutional religion. Business life was becoming divorced from religious life. People craved a true and: sincere religion as never before, but did the Church supply this need? God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son. Thie was a great sacrifice, but love could not be shown without sacrifice. Did people think it cost God nothing? .Did’they think it cost nothing to send husband or son to the bitter fields of France? Of cmirse, it cost something, but the cost was in proportion to the iove and sacrifice it entailed. On Christmas morning, when thoughts centred about the birth of Christ, or on Good Friday, when they remembered His cruel death, these thoughts were thoughts of sacrifice. Look how God was misunderstood because He gave to men the great gift of free will. God would become very much nearer if people would remember the suffering and anguish imbill’d on these occasions in the divine heart. God must be made a reality in life, and not regarded as a sort of relic. He willingly humbled Himself when He became a man on earth and suffered all the emotions of mankind. Self-imposed loneliness was sacrifice. Sacrifice was very real in the early Christian days, when Christians were subjected to torture and persecution, but the Church was a real one. The world was trying to follow a religion without the cross. The occasion of the unveiling of a memorial to the fallen was a fitting time to renew their faith in God. When, in answer to the call of duty, the iboys went from their happy homes, leaving behind all loved ones,'they gave as a burnt offering the best they had to offer without any reservations. They gave all when they went fearlessly into the raging fury of no man’s land. There was no thought for self. They did it that women and children in 'New Zealand might be free, that tyranny might be banished, and that lasting good might come. This was the burnt offering.
A FITTING MEMORIAL. He was always looking for a memorial to commemorate the sacrifice of wives and mothers, for he thought the boys regarded their anxious wailing as a greater sacrifice than their own. A memorial was a burnt offering. Had it ever struck them that a parent’s sacrifice would touch the fatliei heart of God. He was honored to 'to allowed to unveil and dedicate the memorial. Many of the names were familiar to him, and one in particular had been a member of his parish in Christchurch. If they were to be worthy of those boys who so freely gave their lives, they would make their religion mean something, and offer to God not their second beet but. their very ’best. God would bless these men end reward them for their greatest of all burnt offerings. After the service Mrs. H. Tanner, who has lost two of her sons, placed at the foot of the tablet a beautiful wreath of laurels. THE TABLET. The tablet was designed and ciado from beaten copper by the Rev. R. K. Pritchett, of R'iccarton. At t'u' top. between the dates 1914 ami I'.iJS was placed the symbol of the cross, while below two New Zealand ensigns, in blue enamel, were drapes! about a circle of laurel leaves, enclosing the names to be honored. The inscription, inset with blue enamel, read:— “To the glory of God, and in memory of Edward Claud Cook, Alfred George Petoh. Edwin Percy Greatbateh, Chud leigh Inwood Kirton, Andrew John Neville Cdsbrook, Alfred Robert Francis Harding, Robert Cecil Claud Roberts, William Henry Tanner, Frederick Arthur Tanner and John George List. They died gloriously in the great war. Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.'*
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Taranaki Daily News, 4 December 1922, Page 4
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1,026TE HENUI CHURCH. Taranaki Daily News, 4 December 1922, Page 4
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