ST. PATRICK: HIS LIFE AND ITS LESSONS FROM A PROTESTANT STANDPOINT.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2149, 17 April 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

ST. PATRICK : HIS LIFE AND ITS LESSONS FROM A PROTESTANT STANDPOINT.

(Wellington Post.) The promise of a lecture upon the life and labours of the patron saint of Ireland by the Rev. H. EL Driver attracted a considerable congregation to the Vivianstreet Baptist Church last evening. The discourse was based upon Ist Cor. xv., 10 : "By the grace of God lam what I am, and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not found in vain, but I laboured more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." The lecturer stated that he had chosen his subject in order to disprove the arrogance of the claim that St. Patrick was a Romanist, to awaken sympathy with the people of Ireland and Irish fellow-colonists, as well as prayers for their enlightenment, and also to trace the workings of sjrace in the life of an eminently successful missionary. The Irish race delighted in the obscurity of their origin, and lored to traco back their ancestry nntil it became lost in the dense mist of pre-historic times. The test of language, however, proved that they were originally a portion of the great Celtic family, who had found an asylum in Hiberaia when drivon from England by the Saxon in. vasion. How Christianity was introduced into the country was a matter of doubt, but at an early date there were sufficient Christians to indues Pope Celestine to send a missionary to them, and it was certain that the faith hart gainod a firm footing in the land and prior to the advent of Patrick. The latter was wrongly styled " The Apostle of Ireland," and the statement that he found an island of pagans and left it an island of saints was also incorrect. It was absolutely certain that Patrick, or Succoth, was not an Irishman, and three countries claimed him as a native, Scotland, Wales, and France. He was supposed to have been born in Armonica, near Boalogne-sur-Mer, in the year 387, and certainly received a careful education. At the age of 16 he was captured by pirates, and carried to the north of Treland, where he was sold to a chieftain, who employed him as * shepherd and swineherd. From his own writings it appeared that the seeds of truth implanted by his father bore fruit during the solitude of his captivity, and this became the turning point in his career. No mention was made in his worHs of the virtue supposed by Romanists to reside in the rite of baptism, of the validity of priestly absolution, of the Church as the only medium of salvation, nor of the necessity of the mediation of Mary and the saints. As a personal sinner he simply dealt with a personal God. After six years of slavery Patrick, led by two dreams, made his way to the seashore, and returned to his native land. He is said to have studied theology under St. Martin, in the monastery of Tours. His heart naturally turned to the benighted dwellers in Ireland, and an irrepressible desire for their welfare led him to forego the attractions of home and entreaties of friends, and return to the scene of his early servitude, one and a half centuries before Augustine and hit monks landed on the shores of Kent. When the pagan darkness of Ireland and the barbarities of the Druidic system were remembered, the heroism of this act became apparent. The question whether or not he received consuoration from the Bishop of Rome was one bitterly contested betwen Protestants and Romanists. The claim of the latter was based upon monkish accounts written four or five centuries after Patrick's death, and mostly made up of monstrous and mendacious fables. In his own writings he makes no mention of consecration, and his silence is decidedly against the idea that he received authority from Rome. In the history of the Irish Church, there wan noticeable a spirit of independence and freedom corresponding with that of the early British Church, which it greatly resembled. Though Pope Leo wrote such volumes of letters, and filled the Papal chair for 22 years at the very time when Patrick was proceeding so prosperously, he does not appear to have penned a line for the missionary's encouragement. The claim that Patrick was a Romanist was invented and untrue, and it was evident that he belonged more to Britain than to Rome— more to the Protestant communion than the Papal Church. The doctrines which he taught proved his oneness with Protestant teaching, and a hymn composed by him when going to tneet the Druidic fire-worshippers, which is ' still extant, could not have been written by a Papist. To him the Bible was tho only standard of truth ; but it must not be supposed that he held apostolic doctrine and practice in their unsullied purity, for errors had already corrupted the Church. His religious system was largely monastic, and on the lands presented by bis converts he founded cloisters, such as he had been accustomed to in Franco, for the training of Christian teachers. He is believed to have taught for about 60 years, and died at the' age of 92, his burial-place being near Downpatrick. As a missionary he was most successful, and the influence of the church which he founded spread to England, Scotland, and even the Continent. In conclusion Mr Drivor demanded why all other countries should rejoice in their several evangelists and Ireland not also awake, and asked his hearers to pray for the unhappy land, and for its immigrants to this fair colony, that they might speedily be saved from error, and led into the liberty of the Gospel. .

Tsy an extra pair of stockings outside of your shoes when travelling in cold weather. Trt walking with your hands behind you if you find yourself becoming bent forward. A Nihilist named Manutscharoff, a noble, and formerly a student in the University of St. Petersburg, has been sentenced by the military tribunal of Odessa to be hanged. The trial was held with closed doors, and all the entrances and approaches to the court were strongly j guarded. I The Emperor William has just given orders that in future prayers are to be offered for the, German navy at all the churches of the Empire. A clause has, consequently, been added to the old prayer for the army.