CONFIRMATION SERVICE AT ST. LUKE'S.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 162, 14 August 1914, Page 3

CONFIRMATION SERVICE AT ST. LUKE'S.

Last night a confirmation service was held in St. Luke's Church, when 44 candidates were presented by the Rev. F. N. Taylor to his Lordship the Bishop of the Diocese, for confirmation. /The text of the sermon for evening were the words of St. Paul, "Stand fast in the Lord." His Lordship said that we easily understand why these words were spoken, when the' persecutions of the early Christians were taken into account. St. Paul found, when revisiting one of his churches, that many who had professed to be Christians had fallen away from the true faith to worship false gods, and so, with added, earnestness, he besought the followers of Christianity to "stand fast in the Lord." To-day there were many who had fallen away from the Church, not entirely as in those early days, but so far as to make their attendance at worship a hap-hazard and irregular proceeding. They did not stand as fast as they should do. Many early Christians had to face great hardships, to become outcasts, to suffer numberless indignities, in order to be true to their convictions, but.to-day the path of the Christian way a much easier one. At the same time there was a certain amount of persecution going on to-day, and many a man, many a woman, had found it required, not a small amount of courage to choose the right path and -ling to it in defiance of the opinion of the world. Many things combined to icad young people, and old people too, from the (rue religion, the true Christianity. "To those," said the Bishop, "I would say, 'Be loyal—loyal to Clod, loyal, to His Church, loyal to him in thought and deed.' What would Britain do to-day if her sons were not loyal i:o her? Do not be a churchman or a ( hurchwoman because your father was one, or your mother. Try and understand your Church and her teachings for yourselves. The world wants men and 'women who know and understand their religion, and are prepared to "stand fast in the Lord" under any circumstance.

On Wednesday, the eve of confirmation, an evensong service and baptism was held, when three adults were baptised and nine woi'e admitted into the <Jhurch.