DEDICATORY SERVICE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 167, 14 July 1916, Page 2

DEDICATORY SERVICE.

MEMORIAL WINDOWS UNVEILED. The new. ■windows which have _ been presened to the Church ai the F.piphany. Newton, by the congregation," -were dedicated -by Dr. A. W. Averill, Anglican Bishop of Auckland, last night. The Bishop preached from ti>e veree: "For as I passed by and Deiusld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription: To the unknown' God. Whom, therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you." "I wonder •why the ancient Greeks set up that altar to the 'unknown/ God't" asked the Bishop. "Possibly they had won some great victory,-and were not quite sure which of their many gods to attribute it to, and bo set up an altar to the 'unknown.' Probably, however, with their city containing numerous representations of their gods and goddesses, they still felt that" there was something deeper and "truer." This, continued the Bishop, was-the true religious-in-stinct that was in every man, an instinct that might- be perverted, birt there it was. The great need of to-day was a real- and-true belief in'-God and God'sreality. TJio-church was Godis, drawing or-withdrjrwing room—a place where ■we could withdraw from the world, to realise, the one true God. • -The, ■ -window's which he " dedicated, said the r ßishop, would serve to remind the congregation of the need for service. The men to whom the memorials -were dedicated had given their lives in rendering service. He was glad the windows bare .the symbol of the cross, for .he looked upon every man who had given his life in this way as taking his place beside the cross of Calvary. They Tvore not so far away, but -were in the •upper school of ■ development, while, we ■were in the lower, and were being trained for still higher service.