SUNDAY OBSERVANCES.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 131, 4 June 1923, Page 7

SUNDAY OBSERVANCES.

SPECIAL SERVICE AT ST. MATTHEW'S. -.. GOVERNOR READS LESSON. .Appropriately enbugh, the sermon at St. Matthew's Church yesterday, when a special service was held to mark the birthday of His Majesty the King, was preached by the King's Chaplain (Canon Bickersteth, of Canterbury Cathedral), now on a visit to New Zealand, and the Lesson was read by his Excellency the Governor-General (Viscount Jellicoe). His Excellency is an admirable reader, and the large congregation that attended the service yesterday morning will long remember his reading of the telling 10th chapter from the First of Samuel, containing the account of the annointing of Saul. The Lesson ends at the 24th verse, with the words, "God Save the King!" and, read by one of the calling and in the position of his Excellency, the stor> was doubly impressive. A guard of honour formed of Boy Scouts under the district commissioner, Mr. R. C. Grigsby, received his Excellency, who was accompanied by a party from Government House. General Sir Edward Chaytor, Commanding the Forces, Col. H. R. Potter, Commanding the Northern Command, and several ot their staffs, attended the service in uniform, and also present were the Mayor of Auckland (Mr. J. H. Gunson), accompanied by several members of the City Council and the Town Clerk (Mr. J. S. Brigham). Bishop Averill, Bishop of Auckland, the vicar (the Rev. C. H. Grant Cowen),and the late vicar (the Rev. W. E. Gillam), In addition to Canon Bickersteth, took part in the service. The Bishop said the prayers for the Royal Family and the Empire, and the rest of the service was taken by the vicar and Mr. Gillam. The special music arranged by the organist (Mr. J. H. Phillpot) included the anthem, "Zadok the Priest," and the service closed with the singing of the National Anthem.

Canon BicTtersteth took his text from Habakkuk, chapter 2, verge 14: "The earth shall be full of knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." The preacher nointed out that ite world was in much the same set of circumstances to-day as when Habakkuk lived; it was suffering- from the aftermath of war. People thought that after the late Great War the world would be i better and would move forward on belter lines, and when people found that it did not there was great disappointment, and many people got disheartened. The only tiling that could save tlie world was the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. Such glory needed expression and found it in creation, but still more in the character of Jesus Chriet, called the Glory of God, and full of grace and truth. As such knowledge spread over the earth and mankind accepted it, there would be real security for expecting men to learn to live as God lived. It was a notable help when those in authority, such as His Majesty the King, illustrated and illuminated by their lives such a noble conception. >~o one better understood than the King- that majesty shorn of its externals might become a jest, and on the proper occasions no European Court could be more majestic than the British, but in the sincerity, simplicity and unselfishness of his daily Jife, in the warmth of his affections, and in the tenderness of his sympathy with Wβ Empire, there was/ revealed the greater glory of a fine character. In all such, work he was untirintr, and was helped by the Queen, whose Royal crown had been said to be not the jewelled symbol of Imperial Sovereignty, but her place in the heart of the people. The Prince of Wales, visitinsr a great city, said that Kingship was like one occupying a great position, to which men rightly looked for a load and the setting of an example. Such words, snid the Preacher, were conspicuously true of his Jjjoyal father, and therefore on His AlajestT's birthday they said from their flirts, "God save the King, and bless