PULPIT REFERENCES.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 10043, 23 May 1898, Page 5

PULPIT REFERENCES.

In the majority of the churches yesterday, reference was made at more or less length to the death of Mr Gladstone. Appended are brief reports of the remarks of the various preachers : — THE CATHEDRAL. The Rev. Canon Harper preached to a large congregation at the Cathedral yesterday morning. He chose as his text the following words from the 39th and 40th verses of the 11th chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews—"And these all having obtained a good repute through faith received, not the promise; God huving provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect." In the chapel of perhaps the greatest school in the world — one might say that without exciting envy — Eton College, the words he had just read were placed upon its walls. They were painted in large letters that everyone could see and read them with ease. We could imagine that the youthful Gladstone when he entered the chapel for the first time would have read them with interest. We could imagine, judging from his character, that he might have given more than a notice to the ideal eypressed in them. The ancient school, with its historic associations, the ancient building in which so many men had passed their boyhood, the old chapel in which so many who had lived and had obtained the highest places in the State and the Church, had prayed and worshipped, would have appealed with peculiar force to a nature like Gladstone's, already at that early age pervaded and influenced by ideals; a nature pure and lofty, which showed itself in the long years of a long life to be under the influence of the greatest of all faith— the Christian faith. The service that day was intended to commemorate the life of a great man Those who were competent to judge, who knew Mr Gladstone's strong and wc-ak points, had given it as their deliberate opinion that he was the greatest Englishman of this century. We could not suppose for one moment that this was just a piece of mere fulsome flattery, or simply the opinion of men carried away for the moment by a wave of generous emotion. It was the opinion of real hard-headed men of affairs; of men who had differed from him in opinion, who at times, like Mr Chamberlain, had severed themselves from him as their political leader. He (the Rev. Canon Harper) had no wish to pass a special enlogium on Mr Gladstone's life and character. That had been done by abler people than he; the civilised world had borne ample testimony in newspaper articles and obituax-y notices to the high character and the varied gifts of the departed statesman. What he desired to do was. from the contemplation of such a character, tso draw some thoughts which might encourage us in our own small spheres to live out our lives as nobly as we cduld. Mr Gladstone's life (might he repeat it?) suggested the study of greatness. Three of the elements which went to make up greatness were purpose, breadth, and height. Such characteristics belonged to St. Paul, and with truth it could be said that they belonged also to the life of him of whose death we had just heard. Mr Gladstone possessed tiiose elements which constituted greatness —not, of course, unmingled with imperfection, because he would not have been a man had he been perfect. His life was full of purpose; he was a man of quick and large sympathies, above all a man of deep religious faith and conviction, and somehow or other he felt that Christian faith was not incompatible with great intellectual power. Religious as a boy; religious as a young man; religious as an old man; throughout his long life with all its triumphs; with* all its interests and with all its occupations, he seemed to be like one who moved among things unseen and eternaL It was said of his rival, Disraeli, good man as he was, that just before his death his mind seemed to travel back to the House of Commons, where he had won such renown. A few minutes before hit death he.

raised himself in his bed in an attitude approaching that it was his custom to assume when he rose in* the House of Commons, and his lips moved without sending out any words. Mi- Gladstone's last words —if telegrams spoke truth —and his attitude—if we might so speak of it—on his dying bed, were the words and attitude of prayer. He was heard to murmur the first few sentences of that unmatched prayer, the prayer of our own aad Kis Divine .Lord. Turn to ourselves for a moment. How valuable and how all-important was it to us as a study of greatness. All the more important was it for many of us who had been brought up in the colonies. In many respects we who had passed our youth in the colonies were at a great disadvantage. We went to school, but few great names were associated with it. A Doy of England entered one of the public schools and the very atmosphere was tilled with the ideals of greatness. He would see all around him evidences of great lives. In schoolroom, in hall, in chapel, there would be confronting him monuments raised to the names of great men. We, here, went to college—one of our local colleges—.the walls of which were bare, and the college had little or no history behind it. In older countries, iv the college hall and in the college chapel, paintings and monuments reminded the impressionable student of the glories of the past and of brilliant achievements. We eoulu see if we chose to think for a moment that we were at a disadvantage us compared with those who had beeu reared in older countries. But we must do what we could to meet our disadvantages. It was not often that one could hope to have any influence from a place like the pulpit, but supposing one might imagine such influence, might he ask the young people present who were of that cynical, nil admirari, spirit, of sneering at everything which was great, merely giving a qualified assent in such silly words as '" not bad " — this was what was got from many of the colonial youth—might he ask them to beware of that spirit which was creeping over the minds of tlie young colonials. He spoke to them as almost a colonial himself, having been here from his earliest boyhood. He asked us to cherish ideals and cultivate a generous appreciation of great and good characters by reading and studying the lives of great men, recollecting by following the examples of such men as Mr Gladstone and others we could do something to minimise and lessen our disadvantages. We could be benefited by studying at the feet of those whom we instinctively felt to be great men. The heroes of mankind were the mountains of the moral world. They diversified its manhood ; they furnished the watershed of its history. We should not be blind to their superiority, nor indifferent to their eminence. We should think not of their defects or their angularities but rather of thoir strength and their greatness. "Be followers of mc," once cried an earnest man hundreds of years ago, and then he added "aslam of Christ." So we might apply the example of Mr Gladstone which appealed to us to-day, and if we were in any doubt we would know this that he too would add with feelings of genuine humility " as I also am of Christ." The " Dead March" was played at the close of the service. BISHOP JULIUS AT TBIARU. Bishop Julius preached at St. Mary's, Timaru, yesterday morning in eulogy of Mr Gladstone as an English churchman and an example of a learned and gifted man, who, taking part in many controversies, retained his faith in Christianity and his adherence to the Church to the end. He spoke also of Mr Gladstone's great services to the Church when, as Prime Minister, he took exceptional care in choosing spiritual men for spiritual appointments.