THE VOLUNTEERS.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 10637, 23 April 1900, Page 2

THE VOLUNTEERS.

BATTALION CHURCH PARADE.

The annual cliuroh .parade of the North Canterbury Battalion took place at the Cathedral yesterday morning. Shortly after 10.30 the men fell in at the Drillehed, and at v quarter to elevora tltey marched to the Cathedral, ria daehel and' Colombo street*; The troops were headed by the (iurrieon Bam J, which played appropriate selections on the way. A large number of people 'had assembled at the Drilisbed to watch tho departure of the men, and the streets were fined <with spectators. The rnnall space allotted to the public in the Cathedral was quickly filled, and many had to content themselves ,with a view of the volunteers from the outside.

The *taff officers present were:—Lieut.Colonelu Gordon and Slater, Majors Day and Wolfe, Captain pnd Adjutant Hobday, Hteff-Sereeant-Mttjor VartMirg, Battalion S*srg«Mit-Majur Hteere, and Surgeon-Major Irving. The various corps mustered a» follows:~ Mounted Kifl«s, under Captain Snow .... IS i. Battery, under Cbptain Donald ... 46 Engineer*, under Captain Dougall ... 46 City Guards, under Lieutenant Bishop ... 40 College Rifles, Under Captain Harper ... 42 City Rifles, under Captain Louieson ... 34 Imperial Kiflee, under Lieutenant Holder-

ness .., .„ ... ... eg Sydenham Rifle*, uuder Captein Smith ... 41 Linwood Kiflee, under Captain DnvUm ... 40 l/ytteltpu Navale, under Lieutenant) Hewlitt SO Queenli Cadcta, under Captain, Lane ... 3a Cyolo Corps, under Lieutenant Finnis ... 18 Dearer Corps, under Surgeon-Captain Anderson ... ... ... « 30 Staff ■* ft Garrison Band, under Bucdmaater Mtrton 26 ToUl 406 The service at the Cathedral wan conducted by the BLehop of Chris tehurcb, who preached from the text, "The eting of death m «i», <und the strength of tin Jar the law. Bat thanks be to God wihich giveth us the victory through our Lord! Jesus Chriet." (I. Corinthians xv., 56 and 57). In the oounw of hit* sermons hf. said that an oeoamon like the present brought together many men, with varying interests and creed*, but ,who -had a close kinship one -with •notber; for we w«re alike In otic birth into thJe -world, in the nature which we inherited, in the fact that at last we came to d&e, and at each a time as this it seemed most suitable that a subject should be found , common to all, and yet suggested By the great; Icetival jusrt celebrated. Let them look thla fact fairly in the face, that death was certain and common lo us all. We were ready to attribute victory to death and to regard it oe the end of all thing*, and in truth death was a very great and solemn thing} At some time, sooner or later, ell died. We shared with the other creoturee of God an instinctive clinging to life. Tho higher the rise in the scale of creation, or humanity, the more serious did death become. Even religion, he ventured to «ay, to a certain extent did not relieve the dread of death. In these days we had *n exaggerated idea of death, and yet we talked jrery lightly of it. Why was it* BecausiTufere wa» an inherent sense of sin among us. The savage died happier than * bad Christian, and no St. Paul said "the strength of gin is the law." That which made sin more terrible "was the fact that we knew all rtbout it. At.first eight we might suppose there was no victory over death. A man might face death with a courage and firmness that was a victory in itself. But it was not a complete victory; £te was not a victory through <mr Lord Jesus Christ. But if faith opened out some of the mysteries beyond! the region of death, that death after all touched only a very •mall part, it took ifoe body, bet the true ■eff passed , hence. Thm. there was a victory over death, but the sia remained. If he (the preacher) coujd bring them to tlie Gross of Jesus Christ, could show them that men could find in Him forgiveness of tieir qms, then he should have taken away the bitterness dt death.

At the conclusion of the service the men ■were drntvTO: un in Cathedral square, to the north of the Godley statue, whence they returned to the Drill&hed, end there dismissed.