ANNIVERSARY DAY SERMONS

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12378, 18 December 1905, Page 9

ANNIVERSARY DAY SERMONS

THE DEAN AT THE CATHEDRAL. J A- special sermon bearing upon AnniTereary Day, December 16th, was preached by Dean Harper at the Cathedral yesterday morning before a laxge congregation. The Dean, who based his sermon on the text, "For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whoso builder and maker is God" (Hebrews xi., 10), eaid that Saturday wae the anniversary of what was once known as the foundation, of the Provineo of Canterbury. More than half a century ago men of light and learning conceived the idea of founding a •settlement in a distant part of the British Empire, which they intended should be an example of & colonial settlement in which from the first all the elements, including the very highest, of a good and right state of society should find their proper place and their active operation. That, speaking generally, was the ideal that the founder of this province placed before them. On turning back to some of the words spoken by various men of distinguished character and distinguished abilities at the time when the idea of a Canterbury settlement was taking shape, and was actually beiug carried into effect, ono found that all the speeches made by these men sot forth a great ideal. Oho speaker after another alluded to and . emphasised the high character of the j new settlement that was to be planted I in this part of tho colony. These men felt that it was of capital importance to found a colony under right institutions. They declared it to be a matter of tho utmeet importance that tho infancy of the new people should Lo surrounded with wholesome influences, and should grow up amidst these institutions which should stamp it with a charactor of moral and religious truths. With thcea strong convictions the founders of Canterbury determined to make this portion of tho colony a Church of England settlement, and they made all tJws provision in their power to secure to the Church the necessary means for her establishment, and for the strengthening of her position. Ho supposed most would bo found to sympathise with tho idea of a colony based on religion, however much they might differ as to the wisdom of tho attempt to mako a particular Christian organisation the means for carrying it into effect. Those who wero members cf tho historic Church of England naturally sympathised with the general,and particular aims and objects of the founders of the settlement, but at tho samo time a great many among them were by no means unmindful of the wholesome influence that had boon at work in this community through tho instrumentality" of many Christian denominations other than tho Anglican Church. Those ibundens of the Canterbury settlement, and those who left their old homes and came out here to settle in a new country, were not, it eaemed to him, unliko those who in far-off times left their old homes, as they thought, at the call of God, and sought a new country, looking steadfastly for a city which had foundations whoso builder and maker was God. Thoso Canterbury pioneers, no doubt, were influenced by considerations of a material kind; they hoped, possibly, to better themselves and to make pleasant homes for themselves; they hoped—and he did not cay it was an illegitimate hope—to enrich themselves. But wo should not do them justice if we thought that those only were their aims. Their aim also was to build up a new settlement on the basis of truo religion. Those people still had a message for us to-day. Though most of them had passed away, they still spoke to us, and still appealed to us to cherish their ideals, and to keep up, however difficult it might he, a high standard of life.