ADDRESS BY THE GENERAL SYNOD TO BISHOP SELWYN.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIV, Issue 3513, 19 October 1868, Page 4

ADDRESS BY THE GENERAL SYNOD TO BISHOP SELWYN.

It will bo remeiobered that the General Synod, during its late S' -sion, appointrd a committee to draw up a fsrowell address to Bishop Selwyn on the eve of his departure to his new sphere of labour at Liiohneld. During tlie sitting of the Synod on Saturday evening, advantage was taken of an interval in the proceedings to present the address. The Biobop of Ckristchurch came forward and presented the following address, which was verytastefully engrossed : — "To the Right Reverend George Augusts, D.D., ] Lord Bishop of Now Zealand md Lichneld, and Metropolitan of the United Chirch of England" and Ireland. " We, the Bishops, clergy, and laity of the" i branch of |the United Church of England and It4r land in General Synod •sceaibled, most respectfully and affectionately address your Lordship upon yotfr resignation of the offioe of Prr .ide it ol this Synod. " Wnen your Lordship came V"> this country, more than twenty-six ye .rs a o, you began your work as the first and only Bishop of New Zea'and by giving a mora united and permanent charaotfP to th 3 successful efforts of the early mission*; ic?. «s"ou end it now as tue_ (jPrita^Se of an cccl iastica&rovine* byTprowdiris for fie permanent maintenance of your own Melanesian Mission, the offshoot ot the New Zealand Church. , " This toeneral Synod is i' a result and witness of your unwearied efforts for the organisation of the native and colonial Church of New Zealand, and of jyour missionaiy labour among the islands of the West Pacific Oc.an. The native of New Zealand, the English i >lonisfc, and the Melanc^rn Islander are all represented here. " With respect to the native Church, a Maori diocese hasbeen constituted, and Maori Sjnods havo been held; 17 native clergymen have ministered,^ or do minister faithfully and loyally in diff /enb parts of the country ; churches and schoo'a have been built, endowments have b n provided, clergyman and catechists have been maintained ; and coUeciiojps have been made for the heathen rslanders of Melanesia by our Maori brethren. "The colonial Church in thi'i oouutiyhas been organised by you upon a system of synodic*! action and voluntary com pact, which secures to every, Churchman who accepted it the enjoyment of true Christian liberty and the exercise of r!l Christian privileges. "Lastly, it is to you, in the good providence of God, that the Melanesian mission owes i existence, and such measure of success a<3 it ha? pleased God hitherto to grant to it. Your faith and courage first carried the Gospel into those wild islands; and your wise forethought devised a method of carrying on the work, which experience has already showmto be well adapted to the prcuUar cirejmstancM of that mission. ' • And now we think, my Lord, how twenty-seven years have passed to-day since you received the episcopal office — years marked by extraordinary events in the history of our country and Church — an episcopate marked in an extraordinary^ degree by your work of frith and labour of love, *nd patience of hope. i " We humbly believe that by your wide and varied experience of, many forms of huSan life, by bringing yon into contact with men iiravery stagj of barbarism and civilisation, or on lonijSy journeys in the solitudes of the New Zealand forest, and on the waves of the West Pacific, God's* Holy Spirit has been training you for an even greater work than any that you have hitherto accotop'ished — for which all that has been done may bo out the preparation—the crowning work, it may be, of your life to which He has now called you. It seems as if you had been Bent first to warm the most distant ' members here, and were called now to quicken tho very hejrfc of our dear mother Church at home, that so the. Jifeblood may circulate with fr~sh vigour throughout the body. <s We know full well that you will never cease to pray and labour for us, and you need no assurance from us that we will ever remember and pray for you. How can we ever forget you ? \ Every spoi in New Zealand is identified with you. ' Each hill and valley, each river and bay and headland is full of memories of you ; the busy town, the lone'y settler's hut, the countless islands of the sea all speak to us of you. Whether your days be few or many, we, a3 long as we live, will ever hold you deep in our inmost hearts. All will pray for you and yours ; the clergy, to whom you have indeed bsen a father in God, the old tried friends with whom you have taken counsel; the younger men of both races whom you have trained, the poor whom you have rolieved, the mourners whom you have comforted, the sick to whom you have ministered, the pmoners-*jsshom you hare visitedj all think of you now, and wiR think of you always with true and deep affation, will offer for you always their fervent prayera. "We humbly pray God, who he . given you the wisdom to conceive and the power to ox cute your great designs, that your high ard noble example may be ever affectionately remembered and dutifully followed by us all, that the mind and spirit of its first Bishop may be stamped for all generations upon the Church of New Zealand, and that the multitude of the isles may learn, in ye-rs to come, th^ name of their first great missionary, and lise up and cr'l him blessed." (Signed by all the members of the Synod.)

Fis Lordship Eaid he might say, in those words of Wordsworth, "Praises, my friend, have often left me mourning " It was most difficult and most painful of all things to one placed In his position to have to reply to such kind expressions as were contained in the address, but in this c-.~e the pain was no doubt much mingled wit'i pleaiure. Suffice it to say t\at he had sought for support and comfort from many whose services were not so conspicuous as, though they deserved equal praise with, himself, if not more. He could say, as had been said on a very different occnion, " Give God the praise ; we know that this man w. a sinner." All the prosperity of the Church in New Zealand was the work of God. The finger of God had been manifested in all that has taken place in New Zealand from the time Mr. Samuel Marsdeu landed here in 1814 until now. It was the comforting prophecy fulfilled that the little one should become a thou^nd. It was a comfort that what one man had begun should become in little more than half a century what the Church of New Zealand now was. But he looked around, and looked at our New Zealand Church, and thought of the time when he came to Sydney and found Bishop Faulkner there with a small numbc of clergymen around him, and reflected that now that little band had extended into all the provinces of New South Wales, with its immense variety of dioceses, Tasmania, Western Australia, South. Australia, and these provinces of New Zealand, with all its satellites in Melanesia, he felt that the power and influence of God's Holy Spirit was being manifested upon earth, and that it h»d plea.cd Almighty God to enable them to see His power with tueir own eyes, so that they need not walk by faith alone, but by sight. Surely it was a great encouragement to all of them to recognise in everything the power of God working through human instruments, and bringing about in His own good time such vast result*. If some of the pillars that had been erect' d seemed to hay, fallen into decay ; if some part of the native missionary work — that work in which so many of them were int' nested I before he came here — if at this present moment that seemed to have fallen into decay, might they not hope that by God's providence, and in the inscrutable development of His will, th's deep dejection would last only for a time, that tabernacle which had fallen down might be built up again, and that the nrtive people might return again to Christianity? Our native clergjjaen need not return, because they had never swerved : it might be said of each one of them, like Milton's seraph Abdiel, " Among the faithless, faithful only he." Though they be few in number, they were ever faithful to that faith which they had espoused, end still the native Church was full of vitality and hope. In all these things they could trace the special blessing of Almighty God, and the signs of steadfastness in the native pastors led them to hope that the time was not far distant when the native Church would be restored again to even a better state than ever. That Church he left to them, as he had said before, as a special legacy. He hoped they would not let the increase of European population so absorb their attention as to cause them to neglect that remnant, which, however poor it mi^ht be, was still a remnant in the great congregation of Christ. It was impossible for him to follow that too kind address through all its details, for that would involve the history of half a life. He would conclude now by most earnestly, most affectionately thanking them for that beautiful address, praying for them, ps he was sure they would all pray for him, that all of them, in whatever station of life it had pleased God ho call them, might fulfil their duty and perform their work with the full guidance and blessing of the Holy Spirit, in bright and unclouded faith in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Chrisi, Jetting no vauity, no ambition, no eccentricity, no private feelings or interests lead them into anything that would not tend to the good of the Church and the glory of God. He mosS affectionately thanked them for the address. (Enthusiastic and prolonged applause.)