HANOVER STREET CHURCH.

Evening Star, Issue 15018, 29 October 1912, Page 10

HANOVER STREET CHURCH.

The new Baptist Church in Hanover street was opened on Sunday with special services. At 9.45 a.m. a dedicatory prayer meeting was held, the, pastor (Rev. William Hay) presiding. At the close of this prayer meeting Mr Matthew Cbing Hoy presented to the church a Communion Tabic on behalf of the Chinese members of the church. The pastor accepted the gift on behalf of the church, and expressed gratitude for it, and also for the gift of two costly lanterns, panelled with deli-cately-painted silk, that hung in the vestibules and were lit with electric light. The first service of worship was held at 11 o’clock, when the preacher was the Rev. Wm. Hay, who took as his text Ephesians ii., verses 21 and 22. The day will come, said the preacher, when material temples would no longer be necessary, when they would have served their purpose and have dissolved into nothing but holy and beautiful memories ; but as yet the material side of the church had its claim, and in responding to that claim in faith and love towards God in the erection of the church building they were responding also to the claim of the spiritual. The new and beautiful church building was suggestive of an aid to the exercise of the deepest instinct of the human heart in the worship of the Most High. It was also an evidence of faith in the. modern need of the Church in the modem world, the continuity of the function of the Church, and the certain realisation of the ideals of the Christ in the unfailing advancement of His Kingdom. The beauty of the building stood for the beauty of the redeeming, uniting, and sanctifying power of the constraining love of God revealed in Jesus Christ. In the afternoon a special service for young people was held, when the present superintendent and two ex-snper-iutendents took part, and an address was given by the Eev. R. H. Knowles Kempton, of Auckland. In the evening the Rev Mr Kempton, who has just relinquished the office of president of the Baptist Union, was the preacher. The musical services for the day were under the direction of Mr Gilbert (choirmaster), Mrs J. H. Maclaren presiding at the organ. The offertories, which were on behalf of the building fund, amounted to nearly £3OO. MR GALE’S RECITAL ON THE ORGAN. .The celebrations were continued last nigbt, Mr W. Paget Gale giving a recital on the Jenkins organ that has been enlarged and cleaned. A large congregation assembled, the floor seats being all occupied. Mr Gale presented a well-varied programme, consisting of a ‘ Concertstuck ’ by the late Dr Spark, a tuneful ‘ Allegretto' by the blind organist Hollins, a graceful ‘ Romanza ’ by Steggall, ‘ The Curfew ’ by Horsman, alight ‘ Offertoire ’ by Thomas Hewlett, a pretty ‘ Pastoral ’ by Morandi, and the same composer’s ‘Offertoire in E flat,’ and three bracketed items by Dudley Buck, these being ‘ Home, Sweet Home’ with varia, lions, the idyll ‘At Evening.’ and a triumphal march. By this wide choice of music Mr Gale proved the organ in all ways, the audience being very pleased to discover that the instrument has a full and soft tone and quite enough power for the purposes of the services. Another point on which the recital gave assurance was that the workmanship put into the organ by Norman and Beard is such as to give complete satisfaction. For these proofs, and for a very pleasant evening, the congregation felt very much obliged to Mr Gale, and at the end of the recital the Rev. W. Hay said so on behalf of all present, remarking that Mr Gale was entitled to their best thanks for his supervision of the reconstructive work, and also for his fine demonstration of the capacity and quality of the instrument. The assisting performers at the recital were Mrs G. Munro, who sang Adams's ‘ The Light of the World,’ Miss H. K. Walker, whose violin solo (the Schubert-Wilhelmj ‘ Ave Maria’) was so much enjoyed as to lead to an encore, and Mr R. W. Shrimpton, who sang Gounod's ‘ The Holy Temple.’