MEMORIAL SERVICE

Evening Star, Issue 18158, 26 December 1922, Page 10

MEMORIAL SERVICE

REV. R. S. GRAY. ELOQUENtT^RLBUTES. A service in memory of the Rev. B. S. Gray, at ouo time pastor of the Hanover Street Baptist Church, was licit! on Sunday evening. At the outset tho Mayor (Mr J, S. Douglas) referred to the deceased .gentleman’s many services to tho city, especially during tho Great War. Mr Herbert S. Adams, president of the United Temperance Reform Council, spoke of his personal indebtedness to Mr Gray ifior assistance and advice and for valued friendship. Mr Gray had been president of tho New Zealand Alliance in 1915, 1318, and 1919, and had largely shaped the policy which tho alliance had adopted. He possessed executive and organising capacity of a high order, and it was under his leadership that tho Prohibition cause camo nearer to victory than ever before. No tribute would 'be complete without reference to his outstanding powers as an orator. He was “ a master of assemblies,” and had singular skill in swaying audiences of men and women. The temperance causa had had many advocates, but few his equal and none his superior. His memory remained) as an example and an inspiration to all who were determined to carry on tho campaign until victory had been won. Mr A. C. 'Stewart then presented the Church with an enlarged photograph of Mr Gray, and spoko of his intimate friendship with him for some twenty years, during which he had farmed tho highest opinion of his manliness, naturalness, and cheerfulness. His homo life was ideal, and none could tell the loss which Iris sudden removal had inflicted upon his wife and family. In accepting tho beautiful portrait on behalf of the Church, the secretary, Mr H. H. Driver, caidl that Mr Gray and Mr Stewart had been '‘men of tho knotted heart,” and that 'Mr StewarJ could not have done better than perpetuate the memory of his friend by such a speaking likeness. All who had enjoyed Mr Gray’s ministry during the six years ho had held tho pastorate (1913-19) would remember his remarkable pulpit and platform, gifts, his ardent devotion to Jesui Christ, to Whom ho had in early life_ dedicated his rare abilities, bis unswerving fidelity to tho gospel of redeeming love, his zeal for the advancement of the denomination to which he belonged, combined with noble catholicity and broad-mindedness, his plea for social, civil, and national righteousness, his:tender sympathy with the suffering and the sorrowing, and his enthusiastic advocacy of the missionary enterprise. _ The Ohuroh had had many devoted ministers during the sixty years of its history, but none had found a. warmer place : in the heart of its members than Mr Gray. Special prayer was them made that the bereaved family might be divinely comforted.

The Rev. R. A. Knowles Kempton preached the memorial pennon ‘from Isaiah xxxii., 2, “ A man shall bo as an biding place from the wind and a covort from the tempest; a® rivers of water in a drv place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.” Before the service closed the Rev. C. Dallaston, who had come from another service, said that ho had first met Hr Gray thirty-six years ago at Ballarat, and liad known him intimately., during ten years, of his ministry at Vivian street. Wellington. Ho had induced _ the Nelson Church to call him to the ministry, and had enjoyed and treasured his friendship for many years. Ho had- the qualities of truth and "tenderness, which Emerson regarded as essential to friendship. He was intensely .sympathetic, and his voice hod healing tones in it. Ho had ever hcen true to the Gosnel, and had left a memory which all his friends would treasure as a precious legacy. A very imuressive service was closed by the hymn. ‘TV All Thy Saints Who TVom Thear' Labors Rest’ and the benediction.