KNOX CHURCH JUBILEE

Evening Star, Issue 22069, 1 July 1935, Page 3

KNOX CHURCH JUBILEE

CLIMAX TO CELEBRATIONS THE COMMUNION SERVICES The celebrations in connection with the • seventy-fifth anniversary of Knox Church came to a climax yesterday, when communion services were held, to which all past as well as present members of the congregation were invited. The preacher at' the morning service was Dr Dickie, moderator of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand, who preached an appropriate sermon based on Ezra, hi., 11-13. In the course of his sermon Dr Dickie said they had reached an important milestone in their life as a congregation. In this young country there were very few institutions which had had a life history as long as 75 years. There were still fewer which had meant so much over all these years to the city of their location and to the whole dominion. There was, perhaps, none which had secured and retained more abundantly the lifelong loyalty of so large and devoted a body of able and earnest men and women. Under God they had made Knox Church what it had been and now was, and on the other hand Knox Church had done not a little to make them. Just in the proportion as the spirit of Christ dwelt in _ any church, so it exercised a general influence in the strengthening and upbuilding of Christian character and the diffusion of Christian ideals. But he was quite convinced that apart from this ihfluonoe Knox Church had meant a great deal to not a few—just because it was large and influential and the rallying ground for so much community service. When Knox Church was founded Dunedin was still a very small town, and much more Scottish and Presbyterian than it had now become. They had given the first two Dunedin churches a representative character and an all-round influence such as no newer church was ever likely to secure anywhere in New Zealand, but which both First Cjuirch and Knox Church still in great measure retained. During the past week they had heard from many far better qualified to speak of their early history than he was how much Knox Church owed to tlie work and influence of Dr Stuart, who had filled a foremost place in every department of the life of the growing city for 34 years. The speaker said he made no attempt to tell their history. His aim was rather to remind each of them that they were' members of a congregation with a great history, and to get each of them to examine their own hfearts and ask: “ What does this history mean to me? By what right am I a member of this goodly fellowship ?” It was their minister’s intention that their celebrations should reach their climax in a communion service where he (Dr Dickie) should preside as representing the church as a whole. They all deplored Mr Herron’s illness, and it was the hope and prayer of every one of them that he would be speedily restored to health and to his many labours. That morning they could best help him—next to their prayers—by trying to enter into his ideals and intentions regarding these anniversary services and making that communion service the culmination of them all. Mr W Paget Gale, organist of the church from 1905 to 1928, presided at the organ during the service. EVENING SERVICE. Professor S. E. Hunter was the preacher in the evening, when Mr C. K. Spackman, the present organist and choirmaster, was at the organ. At this service the choir rendered the anthem ‘ Our Fathers Built This House of God,’ which had been specially composed for the occasion by Mr Spackman, the words being written by Mrs D. C. Herron. A special vesper, also composed by Mr Spackman (words by Mr B. C. Dowling) was also used. Professor Hunter took his text from St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians, chapter ii., verses 12 to 16. He said it was apparent God had a plan for each life. Paul was confident that He who had begun a good work in these Philippians would perfect it, and to this he recurred when he said: “Work out your salvation ... for it is God that worketh in you.” Those words followed his great vision of the humbled and exalted Christ. Such a vision should be applied to life, moving both to crossbearing and courageous hope. Every time of exaltation of spirit should inspire to nobler work. There was a dan-’ ger lest such times should be only effervescence of spirit, leaving a stale, flat reaction. So the enthusiasm < of these celebrations should be retained _ and turned into the channels of Christian service. The uplift of the spirit should result in a lasting zeal and_ a firmer loyalty to the humdrum duties of the common Christian life. Paul said in effect: ” Make zeal God’s plan for your perfection; work at it, work it but.”

Dr Hunter then pointed out the ideal for the church and her members. “ That ye may bo blameless and consistent children of God, without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.” They were not to compromise with their environment, but to be a distinct class, a distinct organisation, with a distinct reason for its existence. It was the spirit of compromise with the ethical ideals and social customs of a non-Christian world that weakened the effectiveness of the church’s witness. As there were in Paul’s day “ Saints in Rome.” “ Saints at Philippi,” so in Dunedin Christiana 'should be a dedicated people, blameless,_ consistent in their profession of religion. For it was by consistent living that the church held out the light of truth, the word of life. Christians were to be lights in dark places. The spirit in which the testimony was to be carried out, continued the preacher, was the spirit both of trust and fear. Trust might degenerate into carelessness and presumption. “ Watch and pray ” should be their motto. Runyan illustrated this danger when in ‘ The Pilgrim’s Progress ’ he described Simple Sloth, and Presumption fettered and asleep on the way to the Celestial City. Yet Christians should trust the all-working God. The indwelling Holy Spirit was the power for character building and for Christian service, and was_ the life and power of the church. Christ nromised the power of the spirit when He commanded His disciples to ho His witnesses in the world. Dr Hunter closed with an appeal for a dedication of life to God through Jesus Christ, so that in that way a spirit-filled church might in very deed be a divine luminary in the land. After the benediction, ns a finale to f)jl the special services, the congregation stood while the organist played the ‘Halleluiah Chorus.’ This service, which, except for a Sunday school gathering to be held on Tuesday evening, marked the conclusion of tho anniversary celebrations, was to have been taken by tho Rev. D. C. Herron, the minister of Knox Church. Mr Herron has, however, been prevented by an attack of influenza from taking part in any of the celebrations in the preparations for which he took a leading part. ■, General disappoint-

merit has been expressed at his inability to participate in this important event in the history of his congregation, and much sympathy has been felt for him in his indisposition. Satisfaction was felt at the announcement made by Professor Hunter at last night’s service as to the improvement that has been shown in his condition.