St. Peter's Church, Queenstown.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1586, 22 April 1887, Page 5

St. Peter's Church, Queenstown.

The Christian season now closing was, as usual, marked by special services in connection with above church. During Holy Week frequent opportunities were given for contemplation on the mysteries of redemption, and on (»ood Friday especially, when twe full services were held—litany also having been said at an earlier hour. At both services the l\ev. 1). O. Hampton, incumbent, officiated, and in his sermons dwelt uoon sjjeci.il lessons in connection with that great commemorative day. On Easter Day the services were bright and lie.nty and the congregations good, while the church was as neatly and tastefully decorated as we have ever seen it on any of these Church festivals. The incumbent officiated at both services, and gave pointed Master sermons. In the morning he dwelt upon the freewill offering of Christ as a sacrifice for our sakes, pointing out that that sacrifice was in keeping with the world's wide law of Cod, whereby oi.e person or thing has to suffer and die for another : that it showed a love previously unknown to man ; that all the life and glory thereby brought us arc ours through confession of and faith in Christ who made this great sacrifice; that in ln-.king this confession we are to nail our colors to the nm.it, not roil them up and put them in our pockets; that the faith necessary makes Christ a living Christ 10 our souls in daily life, guiding us «iih his c\e when templed to do c\ i!, strengthening us hy his grace when trying to do good, making lis partakers of his rcsurrcctive power in enabling us to lise up in new life unto God. The text u;is ltomans x. 9. In the evening the preacher dwelt upon the resurrection of Christ as the very keystone of Christianity, pointing out the importance of our being, therefore, made sure of the fact through sufficient evidence ; showing that Easter Day itself, referred to by St. P.ml, fixed as to date by the General Council of the undivided orthodox Church, held at Nict a, vu., 325—who in fixing such date followed the traditional teaching of .Saints I'cter and Pitul—is a positive historic proof that it has been observed by all Christians ot the resurrection of Christ, just as the anniversary if a battle or other event is a positive proof that that battle was fought—that event occurred. The text was Ist Coi. xv. .'» S. which "peaks so expressly of the many occular witnesses to Christ's having risen again from the dead, and the cre-it value of these verses as o testimony !av in the fact that this epistle of St. Paul was one part of the New Testament which the severest, most adverse and most learned critics were forced to admit to he the genuine production of St. Paul, leaving the matter in far less doubt than the belief that Shakespeare 'vrote the plays which bear Ins name. This snowed the impregnable fortress iu wiiijli Gospel truth is lodged.—Communicuti'd.