OUR CHURCHES.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXIV, Issue 139, 2 July 1888, Page 2

OUR CHURCHES.

(by the editor.)

Undek this heading our readers will be presented with a glimpse of all the churches m Blenheim m succession. The Editor desires it to be understood that all the views are taken from an eclectic and therefore impartial standpoint, and that nothing is prompted by bigotry or hostility. The pictures presented m this column will be analytic, for the writer will " nothing extenuate, nor set down aught m malice." If veneer and artificiality should be stripped off, and the naked truth displayed, the cause of " pure religion" will have been served, and a train of thought set moving which may lead to the dispersion of prejudice and the prevalence of candour and true religion. The first - of " Our Churches" to claim attention is THE EOMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. The position of the Church of Eome is unique. Every other ecclesiastical body is a church of divergence — the Church of Eome still justifies her proud motto, " Semper eadem." We seem to be possibly approaching the day when Macaulay's prophetic picture of the New Zealander sitting on a broken arch of London Bridge sketching the ruins of Old St. Paul's may be realised, if we are to take Lord Wolesley as our guide, and it ig certain that if that day ever comes, the Eoman Church will be stilthe same dogmatic, immovable. A cursory glance at a Catholic congregation, either m church or leaving it, gives us a key to the character of the institution. It yields no place to individualism. The ideal of equality is realised here. The priest, singing mass, is those hearing mass are equal; no layman can aspire to be somebody, or to be " dressed up m a little brief authority." Hence the general air of devoutness that pervades the congregation. The priest is the minister and representative of God, who owes his position not to election, not to a clique, not to personal qualities, but to ordination from on high. -He is God's messenger, and m his presence while he pursues his vocation, the .tongue of the laity is silent. There have been occasions when the ecclesiastical authorities have sought to wield temporal power, and then they have had to fight with temporal weapons, and have been ignominiously defeated; but their spiritual supremacy has never been for a moment questioned. Those who led the British arms against the Armada were devout Catholics, equally ready to shed their life's blood m repulsing a Catholic foe of their country m temporal panoply, and to sacrifice their .lives m defen.ee of the spiritual empire of the Pope. It is not to be wondered at. Human thought is ever advancing, human ideas and conditions are ever changing, and human minds, save a few philosophically daring, require and cry out for some stable thing to lean upon. This the Eoman Church furnishes them with. What wonder, then, that this emblem of stability, of unchangeableness, should have gathered around it so many millions, and that the mutations of human life should have drawn them closer together and bound them the faster to the Eock ? The dogma taught from the chair of St. Peter more than a thousand years ago, is taught now. She regards all men (irrespective of their temporal disI tinctions) as the same. Her ecclesiastics are an absolute hierarchy, her laity form a republic. But while she has laid down an absolute rule, she has been impartial m her administration. Her bitterest enemips cannot say she ever truckled to earthly power, and that she ever made any distinction of persons m dispensing her absolutions and maledictions ; nor can they say she has ever shrunk from going out into the highways and hedges, and bidding all come m to the feast of salvation. She has never scrupled to quarrel with powers .and dominions; neither has she witlicld her aid, her absolutions, her consolations from the poorest. Her ministers have proclaimed their message m the presence of frowning

monarchs, and they have proclaimed it m distant barbarous lands amid fierce savages. In the alleys and slums of large cities where fever and hunger reign, her devoted ministers, male and female, are ever found ; beside the dying warrior on the bloodiest field they have knelt m prayer ; race, colour, language, have never barred their proselytising progress. Austere, devoted, impartial, her ministers have ever been. She has preserved doctrine and learning through many a revolution, through many a dark age, and the number of her ministers who have died at their post cannot be reckoned. To the philosopher the fixity of dogma does not commend itself ; but the philosopher must recognise constancy heroism and devotedness. Hence, though we may not mentally relish the vast influence of this Church, we cannot, m all our candour, refuse our meed of praise, to her for the constancy of her practice. And what a magnificent welcome she offers to the worn and laden and troubled soul! "Only believe 1" Only believe, and here is refuge m an Ark that floats serenely on the most troubled water. Only think what the position of the dveout Catholic must be. His hope and faith are centred m Heaven. He believes the teaching of his church and from that lofty standpoint he surveys, unmoved, all the changes of human affairs. And m her services what comfort he finds ! There before him is the altar, and everything m the sanctuary is symbolical of the Heaven to which his hopes and desires tend. There before the altar stands the Priest, God's ambassador, giving expression to the thoughts of the soul ; the air, tinted with sunbeams that come through stained glass windows, redolent with incense, and laden with divine melodies, intoxicates and lulls the soul, fretted and worn and wearied, into sweet repose. No wonder the Church of Eome holds millions of human hearts m her hand, no wonder the noblest intellects, the highest hearts have surrendered to her. From an outside standpoint, this domination does not seem good, but it is a mighty fact, a fact so mighty that itstrikes us with awe.

When New Zealand was virtually un. known, or was known only as the dwelling place of the fiercest of savages, when a person who came hither was wept over as one who was marching to the cannon'g mouth or the scaffold, there were found priests ready to come forth to these inhospitable stores, to brave danger and death, to lead obscure laborious lives m the church's service. Never had any cause more devoted soldiers. What sort of men the pioneers of Boman Catholicism m New Zealand were many of us know, for some of them still survive. The early ministers were Frenchmen (ah! the kindliness, the simplicity, the culture of the French clergy are too little known) but as years went on and Irishmen came over, Maynooth sent out her soldiers to rear m this distant land the altars of the old faith. The depth of Irish attachment to the church is proverbial ; the people regard it with undiminished love and reverence, and its power m this Colony is a very con-, siderable factor.

It was about 1863 that the Eev Father Seauzeau was despatched from Wellington to this district to found a church for the increasing number of Catholics m this district. Before this the only time the faithful about Blenheim heard mass was when, once a year, a priest came over from Nelson and held service m the Court house, the- old schoolroom, or whatever building might be available. The Messrs Eedwqod, Weld, Ward, and others took a deep interest m the foundation of the church, and a site committee consisting of Messrs Goulter, Kelly, and Kennedy assisted the Eev Father to select a site. Four acres were chosen, a quarter-acre that was given by Mr Sinclair, and a quarter-acre adjoiningthat were acquired by the Church and a building (now girls' schoolroom) was opened at Easter-tide 1864. Father Seauzeau ministered here for several years, and after him several temporary appointments were made, and these filled up the interval to something like six yearssago, when the Eev Father Foley (now parish priest ,at Timaru) was stationed here. Under him the Church prospered ; austere but gentle, earnest, vigilant, unwearied, the good Father, though strong of will and purpose and holding the highest ideas of sacerdotal authority, was revered and respected by all, and his name is mentioned now with deep respect and real affection. To him succeeded the Eev Father Lewis the present parish priest. There is also a school attached to the Church, presided over by Mr McCabe, and a convent school besides. The members of the Church here have indeed done their duty well and faithfully, and m their very handsome church building, opened m 1878, they possess a very fine monument of their zeal and devotion.

The Eev. Father Lewis, the present Parish Priest, is dignified and retiring. A slight air of austerity is redeemed by a healthy colour m the face, and a bright eye. He is thoroughly earnest and reverent; m his earnestness he overlooks, or is careless of, his oratorical shortcomings, paying more attention to the devotional than to the intellectual. His discourse is homely and earnest. His are the simple teachings of faith, not those of philosophy ; and one is disposed to be somewhat surprised at this m a gentleman of Father Lewis' attainments. Were he more philosophical, however, he would probably be less devout, and besides, his Church requires devoutness, and does not favour speculative philosophy. Yesterday morning the Eev. Father discoursed briefly on the feeding of the multitude by Christ, and drew the same familiar lesson from it, — nothing moie. His announcement of the various fixtures was made with scrupulous care and impressiveness, showing that the Father is unceasing m his pastoral viligance and solicitude. He reminded the congregation, too, that this was the day for the annual collection of " Peter's pence," and he specially bespoke liberality m giving to this fund, because of the present circumstances of the Pope. The choir was weakened by the absence of an alto and one or two soprano singers, but the mass was well rendered, m spite of the overbalanced condition of the choir and the impossibility of giving effect to the light and shade of the fine music. The organist deserves a better instrument, as no doubt Miss McCabe often thinks. The music was selected as follows : The Kyrie, from Mozart's 12th Mass; the Gloria, Sanctus and Agnus Dei from Farmer's Mass ; the Credo from Hadyn's Ist Mass. O'Sa'utaris was substituted for the benediction. The male voices were very effective. Mr E. Vavasour's robust tenor was heaid to splendid advautage m the ■Kyrie and m the Credo, and Miss Ward. a.nd Miss Mark (who suffered from the •inequality of the choir) gave the soprano parts with excellent taste and feeling. The Church which is of course Gothic, is a very handsome building with comfortable seat accommodation, and roomy aialeS' and the collection of vehicles outside showed that its members come from far and near As m other Catholic churches, the congregation is devout, punctual and intent upon the service, and there evidently exist between pnest and people all the love and reverence and respect that are so marked a feature of the Eoman Catholic conimunion.