I.O.R.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIV, Issue 216, 19 September 1910, Page 8

1.0. R.

ANNIVERSARY SERVICE

The service at Wesley Church last evening was of a special character, and every available seat was occupied. The occasion was the 39th anniversary of the Bon Accord Tent, 1.0. R., No. 4. The members of .the Tent joined with the members of the Good Templars, Lodge and the members of tne Wairau No-license League, and marched to Wesley Church, where seats had'been reserved in the front of the church for the visiting i brethren.

The pulpit was occupied by the Rev. F. W; Isitt, whoso1 name is a household word in connection with the temperance crusade in New Zealand. The preacher based ' his remarks on St. (Paul's Epistle to the Romans, the second chapter and the 12th verse: "Be not conformed *to this world." Though Mr Isitt has been incapacitated from active work for some time past, yet last night he spoke with all the force and glow of his more doughty days, and with the accent of authority from many years' experience in this great work of reform. The preacher showed that in the imposing structure of the British Empire—of Avhich the people of the present day are the builders— the stone of intemperance must find no place. If in this matter they showed any neglect or want of inspectorship in the day of trial, the Empire would crumble like a house of cards; struck by the wind. The preacher appealed to his hearers to deny those passions which lay at the animal base in every man's nature, but to live a clean, abstemious life, and by self-denial and high-thinking they would build up a virile type of manhood bearing the image and superscription of the Divine". The pronouncing of the Benediction closed a. most impressive and memorable service.