A GREAT BISHOP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14047, 29 April 1909, Page 6

A GREAT BISHOP.

SELWYN CENTENARY.

TO-DAY'S CELEBRATIONS.

George Augustus Selwtn, whose centenary is being celebrated in Auckland to-day, will always be especially remembered as the great missionary Bishop, who organised, though he did not found the Church of New Zealand, who welded together two incoherent races into a nation ; who pioneered a way for future missions among the Pacific Islands with an intrepidity and skill that may have been equalled but not surpassed, and did more than any man of his time towards moulding into one body the whole Anglican communion.

■ Bishop Selwyn belonged to a distinguished family, and even in his college days was celebrated for his muscular Christianity. His early vigorous and manly habits of life he brought with him in taking up hie duties as a great leader and organiser of the Church in this lovelier Britain of the Southern Seas. Here in his great diocese he almost lived either in the saddle or on the deck of the mission vessel, and carried with him in all his work that fervent enthusiasm and contempt for luxury and ease which allies him rather to the apostolic fathers in the early ages of Christianity than to the chiefs of the modern Church. APOSTLE OF THE MAORIS. Bishop Selwyn was a remarkably handsome.man, with a head which was the admiration of phrenological students. ' His energy was indomitable, supported by a splendid physique; he had a most winning smile, but when occasion required it he could be sternness itself. A strict disciplinarian, he practised what he preached, and his whole life was one of self-abnega-tion ; a stringent economist, yet he valued money only for the good he could do with it. A trained elocutionist, as a preacher, he was most effective and impressive; he had a wonderfully toned voice, which could be heard without effort throughout a whole assemblage. In his- rendering of the church service, it seemed as if every word welled up from his very heart. It was once said that to hear Bishop Selwyn read a passage of Scripture was a sermon in itself. The apostle of the Maoris, he cared for them as his own children; he loved, them for their trust, affection, faith, simplicity, and courage, and they owe much of their present status as a people to his teachings and influence. He was very strong in his condemnation of the Maori war. He looked upon it as an iniquitous proceeding, and incurred considerable odium in high places by his outspoken opposition, holding that the trouble could have been avoided if wiser counsels had obtained. However, during this troubled period, always practical in his ' syrrpathy, he was ever to the front ministering alike to the wounded soldiers and natives, and again and again risking his life while seeking and comforting the sufferers through swamp and tangled bush, while the work of carnage had yet scarcely ceased. In all his relations with his fellow men, indifferent to creed or nationality, love and charity, the true ethics of Christianity, were ever the predominating motive of his actions. The soldier, the sailor, the toiler, the poor, even the savage, ever regarded him as the people's Bishop and friend, and multitudes of humble mourners testified their affection by their stricken and reverential demeanour at his funeral; many held up their little ' ones as his remains were borne past, saying, "Look at him, we shall never see his like again." A MAN OF MANY PARTS, While pre-eminently a, Christian, Bishop Selwyn was yet a man of the world; a finished scholar, and yet a trained athlete; a profound thinker and yet a man of action, and a lover of healthy sport; wise in council, and witty in repartee, his beautiful and complex mentality flashes out with all the delightful variety of a kaleidoscope. His speech, always pointed and full of meaning, was ever in season robust in mind and body, holding his own without being in any way agressive, he was in every way fitted for the great mission which he so ably fulfilled. His epitaph might justly have been, "Well done thou good and faithful servant." Beloved by the soldiery, they declared their bishop was a born general; by seafaring men to whom his courage that never knew fear, and his skill as a navigator, particularly endeared him, he was a born sailor ; by the rough bushman ■ and the settler out back, for his skill as a craftsman and his hardihood in sitting a buckjumper's back, for he was a born pioneer; by the almost savage toiler of the Black Country and the humble canal men among whom his latter days were spent, he was a born leader and guide, and yet to each and all he was ever a living example of his gentle Master. A friend and benefactor to the deserving poor and needy, to the sick a doctor, and more often a nurse, often and often is it recorded that he trod the deck of his mission vessel soothing a sick native child to sleep in his folding arms. His Christianty was bold, yet simple-hearted, tolerant, and humane. In discussing the martyrdom of his dear and noble friend, Bishop Patteson, he declared with true Christian enthusiasm —"The missionary who is slain at his post calls for no vengence on his murderers, and discountenances inflicting punishment for crimes that are committed in ignorance." THE MIDDLE COURSE. A lover of what was right, the great Bishop was ever anxious m dealing out justice to temper it with mercy, to steer a middle course between contending parties, to recognise what was honest and of good report even in those with whom he did not agree. He spoke in stern condemnation of sin, yet was lenient to those who fell short of that high standard which he had set down for his own observance. His sturdy grasp of intellect discountenanced all unnecessary outward ceremonial and parade, and led him rather to seek behind the covering cloak of ritual for the true inspirations of the heart. In his dealings with other Christian bodies he was ever consistent, and like most persons who regulate their conduct on welldefined principles, he pleased neither extreme. With all his tolerance and courtesy to other sects and denominations, there was no sort of an approach to a compromise, nothing from which the most ignorant could infer that difference :f creed was of no account. Rather his acts of kindness and sympathy, interpreted by the rule which he laid down of never joining in the religious service of other bodies, tended to mark more clearly the importance of the difference, which separated but did not estrange. It may truly be said that had the Home Episcopate during the last hundred years possessed more of the Selwyn spirit of wisdom, meekness, and firmness, Wesley's work would probably never have been lost, to the Anglican Church. At the root of all his greatness there was the, profoundest humility and sense of personal unworthiness. On one occasion he epitomised his past life as one continual selfreproach for neglect of opportunities, want of self-control, and worst of all the constant presence of these thoughts, without adequate correction of the defects. A DIVING FEAT. The Bishop was a strong swimmer and an accomplished diver, and in one of his trips in the Southern Cross, the vessel, grounded in a lagoon, and was a good deal bumped about before she was got off again into deep water. However, the necessity arose to have the vessel's bottom examined in order to ascertain the extent of her injuries. There was no one avail-' i able to accomplish this difficult task either

on board the Southern Cross or m «, French man-of-war who »,«»„ 1- » *&* However the Bishop ■ ' occasion He caused the ship to be h«ft over as far as was safe; and the l» - * stripped himself to his tweed trouser"*?l jersey, in the presence of the « „ T the Bayonnais and some of hi, % in ° and amid their exclamations 0 Jl • rSj tion, made a succession of dive* a ni .- which he felt over the whole of tfrS and forward part of the vessel » H the detriment of his hands ff t0 cut to pieces with the jagged copper • S ascertained the exact condition of her ff I torn, and the nature of the i njw ?J J* . tamed. No wonder that next day affil dining on board the French warshin t was sent away with a salute of 11™, ■> i JJUI3S, |

HIS SIMPLE LIFE Bishop Selwyn's life Was singula simple. He was a stranger to all S y dealings, and his mind and couacieace « coiled from diplomacy and finesse 5T had the courage of his opinions and fearless and outspoken, and yet w , !f gentle in his written, and spoken *«■? ' that it is claimed he never S n it°T* such to one living soul. Evervthuit fW^' 1 - is customarily associated with true • ism-contempt of softness and comfort indifference to applause or censure 2\' valrous defence of the oppressed ana the weak hatred of aught that is mean *J sordid, resolute devotion to duty ohlT enee to discipline, unquestioning S" mtion of the claim of duty in the amSt' things as well as in the greatest, at6 'S ties ever foremost throughout his S ; career. _ Beady always to act on the com bative instinct, which was strong ' W S him, whenever wrong and injustice raS I their hydra heads, yet he wasfa 10-er of ; peace. His mind was receptive -■ rath! than controversial, and was filled w'th ? moral courage that made him on all o7 3 sions what he was, the undaunted eham' pion of what was right and true, X feared nothing so much as the 'reproof ■«? his own conscience. Commanding jm P | lect and humble faith, unswerving 0ne jence to inexhaustible charity, dauntlt'" courage and a heart, "whose every fiw was a quivering nerve all strung in .»? ! ' pathetic sweet accord, to feel the aneuil" of another's woe." These of a certain v were all combined in George Augusts Sehvyn, and make his memory and ex ample a precious inheritance for all time. His life was gentle; and the element* So mix d in him that Nature might «t.,„j „ And say to all the world: This wjJßafl TO-DAY'S ARRANGEMENTS. REUNION OF OLD COLONISTS. The Auckland celebrations will be com« menced with special services at St. p s ,]' 8 Church, Symonds-street, to-day. Xh« Bishop of Waiapu will preach in the morning, and the Bishop of Auckland, in the evening. An old colonists' reunion will also be held in St. Paul's Parish Hall from three to five p.m. * " ".'' Preparations are also well in hand for -'' the diocesan centenary celebrations, to be held at the Choral Hall on Ascension Dav May 20. •'