ARCHDEACON MacMURRAY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22191, 19 August 1935, Page 10

ARCHDEACON MacMURRAY

EIGHTIETH BIRTHDAY THANKSGIVING SERVICE The celebration of Archdeacon G. MacMurray'e 80th birthday was brought to a close last night, when the archdeacon was the preacher at a thanksgiving service in St. Mary's Cathedral. Speaking to the test, "I am poor and needy, but the Lord thinketh upon me," the archdeacon said that the tree of man's life was rooted in thought) which produced action and formed character for good or ill. Much weakness in present-day religion was due to the failure of men and women to think of God's thoughts upon them. "I am an old man now," continued the archdeacon, "and I have a long life behind me. As I look back I see that again and again God has thought upon me. I know that He saved my life a good many times when I was in peril, and that I was brought through sickness and trouble and difficulty because of His thought upon me." The preacher recalled that when he was appointed to a little country parish in the west of Irelaud the first thing that caught his eye as he entered the pulpit was a memorial tablet to a former rector, who after conducting service had been barbarously murdered. The last line of the inscription was the test, "Be ye also ready." He had always recognised God's wonderful providence guiding, directing and controlling his life. Now, having reached four score years, he realised that, like most of mankind, he had not beer, as thoughtful of Ged or thankful to God ns he ought to have been. Yet when life's long journey closed, the man who had striven to live according to God's will could thank Him for redemption, mercy, the means of grace and the hop® of glory.