CHURCH NEWS AND NOTES.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10765, 13 May 1911, Page 3 (Supplement)

CHURCH NEWS AND NOTES.

DEVOTIONAL. HOME SONGS IN HEAVEN. 1 do not think the world to which we go Will be so strangethat we shall be afraid, J But rather that the sweetest things wo know - ' • ■Will there bo held and stayed. I do not think the songs will all be new, For -we should hunger for the sweet old lays , Whose echoes oft have bid, our souls be true, "Amid the loftier praise. And so the choirs will hush their anthems when v They fear for souls from earth the homesick pang, A::d we shall sing to listening angels then ' 7 The songs our mothers sang. PRAYER.O Lord, we pray for any who may be in any perplexity", anxiety, trouble, or sorrow.' We beseech Tiico that Thou wouldst help us to take Thee into'our counsels, and to live very near" Thee; and the more it is.dark around us. the more- may we be driven into the little f.ii'cle of light in which wo may dwell if we ii:ive Thee with us. We pray Tlice to bless all our sorrows to : tss, ; to make (is bettor by reason of our difficulties and trials. May they test, and in testing strengthen all that is good in our natures; may they strip away much that is evil. Wo pray Thee to bless, in like manner, all who are brethren in Jesus Christ, whatever divisions may separate us, and in whatever forms wo may draw near to Thee. fvnit ail Thy people more closely together, and however they may be diverse in opinion, may they be one in God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. THE JUBILEE OF " SPURGEON'S." SERMON BY REV. CHARLES BROWN. The jubilee celebrations at the Metropolitan Tabernacle closed on, Sunday evening, March 19, with a service, conducted bv the chairman of the Free Church Council, R-ov. Charles Brown. The previous week will be over memorable in the history of the congregation. Besides two successful public gatherings there was the members' meeting on Tuesday evening, at which a cordjal invitation to the pastorate was. sent v to Dr Dixon.

On Sunday evening there was hardly a vacant pew in area or galleries; even the topmost rows showed only here and thor<> an empty space. The love, and admiration which London Baptists feel for the Rev. Charles Brown was very ;ipi<->reut.. Mr Brown is now at tho zenith of his pulpit power, and those who had the privilege of hearing him that Sunday evening must have realised that .lie ranks with the foremost weathers of Britain. Though he spoke for nearly three-quarters of. an hour, tho'-o was not a moment at which a feeling cf weariness or' impatience torched the audience. The onietlloss and leriiiement of his literarv stvle 3 -the "'•rfect taste with which his illustrations are selected, the human tenderness with which lie touches the. secrets of individual lives, are all notent weapons in his armoury. Mr Brown's discourse \vs full of allusions drawn from the best literature. Twice ho read passages from Charles Lamh. Once, he cooled from tho biography of Dr Dale. His use of hvmns was wonderfully appropriate. Best of all were the illustrations drawn from the life of people he has known, such as that railway worker in a lonely signal box near Sheffield, who wrote: "When I am alone here at the post of dutv, on many ->. wild and stormy night, I feel that nhrist is as real to me as my wife is in the davtimei" After telling of the hunnv death of an aged laborer, Mr "'••own- asked solemnly, . "Don't you think there are more, than xnists in dying oyo«?" ITEMS.

We frequently read, says the Christian, of our gracious Queen out upon some errand of mercy among her poorer subjects: and as a mother she has a very tender corner in her heart for the children. Much of this is due to an excellent early training, and the Test is traceable to a warm and sympathetic nature, inspired by a simple religious faith. Sir John Kirk, in The Old Sparrow (which contains an interesting account of the Ragged School Union's excellent work for 1909-1910), publishes a verse from her Majesty's pen containing a choice blend of patriotism and unaffected piety:—

If each man in his measure Would bear a brother's part, And send some rays of sunshine Into another's heart: How changed would be our countrv, How changed would bo our poor! And then might Merry England Deserve her name once more. Qw-".mi Mary is one who iii this matter makes her precept and her practice agree. We are happy in having a Lady Bountiful upon tho throne. Tho "Father" of the Baptist Church in England is the Rev. Evan Edwards, of Torquay, who has just arrived at the veneraule age of 96. Born in Wales in 1815, he can recall tho great days of John Elias and Christmas Evans. "He caught, indeed, a measure of their spirit/' says the Methodist Recorder, "and in the course of a ministry covering altogether about 80 years, he never swerved from the old paths. The venerable herald of the Cross has kept a record of his public labors, showing that he has preached 7950 sermons —over 1200 of these since his retirement from the active pastorate. Now, on the threshold of his 97th year, he is still in touch with all the great movements of the day. He writes sermons and preaches them, and only a few weeks ago he was heard in his old pulpit at Torquay. We pray—now that he has reached such a great age —that the shadows of evening may fall kindly upon him, until tho day dawns, when, as a good and faithful servant, he shall enter into the joy of the Lord." The death is announced of the Rev. John Edgar Henry, D.D., Professor of Church History and Pastoral Theology in Magee College, Londonderry. .Dr. Henry, who had reached his 70th year, died suddenly recently while crossing the River Foyle in a ferry steamer. He had been for many years one of the leaders of the Presbytrian. Church in Northern Ireland. His father was an Irish minister, the Rev. John Henry, of 'Leitrim, County Down. He studied at the old Queen's University, graduat-' ing through Queen's College, .Belfast. From 1865 to 1882 he was the chief Presbyterian minister to the congregations of second Ardstraw and then .of Canterbury. For eight years he was pastor of the important congregation of second Derry. In 1902 Dr. Henry was elected Moderator to the General. Assembly. He was one of the most distinguished professors of Magee College, to which he removed in 1890. As a temperance and social worker he was hi the forefront, - and was also well known as a speaker ,on Unionist platforms. His writings include sermons, lectures,: and.theological articles. The senatus .of -the University -if Montreal, Canada, has conferred the degree of D.D. on the : Rev. A. F. Buscarlet, who., was,' until lately, pastor of the iLausanne/station of the United FreeiChurch.of Scotland. ;Mr Buscarlet, whose-father was a French Protestant '.pastor, at -Pau, and whose mother ivas: of Welsh origin ; was educated partly in France and partly in Scotland. /Having -cast in his lot with the Free Church of Scotland, he began_ ministerial work as assistant to Dr Stewart, of Leghorn, well-known as the. friend of the Waldensian Church. After a year or two, during which he acquired a competent knowledge of Italian, he began a lengthened period of service at Naples, where he gathered and consolidated a congregation and built the Scotch Church there. The second half of his ministry was prosecuted at Lausanne, where he has left his memorial in the beautiful Scotch Church, and where he also built up a congregation. Hi?, new honor, which has come late, ;s well merited. Mr Buscarlet has recently retired from the Lausanne pastorate, but ho still continues to do active work at Pan during the winter months. At Lausanne he has been ably succeedby the Rev. A. M. Sutherland, formerly of Leith,