ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10418, 22 July 1895, Page 3

ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL.

A large congregation assembled afc St. Paul's Cathedral last night to hear Canon Robinson preach. The rev. gautlemau took his text from Genesis iv.,. 4 and 5 : "And the Lord had respect unto Abel and fco his offering. But uuto Cain and to his offering he had nofc respect. And Ciin was ysry wroth." Also Hebrews xij, 4 : "By faith-Abel.-offered unto God a-mors excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which lie obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and by it he, being dead, yet speaketh" The preacher, after pointing out thafc the explanation of God's acceptaucs of Abel's s.crifiee aud his rejectioa of Cain's was to be found iri-fche-Apestlo'swprda which formed part of the text, procßeded,to refer to Cain as the first Rationalist, and said that the essence of Rationalism was to make the individual the starting poiafc for all improvement. Toe principle of Rationalism wa. that the restoration of humanity might be affected by material and natural menus. Caiuhed gob hold of half a truth. He bad withio himself not merely an animal life and an intellectual soul, but a spirit, which was the gift of God who gave ifc. He forgot thafc, and tha spirit which was within him he transmitted to his descendants, who founded a mighty city and attained the highest possible civilisation of those fcimss. They were far more cultured, powerful, and prosperous than the righteous-, family of Atel; but, with all their progress in ms-.terial wealth, there was a steady degradation goiug on iv the human heart, and suddenly, in the midst of their pleasures, their luxuries and their inventions, a flood came and swept away thu whole race of Csin. Now, thafc was old world history, and it bad repeated iteelf again aikl again. The lesson to bs-learnt from this, the preacher went on to point out, was that man was a beiug dependent upon God, and that he could not live l without religion.