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Otago Daily Times, Issue 11962, 8 February 1901, Page 5

The death of, that worthy scholastic and eccieeiasnciu pioneer, l)ean ''Jacobs of Christclrurcli, should not be allowed to pass vvitliouu sympathetic notice in this province, 'i'welve years ago, when the vencraDle Dean attended the meeting ofthe General Synod rn.Duuedin, be was aireacvy somewhat frail in body, though its ineniiilly alert and businesslike as ever; and now toe has passed away while the General Synod, at which he used to be such a conspicuous figure, is sitting,—just witnessing the jubilee of his beloved settlement, and tneu, as it were, uttering bis "Nunc dimittis." He was not brilliant m snowy or eloquent, but he was a scholar and ;i gentleman, a zealous schoolmaster and clergyman, a loyal lover of Canterbury, and a wise and devoted son of the Anglican Church. There must be many scores of men in the colony who will recognise and acknowledge to-day tne debt which tljey owe to the teaching and counsel of the first master or Christ's College. So Jong ago as November, 1851, Mr Jacobs acceci asi secretary of the conference (uiitier the presidency of Bishop Selwyn) whicn arranged the basis on which the veguwtion of church matters was carried on until the prrival of Di- Harper, .the first Bishop of Christ'church, in 1830. in latei- years the Dean did iiotable. service toiu's .church by'writing its history,—colonial, not merely provincial,— uiid tne work, which was published by the S.P.C.E. in its series of church histories, furnishes an interesciug and lucid treatment of a subject thai,',was not without its difficulties. As .regards Christchurch, he could tell the story from the very start, for lie was one of the first " pilgrims." Here is a typical extract from his 'description of Bishop Selwyn's first visit to the young community.- " The Bishop celebrated the Holy Communion in a loft over a goods store, reached by a ladder, the seats being extemporised by resting planks on sugar-barrels. The text and subject of the Bishop's sermon—Melchizedek, God's ■priest, meeting Abraham, the first colonist, with bread and wine (Genesis xiv, ■18, 19)— were felfc to be most appropriate." Foi , 50 years Henry Jacob 3 faithfully served his church and province, and though he did not live to see the completion of his Cathedral, his fellow cnuichmen should be the more eager to accomplish that work now that he is gone,—for their liberal activity might be regarfled, in uart, as a memorial of his life-work.