FIRST CHURCH OF OTAGO

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21599, 21 March 1932, Page 8

FIRST CHURCH OF OTAGO

ANNIVERSARY SERVICES To the early settlers remaining, this week, on account of its many memories and associations, is always eagerly anticipated. Anniversary Day falling on Wednesday, the functions arranged by the Early Settlers’ Association Executive opened conjointly with First Church anniversary services yesterday, when Very large congregations were present. The service of praise, with an inspiring lead from the church choir, under Dr Galway, was unusually hearty, giving a spiritual tonic specially helpful in these _ times. The morning anthem by the choir was “For All the Saints” (Vaughan Williams), the evening anthem being "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men” (Walford Davies). A large number of early settlers attended both services, and the Mayor (Mr R. S. Black) and members of the City Council were present in the evening. MORNING SERVICE. At the morning service the minister (the Rev. W. Allen Stevely) spoke on the subject "Our Promised Land,” taking his text from Joshua, chapter xiii, verse 1, “ There remaineth yet very much land to be possessed.” “ Recently,” said Mr Stevely, “ a visitor to Dunedin, addressing a company of citizens, declared that there was no such thing in New Zealand as waste land. He spoke with the knowledge and authority of the expert, and it was evident that his statement made a profound impression on the assembly. The speaker hastened to inform his hearers that the correct method of describing such land was to call it unused or unrealised land. That, of course, is a very different thing. This illuminating remark sends the mind, particularly at a season of anniversary commemoration. along a suggestive and stimulating .path. It bids us recall that one of the romantic and thrilling chapters' in, the story of modern progress is that which deals with the triumphant use and consequent value of much that but a short time ago was regarded as waste. Is there not more than one industry, affording labour to many workers. throughout the world, whose existence depends upon the ability to use what had hitherto been deemed useless? Moreover, have not many by-pro-ducts become eventually the primary interest, and rendered the original result a secondary consideration? God is constantly calling us to revise our estimates, to widen our horizons, and to increase our efficiency in every sphere.

“It was such a venture of faith that led that band of men and women, whom we remember with admiration and love, 84 years ago to leave the Homeland, bound to their hearts by many strands of affection, and settle in Otago. When we have considered the economic causes related to the expansion of Empire, we are still left_ with the all-important fact of the Divine leadership which determines the bounds of our habitation, and urges men forth because there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed. For this cause pioneers have ventured to the ends of the earth, have taken with them the gifts of civilisatioh, and planted the Banner of the Cross on distant shores. The history of the Otago Settlement, with its_ record of difficulties overcome, hardships endured, and labours many—its tears, _ its spiritual vision is one of the inspiring volumes in the annals of our Empire’s development. Others before us have laboured, and into their labours have we entered. The challenge to which they reacted is the clarion call to our generation—there remaineth yet very land to be possessed. “ There is a striking parallel between this Old Testament chronicle and our day. Joshua, that dauntless heart, was now an old man, with a life behind of high adventure and achievement. He knows that the work must pass to other hands. He hears God’s voice calling him to contemplate, not, as we might suppose, what had been achieved, but what remained to be accomplished. He had acquired a great part of the promised land, and had allotted it to the various tribes. But they had yet to push their victories through the length and breadth of the land. That promised land was more than they had yet made their own. God’s purpose for them was much greater than they had yet inherited and realised. “ The great fact enshrined in this text has a message of hope and obligation when viewed from the international aspect. When we remember that Christ taught .us to work and pray for the coming and universal rule of God’s Kingdom, and has tuned our hearts to sing:

Jesus shall reign where’er the sun Does his successive journeys run; His Kingdom stretch from shore to shore, Till moons shall wax and wane no more. And then read that Europe is a great arsenal awaiting only a spark to set it aflame, we recognise that in the promised land where man to man the world o’er shall brothers be, there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed. It is important to recognise this.” Referring to the problems confronting the world at the present time, and the efforts that are being made to ensure that war will bo forever outlawed as a means of settling international disputes, Mr Stevely said:—“One thing is certain, universal peace and brotherhood will not come by negotiations alone. It demands the changed heart of the peoples. Jesus Christ, looking at the land to be possessed, said, ‘ Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.’ The world will conle to its promised land, will be a bigger, fuller, and better place when the nations welcome the glad tidings of the Gospel and when conquered by the love of God they vie with each other to bring their glory and honour into His Kingdom. “ Have not the words of this text a challenge for our national life? Vast stretches of our national life are untouched as yet by the spirit of Christ, whole areas of social life remain to be occupied by His mind and rule. Professor Alfred Zimmern, in his book ‘ Learning and Leadership,’ emphasises the fact that the world has been completely altered by the Great War, and states that the first condition of making the future what it ought to be is' to realise the vital and decisive change produced by that great upheaval. The now situation requires all to think, not only nationally, but internationally. He warns us not to rush to the idea that nationalism is in itself wrong. On the contrary, true nationalism is the only preparation for a true internationalism. We must develop our national character to the utmost, and must do so as a contribution to a world life. He also reminds us that the word ‘ republic ’ is a translation of the Latin ‘ res publica,’ which meant ‘ the common good,’ the affaire of the State, as distinct from the affairs of the individual. The ‘ res publica ’ to-day must be ‘ the affairs of the world’; all nations must be included. This is the task before each nation to-day. Each has to replace the narrowness, the selfishness, the follies ot nationalism as such by the larger views and nobler aims of a real internationalism. “ Our text presents a challenge to tne individual. Who could stand before the perfect manhood of the Master, Who wore our flesh like a monarch’s robe and walked our earthly life like a conqueror in triumph, without feeling that in the realm of individual character there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed? Professor William James has told us in one of bis books that every man is a 10 times greater man than he thinks himself to be. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be. Christ sees for each possibilitis of 70 times 10! Paul, who had been born again to a new sense of values, insists on the same fact. With a great passion of emphasis he declares, all things are yours. What a colossal utterance! Dr Jowett once insisted that often we distort the real sequence of facts. Too often, he declared, we desire tasks suited to our powers, and forget that we have inexhaustible resources to draw on. It is not a greater abundance of gifts we need to pray for, but grace to know bow most effectively to use the things already ours. Mankind is not suffering to-day from the lack of material things. In point of fact, the world was never so rich in these things. What we need is the heart and sense and grace to possess our promised land. Is the world too difficult to transform? Must it remain baffled, perplexed, and impoverished? “ Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors if we claim the grace and resources which are ours in Christ. Then shall the world be transformed, national life renewed, and the individual heart changed and cleansed, when we seek to explore the possibilities and powers of the life in Christ. I have read that overcrowded as the world at times seems to be there is actually standing room for the entire population of the.earth on the little Isle of Wight. Have we been Con-

fining our spiritual experience to the area of a small island, chafing at our limitations, while leaving the vast domain of Christian life neglected and unrealised? Christ came that we might have life, and that we might have it more abundantly. Looking unto Jesus, we see what life can be and what each individual life should be. The deepest cry of the heart, however inarticulate that longing be, is this, there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed. Let us take heart of grace and go forward to possess our promised land.” EVENING SERVICE. Mr Stevely took as the text for his evening sermon “ A City Which Hath Foifndations,” and said that these_ words could be applied without hesitation or reserve to Dunedin. He pointed put an analogy between the present difficult times and the days when the province was first settled, and said that we were able to appreciate more fully the struggles and sacrifices of the early days. Referring to the Rev. Dr Thomas Burns, the first minister of the historic First Church of Otago, who had been styled the Moses of that pilgrimage from the Motherland, Mr Stevely declared that it was the spiritual side of that enterprise that concerned us to-day, and we turned, he said, to the Bible to find the ideal and motive of those Pilgrim Fathers of Otago. Writing to Captain Cargill from Scotland in 1847, Dr Burns had said: “It is with strong interests that my prophetic eye wanders over the noble plains of Otago some generations hence to mark the future herds and flocks . . . the pursuits of rural husbandry . . . the pretty farms and the happy, smiling cottages . . . and all this amongst a God-feeling people . . . and an aristocracy whose highest honour it is to think that they are the disciples of Christ.” There were some features of the ideal city which were never to be lost sight of. Of the city beautiful the writer of the Book of Revelation had said: “The length and breadth and the height of it were equal.” The same applied to the true Christian life, and the commonist mistake was to make these dimensions unequal. Life, unchecked by the Holy Spirit, tended to grow and develop in one direction, and one’s own interests became paramount, leaving the claims of others s bad second and the claims of God a poor third. There had been only One who on earth had lived the full-orbed life— Jesus Christ, who had shown beyond doubt that there was a plan of the ideal citl hidden in every soul. Christ was the supreme and abiding necessity of the world, and the best tribute we could pay to the memory of the pioneers was to give Him His rightful place in our individual, social, and natural life.

EARLY SETTLERS PRESENT

The following early settlers were present at the services:—

Mrs John Combs (nee Boys), Mariner .. 1849 Miss M. R. Dempster, Stately .. .. 1852 Mrs J. H. Patrick, Stately 1852 Mrs H. Carnie, Stately 1854 Alexander 'Kilgour, Sir Edward Paget 1856 Mrs Alexander Kilgour, Pladda .. 1860 W. L. Craig, Maori 1857 Mrs Pickard (nee Mitchell), Robert Henderson 1858 Alexander Garry, Starthficldsaye .. 1858 W. R. F. Fraser, Strathfieldsayc .. 1858 Thomas Moodie, Jura 1858 William Paterson, Jura 1858 Mrs J. Duthie (nee Parker), Alpine .. 1850 Mrs E. Foord, Pladda 1860 George Brown, Pladda .. .. .. .. 1861 J, S. Hunter. Pladda 1861 Mrs A. C. Stewart, Derwentwater 1861 J. B. Shaddock, Bombay 1862 Mrs C. Davidson (nee Mercer), Robert Henderson 1862 William M'Hutcheson, Silistria .. 1862 Mrs James Reid, Silistria 1862 J. W. Cunningham, Astra 1862 Mrs J. W. Cunningham, Pladda .. 1862 Mrs Megget, Golden Ape 1862 Miss M. B. Sutton, ship Geelong '.. 1862 Murray G. Thomson, ship Geelong.. 1862 Mrs J. C. Hodges, Ben Lomond .. 1803 Mrs W. H. Adams (nee Dagger), Nelson .. .. ■ 1863 Mrs Robert Smith (nee Dagger), Nelson 1863 Mrs M. A. Dick, Aldinga 1863 Mrs John Mitchell, City of Dunedin 1863 James Moir, Silistria 1803 Mrs Bathgate, Arima 1863 Mrs George Calder, 1863 Andrew M'Kinnon, Andrew Jackson 1864 James Brown. Resolute 1804 Andrew M'Lean, Resolute 1864 J. Waddell Smith, Sevilla 1804 J. J. Mallard, Gothenburg 1864 John Clarke, Hamilla Mitchell .. 1864 W. IT. Adams, Thracian .. .. .. 1864 Mrs R. Bennett, Peter Denny .. 1865